English 221: Survey of American
Literature II (PDF Version )
MC 500, MWF 10:00 a.m.–10:50 a.m.
Spring 2012
Grant T. Smith, Ph.D.
Office: MC 533
Office Hours: T Th 9–11
a.m., MF 2–3 p.m.
Phone: 3485
Email: gtsmith@viterbo.edu
S
Y L L A B U S
Required Texts:
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
True Grit by Charles Portis
The Complete Poetry by Robert Frost
The Spook Who Sat by the Door by
Sam Greenlee
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner
“Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Course Description and Objectives: This course is designed to introduce students to the major
writers of the United States after 1865. We shall study the literature in a
chronological/historical sequence. We shall connect the authors and their
literature to the appropriate ethnic, literary, geographical, and political
environments within which they wrote; and the ideologies or religious beliefs
that influenced their readers.
Central to our study are the
questions: What is American literature? What is "American" about the
literature? What aesthetic criteria define American literature? Who establishes
those criteria? In answering these questions we shall explore several themes:
- self-knowledge and self-deception,
- representation of gender, class, and race,
- religion as individual and social phenomena,
- sources and uses of power,
- attitudes toward technology and the natural world, and
- history and the individual’s relationship to it.
Format: Class sessions will consist of lectures and discussions. I
expect the students to read carefully the assigned texts and be able to discuss
the relationship between each selection and the various themes listed above.
Policies
- Click here for the university definitions of an excused and
unexcused absence.
- Click here for the university policy on sexual harassment.
- Click here for the university policy on plagiarism.
- If you are a person with a disability and require any
auxiliary aids, services or other accommodations for this class, please
see Jane Eddy in Murphy Center Learning Center 332 (796-3194) within ten
days to discuss your accommodation needs. If there other
accommodations that need to be made for you to succeed in the class,
please indicate those needs to the instructor. Click here for a link
to the Learning Center.
- In the event of an infectious disease outbreak,
university officials will monitor progress and work with local, state, and
national authorities to determine the best course of action regarding
institutional operations. Information related to any widespread infectious
diseases outbreak will be available on Viterbo’s website and Viterbo Health Services website. In addition, the Center for Disease
Control (CDC)
website has extensive information on health threats. If you have
specific questions about your personal health, please contact your medical
provider or Health Services.
Core Abilities:
- Thinking—Students
engage in the critical and creative thinking
- Ethical Decision Making—Students respond to ethical issues
- Communication—Students
communicate effectively orally and in writing
- Aesthetic Sensitivity—Students
engage in artistic experiences and reflect critically upon them
- Cultural Sensitivity—Students
demonstrate a respect for the diversity of the human experience
- Community Involvement—Students
demonstrate responsible citizenship
English Department Student Learning
Outcomes:
Read critically
Critically read and analyze a
variety of texts.
Write effectively
Invent, draft, revise, and edit
effectively for various audiences and purposes.
Research and document proficiently
Demonstrate proficiency in the use
of bibliographic resources and other research tools to find, incorporate, and
properly cite sources, according to MLA style.
Understand literary classifications
Demonstrate familiarity with
classification of literature written in English, including:
- Historical development
- Genres
- Theories
Understand development of English
Demonstrate familiarity with the
basic history of the development of the English language.
Transfer skills to work
Connect academic training to
potential professional experience.
Links related to English Department
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Thinking—The
students will engage in critical thinking when they explicate or “close
read” literary texts; when they identify formal elements such as point of
view, literary language, symbolism, imagery; when they consider texts and
authors in relation to historical, cultural, ideological, and theoretical
contexts; when they compare what they are reading with what they have read
previously; when they relate what they are reading to the wider world and
to universal issues of human life. Click here for a Critical Thinking
Web Page. Click here for a Logical Fallacies
Web Page.
- Communication—The
students will articulate in class and in assigned writing assignments
their interpretations, insights, analyses, and evaluations of the assigned
literature. Click here for the English Department’s Home Page on Writing a Critical Analysis of Literature.
- Aesthetic—The
students will articulate in class and in assigned writing assignments
their understanding of the elements of a “masterpiece” of young adult
literature. The students will evaluate the lasting quality of
literature from the formal and contextual elements embedded in the
literature.
- Ethics—The
students will articulate in class and in assigned writing assignments
their responses to the ethical questions and dilemmas posed in the
assigned readings. Ethics
is generally defined as the principles of conduct governing an individual
or group; concerns for what is right or wrong, good or bad. The
students will not plagiarize. Click here for the Viterbo University plagiarism
statement. Click here for the English Department plagiarism
statement. Click here for the Viterbo University Institute of Ethics in Leadership.
