ENGL 20503 Major American Writers:
An Overview of Intersections between
Gender, Race, and Spirituality from the Mid-19th Century to the Present
Mr. Mosley
Office Hours: M 10-12pm, W 1-2pm, and by appointment
Official Office: Reed Hall 402
Office Hours Held At Mary Burnetts Library Cafe
Class Time: MW 3:30-4:50
Class Room: Reed Hall 331
COURSE INTRODUCTION
This course will focus on intersections between gender, race, and spirituality from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Because so many of these writers were influential in shaping the time period they wrote in, strains of their views can be found throughout our current thought. In the interests of discovering these strains, this course will seek to contextualize these writings and explore different methods of interpreting their works, while at the same time highlighting the relevance these writings have to our current cultural, communal, and personal environments. A major theme in this course will be the tension between materialism and humanism/spirituality – a tension that includes the question of whether materialism and humanism/spirituality belong on opposite sides of the spectrum. We will frequently try to determine how the energy from this tension in the modern age affects conceptualizations of gender and race.
COURSE OUTCOMES
- Core Outcomes
This class is a TCU Core Curriculum Humanities (HUM) class. The class also satisfies TCU CC overlay requirements for Literary Traditions (LT).
- HUM 1: Be able to analyze representative texts of significance and to practice critical analysis of work at the center of the humanities.
- HUM 2: Demonstrate a critical ability to analyze questions about the nature and value of human life as embodied in the traditions of the humanities.
- LIT01: Demonstrate an understanding of literature as it impacts and/or reflects society and the individual.
- LIT02: Demonstrate an understanding of how literature also constructs human cultures.
- HUM 1: Be able to analyze representative texts of significance and to practice critical analysis of work at the center of the humanities.
- Subcore Outcomes:
- Demonstrate through the completion of analytical writing assignments and/or exams knowledge of American literary history encompassing a variety of literary periods and a variety of literary genres.
- Demonstrate various strategies for reading, interpreting, and engaging with works by major American authors through the completion of analytical writing assignments and/or exams.
- Demonstrate through the completion of analytical writing assignments and/or exams knowledge of American literary history encompassing a variety of literary periods and a variety of literary genres.
- Section Outcome:
- Be able to recognize the struggles of nineteenth and twentieth century Major American Writers to interact with race, gender, and spirituality in the face of war, industrialization, poverty, discrimination, and modernization, and to connect these struggles to the present culture.
- Be able to recognize the struggles of nineteenth and twentieth century Major American Writers to interact with race, gender, and spirituality in the face of war, industrialization, poverty, discrimination, and modernization, and to connect these struggles to the present culture.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Lauter, Paul, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Concise Edition. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2004.
Course Handouts
GRADE BREAKDOWN
FORMAL PAPERS
Submission: Put in Dropbox. If Dropbox is down, you can let me know, but please SEND YOUR DOCUMENT AS AN ATTACHMENT to the email so I know that you finished the paper in time.
Returned: By hand
Literary Criticism Piece 1 (15%):
This will be 3-4 pages long. It will cover a course-related aspect of the readings in the first part of the schedule, and it will be due on March 7th, the class period before the first exam. A list of prompts to get you thinking about a paper topic will be given a few weeks before the exam.
Literary Criticism Piece 2 (20%)
This paper will be 5-6 pages long. It will address a work from the first part of the course, but will also need to address a work from the second part of the course. It is a larger part of your grade than the first paper because the first paper because, by this paper, you will be more aware of how work is graded in this class. It is due April 27th.
QUIZZES:
Submission: If done by hand, submit by hand. If done on computer, submit in dropbox.
Returned: By hand.
Before-Class Quizzes (15%)
These quizzes are closed-book quizzes and will end no later than fifteen minutes after class begins. You may use your computer to type answers to quiz questions. PLEASE BE LEGIBLE IF YOU WRITE YOUR ANSWERS DOWN. Your two lowest before-class quiz grades will be dropped at the end of the semester.
This is to ensure you come to class prepared. Do what you need to do to be familiar with the material – take notes, talk about it with friends, have a study group, use flash cards, or simply rely on superhuman retention abilities. Whichever way works best for you, somehow ensure that you come to class knowing the material fairly well.
After-Class Quizzes (15%)
Questions in these quizzes are open-note and open book, and will cover material in the lecture and discussion that is not in your book. You will have ten minutes to finish these quizzes, and they will typically contain 3-4 short-answer questions. Most of the time, I'll give these without warning. Your two lowest after-class quiz grades will be dropped at the end of the semester.
EXAMS
Submission: Preferably submitted into online dropbox, but handwritten submissions also accepted by hand.
Returned: By hand.
Midterm (15%):
This covers material in the first half of the course. You will choose three out of eight essay questions, and a few multiple choice questions. You will have an hour-and-a-half to complete this midterm.
Final (20%):
This covers material in the second half of the course. You will choose three out of eight essay questions, and a few multiple choice questions. You will have two and a half hours to complete this midterm.
TECHNOLOGY POLICY
I've decided to let you use technology to your heart's content, as long as you are not a major disruption in class. Do what you need to do to concentrate on the material. You're adults, you're intelligent (or else you wouldn't be here), so you know – or, through further experience, can quickly figure out -- how you learn best. I care very little what you are doing on your computers, as long as you are engaged in what's going on in class (a quality that the after-class quizzes will assess) and aren't a major distraction to your classmates.
If a classmate is engaging in any activity (online and otherwise) that I can't see that makes it difficult for you to concentrate in class, I urge you to let me know ASAP so that I can take appropriate action. I will keep your name anonymous.
Keep in mind that, to recognize your engagement with course content, 30% of your grade will be quizzes. Some of these quizzes will be given before the lecture – these will be based on the readings. Some of these quizzes will be given after the lecture – these will be open-book quizzes based on the lecture and, at times, perceptive comments from students.
ATTENDANCE
Because you will have frequent before and after class quizzes that will make up a total of %30 your grade, and because before-class quizzes end fifteen minutes after class begin, your decision to come to class or not and your tardiness or lack thereof will mainly be reflected in your quiz grades. However, if you miss class for three weeks (or six class sessions), I will have grounds to fail you for the course. I will not give any penalties – outside of missed quizzes – for any absences leading up to this three week mark.
HONESTY POLICY
Cheating in a quiz will result in a 0 for your quiz grade (15% for a before class quiz or 15% for an after class quiz). Plagiarism of any other assignment will result in an F for the assignment at the very least, and will more likely result in an F in the course – although the Director of Composition, along with the English Department Chair, may decide to expel the plagiarizer from TCU. No matter how difficult it is to get that assignment done in the time you have available, don't risk cheating or plagiarism; it's not worth it. If you're overwhelmed with work and school and are having trouble getting an assignment done on time, DON'T PLAGIARIZE – come talk to me and present your case.
ADVICE
- CHECK YOUR EMAIL FREQUENTLY! It's my main mode of communicating with you outside of class.
- Read a sample page of each reading well ahead of time so that you have an idea of how long each reading will take you.
- As you read, focus on a course-related aspect of the reading that interests you – this will improve your concentration, comprehension, and speed.
- Use your peers to hold you accountable.
- Take advantage of the knowledge base you share with others in the class.
- View paper/exam/quiz comments carefully so that you know how to improve on future assignments.
- Visit the Center for Writing before turning your papers in.
Course Policies and Procedures:
TCU Center for Writing: The William L. Adams Center for Writing is an academic support service available to all TCU students. Writing specialists and peer tutors are available for one-on-one tutorials from 8 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Disabilities Statement:
Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Student Disabilities Services in the Center for Academic Services located in Sadler Hall, 11. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-7486.
Academic Dishonesty: Refer to the TCU Undergraduate Studies Bulletin at http://catalog.tcu.edu/undergraduate. The following examples apply specifically to academic misconduct in composition courses:
Plagiarism: The appropriation, theft, purchase, or obtaining by any means another's work, and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of that work as one's own offered for credit. Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another's work without giving credit therefore.
Collusion: The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing work offered for credit.
Fabrication and falsification: Unauthorized alteration or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise. Falsification involves altering information for use in any academic exercise. Fabrication involves inventing or counterfeiting information for use in any academic exercise.
Multiple Submission: The submission by the same individual of substantial portions of the same academic work (including oral reports) for credit more than once in the same or another class without authorization.
Complicity in academic misconduct: Helping another to commit an act of academic misconduct.
All cases of suspected academic misconduct will be referred to the Director of Composition. Sanctions imposed for cases of academic misconduct range from zero credit for the assignment to expulsion from the University. This policy applies to homework and drafts as well as final papers.
Class Schedule PLEASE NOTE: This syllabus is tentative. |
January 10th |
Course Introduction |
January 12th |
Contrast of American Literature Views |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
The Poet (Handout and Online) |
T.S. Eliot |
Tradition and the Individual Talent (Handout and Online) |
January 17th: No Class, Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday |
January 19th |
Another View of Nature: The Despair of Science |
Edgar Allen Poe |
The Fall of the House of Usher |
1001-1013 |
Sonnet: To Science |
1027 |
The Raven |
1028-1031 |
January 24th |
Emily Dickinson 1295-1317 |
January 26th |
Kate Chopin |
The Story of an Hour 1523-1524 |
Stephen Crane |
The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky 1573-1581 |
Charlotte Perkins Gilman |
The Yellow Wall-Paper 1597-1609 |
January 31st |
Charlotte Perkins Gilman |
The Yellow Wall-Paper 1597-1609 (Continued) |
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman |
The Revolt of "Mother" 1644-1652 |
February 2nd |
Theodor Dreiser |
The Second Choice |
February 7th |
Robert Frost: 1799-1804 |
Wallace Stevens: 1954-1959 |
February 9th |
Ernest Hemingway |
Soldier's Home (Handout and Online) |
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (Handout and Online) |
February 14th |
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 1901-1905 |
The Hollow Men (Handout and Online) |
Sherwood Anderson |
Winesburg, Ohio selections online at: http://www.bartleby.com/156/ |
The Grotesque (for this day, this is the only story you need to read) |
February 16th |
Sherwood Anderson |
Winesburg, Ohio selections: online at: |
http://www.bartleby.com/156/ |
Hands, Nobody Knows, Adventure, The Strength of God, The Teacher, Loneliness |
February 21st |
Sherwood Anderson |
Winesburg, Ohio |
An Awakening, "Queer," Death, Sophistication, Departure |
February 23rd |
Scott Fitzgerald |
Babylon Revisited |
1922-1935 |
February 28th |
William Faulkner |
Barn Burning |
1962-1973 |
October 6th |
March 2 |
John Steinbeck |
The Grapes of Wrath |
2133-2140 |
March 7th |
Exam Review Literary Criticism Paper #1 Due |
March 9th |
Exam 1 |
March 10th |
Last Day to Drop |
March 11th |
Last day to make the class Pass/No Credit |
Spring Break Starts |
March 21st |
Richard Wright |
The Ethics of Living Jim Crow |
2143-2150 |
March 23rd |
W.E.B. DuBois |
The Souls of Black Folk: 1749-1761 |
March 28th |
Alain Locke |
The New Negro: 1988-1996 |
March 30th |
Jean Toomer |
Cane: 1997-2006 |
April 4th |
Langston Hughes |
2008-2011 |
Additional Poems (Online and handout) |
April 6th |
Countee Cullen |
2020-2025 |
Claude McKay |
2043-2045 |
April 11th |
Zora Neale Hurston |
Sweat: 2035-2042 |
April 13th |
Gwendolyn Brooks |
2312-2319 |
April 18th |
Elizabeth Bishop |
"The Fish" 2301-2303 |
Flannery O'Connor |
A Good Man is Hard to Find |
2242-2252 |
April 20th |
N. Scott Momaday |
The Way to Rainy Mountain |
Introduction Excerpt: 2438-2439 |
Leslie Marmon Silko |
Lullaby |
2514-2519 |
April 25th |
Bharati Mukherjee |
Happiness |
2486-2490 |
Sherman Alexie |
Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw…2253-2559 |
April 27th |
Tim O'Brien In the Field 2571-2578 Review Day –Last Class Period Literary Criticism Paper #2 Due |
May 2nd |
Final Exam |
3:00-5:30 |
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