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American Studies Syllabus

 

The following is an electronic syllabus for the literature section of our American Studies course. Each selection has an online component and perhaps some supplementary material that will expand your understanding of the course readings.

 

 Supplementary Resources


 

Literary Homework Syllabus

Introduction to American Literature: The American Experience

 

Notes on the First Four Colonies: South, New England, South, New York

John Smith
from The General History of Virginia
read pages 42-49; answer 1-8, page 48.
concept: History

Supplementary Online Resources

1. Webquest: Visit Virtual Jamestown (homework credit)

For a further investigation of the Early Colonies, check out the American Studies Internet Readinss page.

 

The New England Colony: Puritans & Pilgrims

Supplementary Reading

 

William Bradford:
from Of Plymouth Plantation
read pages 50-57; answer 1-8, page 57.
concept: History, Providence, Predestination, Allusions

History of Plymouth Plantation

Anne Bradstreet
"To My Dear and Loving Husband"
read pages 58-59; answer 1-4, page 59.
concept: Lyric poetry

"Upon the Burning of Our House: July 10, 1666"
read pages 14-18; answer 1-8, page18
concept: lyric poetry, couplet, providence

Edward Taylor
"Huswifery"
read pages 60-63, answer 1-5
concept: Conceit
Handout "The Golden Day"
Concept: The Puritan View of Predestination

Supplementary Online Resources

Jonathan Edwards
from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
read pages 70-75; answer 1-8, page 75
Concept: Persuasive Speeches-- Speaker's qualification, audience, occaision, technique-- metaphors

 

Cotton Mather
from The Wonders of the Invisible World (Salem Withcraft Trials)
read pages 76-81; answer 1-9 page 81
Concepts: Journal Entry, bias

 

Online Quiz: Check Your Puritan I.Q.

 

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test One/ Colonial America = 100 points

Read The Crucible-- a play by Arthur Miller
We will be both reading the play and watching the movie.

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
2. The Crucible/McCarthy Hearing Project: 100 points
** Individual Research Paper: First Draft Due

 

END OF FIRST QUARTER

 

1800-1840 A Growing Nation: From Reason to Romance
Introduction pages 164-179

 American Romanticism can be broadly defined as that perspective which looks at objects and sees them as emblems of a greater reality. In other words, freedom of perception for the individual can be completely liberated.

Romanticism:Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.

:

European Romantics
 Writers , Painters, &  Musicians



Early American Fiction

The Rise of the Short Story: Discussion and Notes

Short Story Collections


Washington Irving
"The Devil and Tom Walker"
read pages 182-193; answer 1-10 page 193
Concepts: Folk Tale

Washington Irving: Selections

 

James Fenimore Cooper
from The Prairie
read pages 194-203; answer 1-10
Concepts: Setting, heroic figures--Natty Bumppo as "Adam in the fiction of the New World."

 

3. Webquest: Edgar Allan Poe (homework credit)

Edgar Allan Poe

"The Fall of the House of Usher"
read pages 210-225; answer 1-14, pages 224-225/
Concepts: Romanticism in Poe, Elements of the Short Story--setting, single effect and theme
"The Oval Portrait"
read pages 232-237; answer 1-8, page 236
Concepts: frame story, cause and effect

Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Works

Poertry
"The Raven"
read pages 226-231; answer 1-9, page 231
Concepts: Alliteration, consonance, and assonance, allusions

"To Helen"
read pages 238-239; answer 1-5, page 239
Concepts: allusions , symbolism

 

 

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test Two/Edgar Allan Poe = 100 points

 

1840-1855 The New England Renaissance: Romanticism to Transcendentalism
The Utopian Era
Introduction: 244-263

 

4. Internet investigation of Utopian Communities (The Farm, Brooks Farm, etc) (homework credit)

"Introduction to Transcendentalism"

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson
from Nature; from Self-Reliance
Read pages 272-277; "Emerson"
Answer Questions 1-5, page 275
Answer Questions 1-4, page 277
Concepts: Transcendentalism, analogies, conformity


"The American Scholar"

