English 252W: Major American Authors: Realist to Modern
Spring 2002; MWF 12-1; McIver 229
Professor Karen Kilcup
Office: McIver 202; 334-4696; klkilcup@uncg.edu
Hours: MW 3-3:30,
As we survey writers from Mark Twain and Mary Wilkins Freeman to Allen Ginsberg and Hisaye Yamamoto, we’ll question the categories of the
course title itself. What constitutes “major” (and by extension, “minor”)? What constitutes “realist” writing, as distinct from “regionalist” or “modernist” writing? We’ll look at a wide array of voices, including Euro-American, Native American, African American, Mexican American, and
Asian American; male and female; working-class and middle-class; and from the North, South, East, and West. Classes will include an occasional
lecture
but student participation and discussion will direct our focus. NB: This is a survey course, which means that a
central goal is to provide
you with as much exposure to a range of texts as possible, not to cover in
class everything on the syllabus.
Although we will do a lot of reading,
it will not be possible to discuss everything on the reading list, nor
will we cover everything in the same detail.
If you have a favorite reading
for a particular day, be sure to make explicit your desire to explore that text.
Student Learning Outcomes: At the completion of this course students will:
· have gained knowledge about the central themes, perspectives, and issues in an important period in American literature and literary theory and about the writing’s relation to current concerns
· understand American writing in the context of the American literary canon and some of the current critical debates in the field, both practical and theoretical
· be able to recognize the connections between traditional and non-traditional literary genres
· recognize and appreciate the “conversations” between and among multicultural writers
Assessment: One-page (250-word minimum) writing assignment every week, with a major revision (2000+ words, including research) at the end of the term; possibly a group presentation. Weekly assignments: 35%; final revision: 35%; participation in classroom activities: 30%, including regular attendance and contributions to discussion, satisfactory completion of impromptu quizzes and in-class writing assignments,
participation in regular informal group presentations, and on-time completion of reading assignments. Writing assignments are due at the beginning of class on Mondays. We will set up a workshop schedule for assessing your writing by the whole class. At the end of the course
you will turn in a portfolio of all your work—essays (with my comments on them), quizzes, in-class writing assignments, any presentation materials—which will form the basis of your final grade, so save everything. See the separate page below for additional portfolio instructions. Because I want you to concentrate on process and improving your writing rather than on focusing on your grade, I will not give formal grades until the end of the semester. I will make comments periodically on your essays; you will also receive feedback from other students and a brief assessment from me around mid-semester. Students who wish to have a graded assessment before this time should make an appointment to meet
with me (bring your portfolio).
Attendance Policy: Because the in-class work represents nearly a third of your grade, it is crucial that you attend class and participate. Students absent for more than 2 classes for any reason may be dropped or have their grade lowered at the instructor’s discretion.
Academic Honor Code: Students are expected to adhere to the University Academic Honor Policy. See the UNCG Graduate Bulletin and the Policies for Students handbook.
Required Texts:
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on
Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs
Lauter, et al., The Heath Anthology of American Literature, vol. 2. All selections are from this text unless otherwise noted.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Special note for majors and other interested students: In order to enhance communication to our majors, the English Department has
established a listserv that we hope you will
join. From the e-mail account that you use regularly (either on campus or at
home), send an e-mail to: listproc@uncg.edu with this message: subscribe english-L firstname lastname (substitute your first and last name for those
terms in the message). For example: subscribe english-L
Jane Doe.
Tentative Schedule:
Week 1: 1/13 Writing Out of Place
Class 1 (Monday). Introduction. Realism and regionalism; “foreigner” and “native.” Twain, “The War Prayer” (1905)
Class 2 (Wednesday). James, “Daisy Miller: A Study” (1879)
Class 3 (Friday). Dunbar-Nelson, “Sister Josepha” (1899); King, “The Little Convent Girl” (1893)
Week 2: 1/20 Between Nations
1. No class—Martin Luther King Day
2. Ruiz de Burton, from The Squatter and the Don (1885); from Corridos, “Gregorio Cortez” (English version begins 228)
3. Okison, “The Problem of Old Harjo” (1907); Winnemucca, all (1883)
Week 3: 1/27 Conning Americans
1. Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1885)
2. Twain, Huckleberry Finn
3. Chesnutt, “The Goophered Grapevine,” “The Passing of Grandison” (1899)
Week 4: 2/3 American Women At Home
1. Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892)
2. Freeman, “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” (1891); “Old Woman Magoun” (1909)
3. Chopin, “Lilacs” (1896), “The Storm” (posthumous, 1969) (both on my web site; go to the bottom and click on “Course Resources” for
ENG 331/379)
Week 5: 2/10 Past as Future
1. Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)
2. Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs
3. Jewett, “The Foreigner” (1900)
Week 6: 2/17 Envisioning Region
and Nation
1. Harper, “Songs for the People,” “Woman’s Political Future”; Cooper, from A Voice from the South, “Our Raison D’être”
2. Crane, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” (1898)
3. Bonnin, “The School Days of an Indian Girl” (1900); “Why I Am a Pagan” (1902)
Week 7: 2/24 Defining Selves: Towards Modernism
1. DuBois, “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,” from The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
2.