- Cultural Sensitivity—The
students will read various texts by diverse authors. The students
will articulate in class and in assigned writing assignments their
understanding of life values represented in different texts in relation to
their own. Individual projects are designed to give the students an
opportunity to move outside of their own culture and to study and interact
with a new culture. Click here for the university’s statement on sexual harassment.
Course Requirements:
Attendance: 100 points –
Students are allowed three unexcused absences.
Midterm Exam: 100 points
Final Exam: 200 points
Schedule:
Week One: January 16
Introduction to American Literature
PowerPoint Presentation: What Is an American?
Read selected poems by Walt Whitman
Read Walt Whitman, “Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?”
Click here
for the Walt Whitman home page
Click here for a poetry home page for Walt Whitman
Click here for
easy access to Whitman's works in hypertext
Click here for John Townsend Trowbridge's essay on meeting Walt
Whitman (printed in 1902)
Click here for a research and reference guide to Walt Whitman's
life and works
PowerPoint Presentation Walt Whitman
Read “Brokeback
Mountain” by Annie Proulx
Discussion: "Brokeback Mountain"
Discussion questions for “Brokeback Mountain” and other Proulx short stories.
Brokeback Mountain criticism.
Weeks Two and Three:
January 23, 30
Read The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Read “The Story of an Hour” by Kate
Chopin
To understand what Kate Chopin, you
must understand what is happening in American history and in American letters
in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Click here for a guide to Naturalism; click here for a PowerPoint on Regionalism; click here for historical events and figures that contributed to the development of American letters at
the end of the nineteenth century. As
you read The Awakening, think
of how the book is really a book about the 21st century.
Read “Revolt of Mother” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman http://www.accuracyproject.org/t-WilkinsFreeman-TheRevoltofMother.html
Read
“A New England Nun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman http://www.accuracyproject.org/t-WilkinsFreeman-ANewEnglandNun.html.
Possible Response Topics
Discussion Questions: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Weeks Four and Five: February
6, 13
Read A Lost Lady by Willa
Cather
Discussion questions for A Lost Lady
Weeks Six and Seven: February
20, 27
Read True Grit by Charles Portis
Read The Absolutely True Diary of
a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Discussion questions for Part-time Indian
PowerPoint
Presentation on Part-time Indian
Week Eight: Spring Break March
5-9
Weeks Nine and Ten: March 12,
19
Read The Complete Poetry by
Robert Frost
Assigned poems by Frost
Notes on
Frost’s poetry.
Third reflection essay is due on Frost
Weeks Eleven and Twelve, March
26, April 2 (Easter Break April 5 – 9)
Read The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee
To understand fully early 20th
century Black poets, you should do some research on The Harlem Renaissance.
As you read about the writers of this period in American letters, compare their
style, themes, and contributions to what you saw in Proulx, Freeman, Maclean,
and Frost.
The Talented Tenth Debate
“Color” Images: Halle Berry,
Michael Jackson,
Oprah Winfrey,
Toni Morrison
Was Bill Cosby Right?
Weeks Thirteen and
Fourteen: April 11, 16
Read One Crazy Summer by Rita
Williams-Garcia
Discussion
questions for One Crazy Summer
PowerPoint Presentation One Crazy Summer
Read Nightwoods
by Charles Frazier
PowerPoint Presentation on The Role of Evil in Literature
Weeks Fifteen and Sixteen: April 23,
April 30
Read Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like
White Elephants”
Read Flannery
O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man Is
Hard to Find." We will spend time discussing this short story that
has a character named the "Misfit." Consider how this evil man
fits with our definition of the American Misfit, and how the villain differs
from our definition.
Flannery O'Connor: "Heaven
Suffereth Violence"
Let's talk about it: Existentialism
PowerPoint Presentation on Existentialism
Read Angels in America: A Gay
Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner
Angels in America
Discussion
Questions on Angels in America
PowerPoint Presentation Angels in
America
Film: Angels in America
Definition of Post-modern Literature
PowerPoint Presentation on Postmodernism
Fourth reflection essay is due on Angels in America
Week Seventeen: Final
Exam
Final Exam Questions
Final Exam due Thursday, May 10, 5
p.m.
Friday, May 11, 12:50–2:50 p.m., MC
500