"Concord Hymn"
Read pages 281-282; Answer Questions 1-6, page 282
Read "Commentary" page 282
Concepts: writing about history

Henry David Thoreau
from Walden
Read pages 286-295; Answer Questions 1-8, page 295
Concepts: essay

from "Civil Disobedience"
Read pages 296-297; Answer Questions 1-4, page 297
Concepts: Historical Context,

* Test Three/Transcendentalism = 100 points

 

Anti-Transcndentalism: Hawthorne and Melville

Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The Minister's Black Veil"
read pages 300-315; answer 1-10, page 311
Concepts: Anti-Transcndentalism, parables

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Novels and Short Stories

 

Hermman Melville
Read pages 316-333; from Moby Dick; answer 1-15, on page 333.
Concepts: Anti-transcendentalism, symbolism, theme

Supplementary

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Sellections

 

Late Romanticism and Poetry

5. Webquest: Romanticism in American Art (homework credit)

Visit The Emily Dickinson Museum

Emily Dickinson
read pages 370-395; answer questions
1-3, page 372 for "'Hope' is the thing with feathers--"
1-6, page 373, fro "There is a certain Slant of light--"
1-7 page 377, for "A narrow Fellow in the Grass"
1-9, page 385, for "Because I could not stop for Death--"
1-6; page 387, for "The Bustle in a House"
1-2, page 389, for "Much Madness is divinest Sense"

Concepts: Style, unconventional punctuation and capitalization, brevity of lines and stanzas; figurative language, quatrains.

 

Walt Whitman
Read pages 458-473;
Answer Questions.
1-2, page 459, for "Preface to the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass"
Concept: America as the subject of poetry
1-5, page 464, from "Song of Myself"
Concepts: Style, free verse, author's attitude
1-3, page 469, "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
Concept: symbols.

Walt Whitman: Revising Himself This Library of Congress exhibition traces this evolution of Leaves of Grass and Walt Whitman's life, tapping a range of editions and drafts of the famous work. A wealth of interesting biographical material on Whitman, his friends and associates, his work as a teacher, tending the wounded during the Civil War, and for the federal government, also appears in the exhibit

Walt Whitman Archive The Walt Whitman Archive includes a host of versions of Whitman's Leaves of Grass, numerous poetry manuscripts witn a related guide, a detailed biography of Whitman, and a bibliography of articles, books, chapters of books and poems about Whitman published from 1975 to the present.

 

 

* Test Four/Romantic Poetry = 100 points

Mark Twain

Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test Five/Huckleberry Finn = 100 points
** Individual Research Essay Due: 100 points
Revised Collaborative Project Portfolio Due

 

Supplementary Reading

 Sir Walter Scott: Selections

Harriet Beecher Stow

O'Henry's Short Stories

O'Henry


END OF FIRST SEMESTER

Poimt Total: Approximately1300 points
Daily Quizzes based upon homework: 400 points
Vocabulary: 200 points
Tests: 500 points
Essay: 100 points
Collaborative Projects: 100 points

 

 

 

Second Semester: Spring 2004

6. Webquest: Early Photography/or Songs, Paintings and Photographs of the Civil War

1850-1865 "The Civil War"
Introduction pages 398-411

 

For a further investigation of the Early Colonies, check out the American Studies Civil War Journals.

 

Frederick Douglas
"My Bondage and My Freedom"
Read 428-435; Answer Questions 1-8, 435.
Concept: Autobiography

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas

From Mary Chesnut's Civil War Journal
Page 441.
Answer Questions 1-4

Abraham Lincoln
"The Gettysburg Address"
Read 442- 445.; Answer 1-6, page 445
Concept: Diction

"Letter to Mrs. Bixby"
Answer questions 1-2, page 447

 

Matthew Brady Portraits

Matthew Brady and the Civil War

Civil War Photographs Homepage

Civil War Virtual Battlefield Tours

Internet Field Trip: Civil War

Photographs of the Civil War

More Photographs of the Civil War


 

Robert E. Lee "Letter to his Son"
Page 451
Answer Quesstions 1-5

Walt Whitman Revisited
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
Read pages 412-423; Answer questions 1-8, page 423.
Concepts: Elegy, Free verse

 

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test One/Civil War = 100 points

7. Civil War Journals/Hypermedia Composition (100 points)

 

Booker T. Washington: Up From Slavery

 

1865-1900 Early American Short Stories: Romanticism to Naturalism

 

Regionalism--The WEST

For a further investigation of the WEST, check out the American Studies Internet Readinss page.


