EN 399-03: AMERICAN LANDMARKS
Fall 2000
MWF 12-12:50; Fenton 176
Office: Fenton 240; MW 2-3, TTh 2-4, and by appointment; 673-3859
E-mail: bruce.simon@fredonia.edu
Web Page: www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/
About the Course Web Pages
This web site is designed to help you get as much out of this course as possible--you can use it to find out how you will be graded, what reading and writing assignments are due and when, how to subscribe to the course listserv for your section, what books are on reserve for your use in Reed Library, and how to use the world-wide web for research. Please take some time early in the semester to read this page carefully and to familiarize yourself with the other pages for this course. Please get in the habit of checking back to this web site to keep track of changes to the syllabus and advice on papers, as well as to surf the ever-expanding list of links to interesting web pages related to the course. And please contact me anytime (see above for my coordinates) if you have ideas about how to improve these pages or the course as a whole. I hope you enjoy taking this course as much as I enjoy teaching it!
Course Description/Goals
What makes a "landmark" of American literature? What is the function of designating certain authors and certain texts as American "landmarks"? In this course, we will consider what is at stake in the identification and interpretation of a national literary tradition, ask why and how a few works became American literary "landmarks," and examine what relation these "landmark" works have to each other, to other works, to their own times, and to our own. Hence, this course will allow us to explore issues in literary history and canon formation, and practice habits of close reading and contextual and comparative analysis. In the process, the course should expose us to the range and development of American literature, introduce us to major authors, turning points, and literary movements within this tradition, and provide a context or framework for reading and understanding works that take part in and respond to this tradition. You may choose to take this course for honors credit as part of the new Honors Program in the English Department. If you are interested in doing this, please come to my office hours during the first two weeks of classes for more information.
This is a pilot course that is under consideration for becoming a required category in the English major. I welcome feedback on any and all aspects of the course at any time. You can email me at bruce.simon@fredonia.edu, stop by during my office hours, or make an appointment to meet with me outside regular office hours--or simply respond thoughtfully to the mid-term and end-of-term questionnaires about the course I will ask you to fill out.
Texts. There are five books in the bookstore for you to purchase:
There are various works on reserve at the circulation desk at Reed Library. See the reserves page for details.
Course Requirements/Expectations
There are several components to your grade in this course.
Attendance/Preparation/Participation (10%). Regular attendance and thoughtful participation are crucial to your enjoyment of and success in this course. If there is absolutely no way for you to avoid missing a class, please contact me ahead of time or soon after your absence, preferably by email. More important than showing up on time, of course, is coming to class prepared and focused. I expect you to read what has been assigned for a given date at least once (and preferably more than that!) by the time we begin to discuss it in class. This is a discussion rather than a lecture course, after all; although I will provide some context and background for our reading, the bulk of class time will be spent in small or large group discussions. Since it's difficult to make good contributions to discussions about a literary work if you haven't read it carefully or thought about it extensively, how well you budget your time outside of class will to a large degree determine how well you do in this class in general and how well you do on this portion of your course grade in particular.
Your grade for this segment of the course will be based on a combination of your attendance and the quality of your preparation/participation in class and on the class listserv (described below). As there are no tests in this course, think of my evaluation of your preparation/participation as a different but equally important method of assessing your overall performance in the course. Due to the importance of attendance and participation, barring emergencies more than two unexcused absences will hurt your preparation/participation grade and each absence after the fifth will lower your final course grade by one-third of a grade (e.g., with six absences a B+ will become a B; with eight, it will become a C+).
Course Listserv/Observations/Discussion Questions (15%). There will be a course listserv for this section of EN 399 (en39903@listserv.fredonia.edu). This listserv will be your space; I will keep my own input to a bare minimum (hence, announcements and handouts will be available on this web site rather than being posted to the listserv). Although you may use the listserv in any number of ways, you must use it in the following way: once a week, you must post to the course listserv at least one observation and three questions that you believe would spark class discussion; your post must be submitted to the listserv by 6 pm the day before class meets. So, if your comments and questions address the readings for a given Monday, the email must be sent to the listserv by 6 pm Sunday; if they are directed toward the readings for a given Wednesday, they must be sent by 6 pm Tuesday; if they are aimed at the readings for a given Friday, they must be sent by 6 pm Thursday.
In general, your questions should "look ahead" to the next class's discussion, not recycle the previous class's discussion. However, you may ask questions that "look backward" in the sense that they make connections between past and upcoming texts, issues, or discussions. I expect everyone to be checking their email regularly the night before or day of each class meeting and reading their peers' emails carefully. Click here for further advice on generating observations and discussion questions.
Your grade for this segment of the course will be determined by the number of on-time sets of questions you post to the course listserv. Since there are fourteen weeks when discussion questions are due in the semester, and since you are allowed four missed weeks without penalty, 10 or more sets of questions=A; 9=B+; 8=B; 7=C+; 6=C, 5=D; 4 or less=E. The quality of your discussion questions will be factored into your preparation/participation grade (see above).
Presentation/Follow-up Paper (15%). Over the course of the semester, you must do a five-to-ten-minute in-class presentation and turn in a one-to-two-page follow-up paper within two class periods of your presentation. You must choose a different critical approach from among the following choices: describe writers influenced by or responding to a selected author or text (or, with my permission, writers "overshadowed" by the "landmark" text); analyze how a selected critic from the 1920s through the 1950s defined a given work's "American-ness" or its place in the national literary canon; analyze how a given critic from the 1960s through the 1990s re-examined or re-interpreted a "landmark" text and/or "classic" school of interpretation. You must meet with me at least three days before your presentation for advice and directions. Click here for the requirements of and expectations on your presentations and follow-up papers.
Personal Response Essays (35%). Generally no later than a week after we have finished discussing a given work in class (see below for exact due dates), you must turn in a two-to-four-page personal response essay in which you reflect on the relation between the arguments we considered in class about what makes this work an "American landmark" and your own experience of reading the work. Based on your own reading experience and perspective on the arguments on the work's "landmark" status, do you really think this work should be considered an "American landmark"? Why or why not? The most effective personal response essays will not simply state opinions or rely on assertions, but will make effective use of textual evidence to support and develop your reflections on your reading experience and perspective on the work's "landmark" status. Essays should be word processed and turned in either as print-outs or as attachments to an email. In the former case, they should be placed in my mailbox in the English Department office (277 Fenton Hall) or in the envelope on the bulletin board outside my office door (240 Fenton Hall). In the latter, they should be saved in "rich text format" (an option that should be available in any kind of word processing software) and sent to me at bruce.simon@fredonia.edu. You may turn in your personal response essay earlier than the deadline if you prefer, so long as it is turned in after our last class discussion of the work in question.
Research Paper or Project (25%). We will arrange for a mandatory individual conference on your final paper/project topic after Thanksgiving break. To see the requirements of and options for this paper or project, click here.
Schedule of Assignments
It's a very good idea to check back here regularly to see if reading assignments have changed; usually, any changes are announced in class and on the news page, but it's "a good thing" to err on the side of caution and check what follows regularly. Also, don't forget that your weekly OBSERVATIONS/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS are due to the class listserv by 6 pm of the day before the class meeting in which the readings you are commenting on/questioning are to be discussed (see above for less condensed explanation).
American (?) Landmarks (?)
W 8/30 Introductions/Logistics
F 9/1 Workshops
Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways
M 9/4 NO CLASS: Labor Day
W 9/6 Melville, Moby-Dick xiii-xx, 1-35 (up through Ch. 4)
F 9/8 Melville, Moby-Dick 35-93 (Ch. 5-21); presentation by Jessica Brassard-Moore on D.H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature and F.O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance
M 9/11 Melville, Moby-Dick 93-140 (Ch. 22-35); Toni Morrison, "Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature" (to be handed out); presentation by Sarah McMichael on R.W.B. Lewis's The American Adam and Donald Pease's "Moby-Dick and the Cold War"
W 9/13 Melville, Moby-Dick 140-175 (Ch. 36-44); presentation by Ron Tonelli on C.L.R. James's Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In
F 9/15 Melville, Moby-Dick 175-224 (Ch. 45-54); presentation by Heidi McIntyre on Harry Levin's The Power of Blackness and Toni Morrison's "Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature"
M 9/18 Melville, Moby-Dick 224-294 (Ch. 55-80)
W 9/20 Melville, Moby-Dick 294-334 (Ch. 81-89)
F 9/22 Melville, Moby-Dick 334-363 (Ch. 90-99)
M 9/25 Melville, Moby-Dick 363-399 (Ch. 100-110); presentation by Heather Roberge on Nina Baym's "Melodramas of Beset Manhood" and Jane Tompkins's Sensational Designs
W 9/27 Melville, Moby-Dick 399-445 (Ch. 111-132)
F 9/29 Melville, Moby-Dick 445-470 (Ch. 133 through to the Epilogue)
"Take My Leaves America"
M 10/2 Whitman, Leaves of Grass 709-756, 559-574
W 10/4 Whitman, Leaves of Grass 1-111
F 10/6 Whitman, Leaves of Grass 149-165, 226-263; presentation by Rich Heitman on Betsy Erkkila's arguments about the politics of Whitman's poetry; Moby-Dick personal response paper due no later than 5 pm
M 10/9 Whitman, Leaves of Grass 279-327
W 10/11 Whitman, Leaves of Grass 328-356, 411-423, 455-461, 503-506; presentation by Maria Palmeri on John Vanderslice's arguments about how Whitman entered the American literary canon and on Betsy Erkkila's reading of "So Long"
F 10/13 NO CLASS: October Break
Satire or Evasion?
M 10/16 Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1-73
W 10/18 Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 74-116
F 10/20 Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 117-134; presentation by Chris Skelton on Ernest Hemingway and Ralph Ellison's takes on AHF as "American landmark"; Leaves of Grass personal response paper due no later than 5 pm
M 10/23 Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 135-215; presentation by Jake Terranova on debates over whether AHF is a racist text, drawing on arguments in Satire or Evasion?
W 10/25 Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 216-240; presentation by Carrie Yager on controversies over banning AHF
F 10/27 Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 241-296; presentation by Carol Morreale on Jonathan Arac's critique of the "hypercanonization" of AHF
"The Past Isn't Dead; It's Not Even Past"
M 10/30 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 1-45
W 11/1 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 46-69
F 11/3 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 70-106; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn personal response paper due no later than 5 pm
M 11/6 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 107-140
W 11/8 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 141-175
F 11/10 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 176-205; presentation by MaryEllen George on Ramon Saldivar and Kenneth Burke's readings of A,A!
M 11/13 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 205-243; presentation by Jeff Ciminesi on Malcolm Cowley's and Robert Penn Warren's claims for A,A! being an "American landmark" (through Lawrence Schwarz)
W 11/15 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 243-287; presentation by Jennifer Haralambides on Cleanth Brooks and Hyatt Waggoner's claims for A,A! being an "American landmark"
F 11/17 Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! 288-309
M 11/20-F 11/24 NO CLASSES: Thanksgiving Break [Note: it is in your best interest to either read ahead in Ellison's Invisible Man or to get some serious work done on your FINAL PAPER OR PROJECT--I'd recommend both!]
"The Slowly Emerging Pattern of Implication"
M 11/27 Ellison, Invisible Man vii-xxii, 1-33
W 11/29 Ellison, Invisible Man 34-97
F 12/1 Ellison, Invisible Man 98-135; presentation by Kristy Marone on Ellison's exchanges with Howe and Hyman; Absalom, Absalom! personal response paper due no later than 5 pm
M 12/4 Ellison, Invisible Man 136-195; presentation by Matt Austin on Nadel's analysis of Ellison's allusions to the American literary canon
W 12/6 Ellison, Invisible Man 196-260; presentation by Jackie Milligan on Adell's survey of views of Ellison and cross-racial intertextuality
F 12/8 Ellison, Invisible Man 261-355; presentations by Kristi Johnson (on the reasons for critics' seeing IM as an American "landmark," particularly in 1950s era America, drawing on Washington and Foley) and Tyler Mihalic (on Morrison's revision of the Trueblood episode in her novel The Bluest Eye)
M 12/11 Ellison, Invisible Man 356-478; presentation by Kevin Carey on the contexts for understanding IM that Myrdal (on segregation) and Andrews (on the great migration) provide
W 12/13 Ellison, Invisible Man 479-567; presentations by Erica Crawford (on Ellison's reception among theorists of the Black Arts Movement) and Jim Clement (on Harlem's influence on Ellison in IM)
F 12/15 Ellison, Invisible Man 568-581; wrap up course; Invisible Man personal response paper due no later than 5 pm
M 12/18 - Th 12/21 meet for writing conferences/consultations on impressions of course
F 12/22 FINAL PAPER OR PROJECT due by 5 pm
EN 399-03: American Landmarks, Fall 2000
Created: 9/4/00, 2:31 pm
Last modified: 12/13/00, 11:54 am