3. Eaton (Sui Sin Far), “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian” (1909)
1. Glaspell,
“Trifles” (1917)
2. Piatt, “Giving Back the Flower” (1867);
Reese, “Drought” (1920); Johnson, “The Corn Husker” (1903); Dunbar-Nelson, “I
Sit and Sew”
(1920) and “The Proletariat
Speaks” (1929)
3. TBA
March 8-16: Spring Break
Week 9: 3/17 Modernisms High
and Low
1. Wharton, “The Other Two” (1904)
2. Frost, “The Pasture” (1913), “An Old Man’s Winter Night,” “Out, Out”; Frost, handout: “Home Burial,” “Death of the Hired Man,” “A Servant to Servants”
3. Millay, “Spring”
(1921), “[Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink]” (1931), Sonnet xli “[I,
being born a woman and distressed”] (1923); Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Proofrock” (1915); Pound, “In a Station of the Metro”
(1916)
1. Hemingway, “Hills like White Elephants” (1927); Moore, “Poetry” (1921)
2. Yezierska, all (1923); Williams, “The Young Housewife” (1917) “Spring and All” (1923), “The Poor” (1938)
3. Millay,
“Justice Denied in
Depression Summer” (1936)
Week 11: 3/31 Other Modern
Selves
1. Hurston, “Sweat” (1926); Hughes, “The
Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1921), “The Weary Blues” (1925), “The Same” (1932),
“I, Too” (1925), “Dream Variations” (1924), “
2. Whitecloud, “Blue Winds Dancing” (1938); Carved on the Walls: Poetry by Early Chinese Immigrants (1910-1940)
3. Yamomoto, “Seventeen Syllables” (1949); Brooks, “The Mother” (1945)
Week 12: 4/7
1. film TBA [work on final paper and begin reading ahead]
2. film
3. film; begin film discussion
Week 13: 4/14
1. film discussion
2. writing workshop--***DRAFTS OF FINAL
PAPER DUE.
3. No class—spring holiday
Week 14: 4/21 American Dreams,
American Nightmares
1. O’Connor, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1953); Sexton, “Housewife” (1962)
2. Ginsberg, “A Supermarket in
3. King, Jr., “I Have a Dream” (1963); Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet” (1964)
Week 15: 4/28 Revisiting Home
1. Cisneros, The House on
2. Cisneros, The House on
‘The Star-Spangled Banner at
3.****FINAL PORTFOLIOS DUE; in class: Pietri, “Puerto Rican Obituary” (1973); Forche, “The Colonel” (1982); Hongo, “Who Among
You Knows the Essence of Garlic” (1982), “Yellow Light” (1982);
Week 16: 5/5
English 252 Major
American Authors
Spring 2003
Professor
Karen Kilcup
Beginning with week 2, you will write an essay of at least 250 words (typed or word-processed, double-spaced, 11- or 12-point font) every other week on one or more of the texts that we have read (preferably one that we have not discussed in class). We will discuss your writing daily in class, either in small groups or as a whole group, with essays for presentation due on a staggered time schedule (see below). Write about any theme, issue, character, or stylistic device that you like. The only constraint is: each essay should begin with a very short (no more than two or three lines) quotation from the text that you have chosen to discuss, responding directly to that quotation. Be sure to date and paginate individual essays, and put your name on every page. Also, put the word count—EXCLUDING THE QUOTATION—at the end of every paper.
In these essays I am not looking for any “right answers,” but rather for the development of your own ideas over a period of time and for a self-critical appraisal of the work that you have done, especially in the revised essay. That is, writing these short pieces all in one sitting will not be productive, for it will not reveal the development over time that regular daily writing will do. In addition to correctness and clarity, thoughtfulness and an engagement with the materials and with your own ideas should be your aim. Don’t be afraid to criticize or praise an author for his or her ideas. You may also choose to be critical of some of the conclusions at which we arrived in class discussion; be sure to quote (very briefly, giving appropriate page references in parentheses after each reference) from the text under discussion in order to support and illustrate your ideas. You can even criticize yourself for a perspective you held earlier that has changed as you have read and thought more about your subject. Give each essay a title, as well as providing a title for the final revised essay.
On the second day of class I will give you a date to have your work discussed by the entire class (I’ll conduct a lottery). You should bring with you 28 copies of your essay to distribute for the discussion; please distribute these essays THE DAY BEFORE YOUR PAPER IS DUE TO BE WORKSHOPPED. Unless I have your folder, you should bring it with you to every class. As you prepare for these workshop discussions, please read carefully the “Guide for Evaluating Writing” on the next page. I expect that you will take seriously not only improving your own writing but also helping your classmates improve theirs. Although it is often difficult to critique our own writing, one of the best ways to do so is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of others’ work.
For the concluding revision you’ll select the regular writing assignment that interests you most and revise (and expand—to at least 2000 words) your ideas in the light of your other essays and readings. This essay should consider more broadly the issues that you have raised over the semester. The revision will also include a research component in which you will look for current discussion about and/or images surrounding an issue raised by the writer(s) on whom you are focusing. For example, if you are writing about early narratives about racism, you could seek out contemporary newspaper articles or editorials, photographs in magazines, or music that deals with that subject. In your revision, then, you will discuss how today’s creative women (and pop culture more generally) handle the same subject as their predecessors. You should take a critical look at this connection: Do the current “texts” with which you are dealing reflect any advance on the earlier writers’ thinking? Do they
complicate or question their predecessors’ ideas in any significant way? What do the images or themes from today tell us about American
culture as a whole? Sometime in the first half of the semester I will give you more detailed instructions about this revision, but you should be thinking about it from the beginning; our handout and discussion on the first day will provide a model. Some of the topics that you might
explore include: what it means to be an “American,” the influence of race in (or on) American culture, what it means to be a good Christian, how Americans define “family,” how women’s sexuality (or sexuality more generally) is represented in American culture, the role of older women in American culture, or what it means to be poor in America. The conclusion of your essay will outline some concrete suggestions for how we
might approach the problems explored by the writers (and, of course, by your essay).