Mark Twain
from Roughing It, "Tom Quartz"
Read pages 494-498
Answer questions 1- 4; page 498
Concepts: Point of View, Exaggeration, Dialect

from Life on the Mississippi, "The Boys' Ambition"
Read pages - 500-505
Answer questions 1- 5; page
Concepts: Narration

"The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
Read pages - 505-511
Answer questions 1- 8; page 511
Concepts: Humor-- Point of View, Exaggeration, Regional Dialects, and Tone

Bret Harte
The Outcasts of Poker Flats
Read pages - 516-525
Answer questions 1- 8; page 525
Concept: Regionalism

The Luck of Roaring Camp

 

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"


"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
Read pages - 528-537
Answer questions 1- 10; page 537
Concepts: Point of View, Sequence of Events, Irony

 

Kate Chopin
"The Story of an Hour"
Read pages - 548-553
Answer questions 1- 10; page 553
Concepts: Irony, the role of women in society

 

Realism to Naturalism

Jack London
"To Build a Fire"
Read pages - 564-577
Answer questions 1- 11; page 577
Concepts: Conflict, Theme, Realism

 

Stephen Crane
"The Open Boat"
Read pages - 578-597
Answer questions 1- 9; page 597
Concepts: Realism and Naturalism, Symbols

 

Supplementary Reading

Frederick Jackson Turner

Frederick Jackson's Turner's Frontier Thesis: The Frontier in American History

 

O'Henry Collection

 

Zane Grey

 

Dime Novels: American Treasures of the Library of Congress

 

Edith Wharton: Selections

 

Henry James: selected work

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test Two/Realism to Naturalism = 100 points
** Individual Research Paper: First Draft Due

8. Webquest: Hypertext: "How the Other Half Lives" Social Reform in 19 Century America (homework credit)

 

Supplementary Photographs

 

END OF THIRD QUARTER

9. The Great Gatsby Magazine Project/The Gatsby Party Project

Read The Great Gatsby
* Test Three/Gatsby = 100 points

 

Modernism in American Short Stories: Anderson to Faulkner
Introduction: 634-649

Ring Lardner

Sherwood Anderson
"Sophistication"
Read pages 650-660
Answer questions 1- 10; page 660
Concepts: Modernism, a different look at small town life, understanding a character's motivation

Ernest Hemingway, "In Another Country"
Read pages - 662-669
Answer questions 1- 9; page 668
Concepts: Modernism, style, symbolism, theme


F. Scott Fitzgerald


"Winter Dreams"
Read pages - 670-687
Answer questions 1- 9; page 687
Concepts: Characterization, historical context

 

Katherine Anne Porter
"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
Read pages - 692-701
Answer questions 1- 10; page 701
Concepts: Stream of Consciousness, Flashbacks, symbolism, style

Thomas Wolfe
"The Far and the Near"
Read pages - 702-707
Answer questions 1- 9; page 707
Concepts: Point of View -- limited third person

Eudora Welty
"A Worn Path"
Read pages - 708-715
Answer questions 1- 9; page 715
Concepts: Ambiguity

John Steinbeck
"Flight"
Read pages - 716-731
Answer questions 1- 9; page 731
Concepts: Setting

 

William Faulkner
"The Bear"
Read pages - 732-745
Answer questions 1- 11; page 745
Concepts: Symbolism, Allusions, Flashbacks, Point of View, Diction

 

Supplementary References

James Joyce is considered with William Faulkner to be the two greatest, experimental fiction writers in the first part of the twentieth century. An examination of Joyce's work will give readers an insight into Faulkner's influences.

Parody

 

Other American Writers

Willa Cather Homepage

The Sinclair Lewis Homepage

Ring Lardner's "You Know Me, Al"

H.P. Lovecraft: Collected Stories

 World Authors

Katherine Mansfield

Franz Kafka

Rudyard Kipling

Guy de Maupassant

H. H. Munro "Saki"

 

 

 

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test Four/Modernism = 100 points

 

Modern Poetry

 

William Butler Yeats

 


Ezra Pound
"In a station of the metro,"
Read pages 798-807
Answer 1-3, page 800
Concept: Imagism

 

T. S. Eliot
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Read pages 808-815 ; answer 1-10, page 815
Concepts: Stream of consciousness, Allusions
Additional poems may include "The Hollow Men," "Aunt Helen"

 

 

 

Wallace Stevens
"Anecdote of the Jar."
Read pages 816- 819; Answer 1-4, page 819
Concepts: Interpretating Symbolism

William Carlos Williams
"The Red Wheelbarrow"
"This Is Just To Say"
Read pages 832- 837; Answer 1-4, page 836
Concepts: Rhythm, Imagism
Answer 1-4, page 837
Concepts: Writing an Apology

Carl Sandburg
"Grass"
"Chicago"
Read pages 838-845 ; Answer 1- 4, page 841
Answer 1-5, page 845
Concepts: Free Verse

e.e. cummings
"since feeling is first," page 864
"anyone lived in a pretty how town," p. 865
"old age sticks," p. 867
Read 862 - 867; Answer 1-5, page 864,
Answer 1-8, page 866, Answer 1-6, page 867
Concepts: Writing about Style

Robert Frost
"Birches" p. 870
"Mending Wall" 873
"Fire and Ice" p. 891
"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Read pages 868-895; Answer 1-9, page 872,
Answer 1-9, page 874, Answer 1-5, page 891,
Answer 1-7, page 893
Concepts: Symbols,Narrative Poetry, Dramatic Poetry, Rhythm

 

Parody: The Modern Humorist: Funny parodies of famous poems

The Harlem Renaissance
Read pages 902-923

Langston Hughes
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
Answer 1-7, page 911
Concepts: a comparison between rivers and black people

* Additional writers and stories will be added as needed. There may also be an intense look at music, theater and film.

Poetry and Prose of the Harlem Renaissance

* Test Five/Modern Poetry = 100 points
Art Museum Poetry and Painting Project Due = (Homework Credit)

 

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughter-House Five

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test Six/Slaughter-House Five = 100 points

 

Post Modern World War II-Present

FLANNERY O'CONNOR
Read: "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," page 956
Answer Questions: 1-13, page 964
Concepts: Irony

JOHN UPDIKE
Read: "The Slump," page 978
Answer Questions: 1-4, page 980
Concepts: Diction, Style, Understanding Jargon

JOYCE CAROL OATES
Read: "Journey," page 984
Answer Questions: 1-4, page 986
Concepts: Point of View

DONALD BARTHELME
Read: 988-993
Answer: 1-9, page 993
Concepts: Experimental Fiction

LARRY McMURTY
Read: from Lonesome Dove, page 1020
Answer Questions: 1-9, page 1024
Concepts: Setting, Sensory Language

 

Shirley Jackson Site Online

 

Vocabulary Due: 50 points
* Test Seven/Post Modernism = 100 points

VIETNAM: THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, Tim O'Brian

* Test Eight/The Things They Carried = 100 points
** Individual Research Essay Due: 100 points
Gatsby Magazine Project Due
Revised Collaborative/Individual Hypermedia Project Portfolio Due

Poimt Total: Approximately1700 points
Daily Quizzes based upon homework: 400 points
Vocabulary: 200 points
Tests: 800 points
Essay: 100 points
Civil War Journals: 100 points
Collaborative Projects/Gatsby Magazine: 100 points

 

Novels Read:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Great Gatsby
Slaughter House Five
The Things They Carried
Drama: The Crucible

 

Appendix: