Spring 2000	T.S. McMillin
English 353 Tu Th, 11-12:15	Rice 110 x6726
King 335	Office hours: W, 2-4 & Th, 3:30-4:30 & by appt
	E-mail: T.S.McMillin@oberlin.edu

American Literature 1825-1865:
Signs, Selves, & Texts

. . . The world shall be to us an open book, and every form significant of

its hidden life and final cause. --Emerson

 

This course has two primary ends: 1. to introduce students to some of the significant literature written in North America in the nineteenth century; 2. to enable and encourage students to examine that literature through an investigation of a preoccupation shared by many of the period's writers: the relations of meaning and being, of significance and selfhood.

We will begin our inquiry by looking at signs and signification, proceed to an examination of the peculiar sign 'self'--its various contexts and representations--and then turn to two texts that bring these matters together in quite different ways. While this description provides you with an idea of the framework I've set up for the course, it is crucial that you be mindful that the actual running of the course has much to do with your own intellectual needs and pursuits. You, therefore, will be responsible, through your participation, for making "American Literature 1825-1865" significant. This responsibility includes:

• Reading: all students are expected to complete all assigned readings and to do so through active examination of, explication of, and extrapolation from the materials.
• Attendance: Tuesdays will involve a mix of lecture & discussion. Each Thursday, we will begin by working together in small groups; this work will then be presented to the class as a whole.
• Protocols (5): due Tuesdays at the beginning of class, these are experimental writings that respond in some way to the reading. The protocol must be typed & must not exceed one page.
• Quizzes (5): short-answer tests of 10 or fewer questions that are to serve as a reminder to read closely & attend to details.
• Midterm: a five page essay on a topic to be announced, due 10 March. [N.B.: an optional second essay (five pages, due 7 April) can be submitted by those wishing to further investigate issues raised in the readings, develop argumentative writing skills, and/or improve upon the midterm grade.]
• Final Paper: a seven page essay on a topic (to be chosen by student) that explores concerns that emerge from the second-half of the course, due 16 May.

Grade distribution: participation (attending all meetings, completing all readings, taking part in all discussions) = 25%, quiz and protocol scores = 25%, midterm essay = 25%, final essay = 25%.

Longer works are available at the bookstore:

Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Tales, Oxford UP, 0192815229

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Signet, 0451523504

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Penguin, 014039012X

Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems & Letters, Anchor, 038509423X

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (Original Edition), Penguin, 0140421998

Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Penguin, 0140390847

Elizabeth Stoddard, The Morgesons, U Penn P, 0812211707

The following works contain required shorter readings and have been placed on reserve:

Margaret Fuller Ossoli, The Writings of Margaret Fuller, 814.3 Os7.1941

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, PS3048.A255 1998

" " " , Excursions, 818.3T39E

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: 1st & 2nd Series, 814.3 Em34ES.5

Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron Mills, 813.4D2971L

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, E444.j17A3 1988

Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall & Other Writings, PS2513.P9 A6 1986

William Apess, A Son of the Forest, E99.P53 A3 1997

Calendar

8 Feb.	Introduction
10 Feb.	"A Short Essay on Critics" & "American Literature; Its Position in the Present Time, & Prospects for the Future," Margaret Fuller (reserve); "Reading," from Walden, Thoreau (reserve); "MS. Found in a Bottle," Poe
15 Feb.	"The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe
17 Feb.	"The Purloined Letter," Poe
22 Feb.	The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
24 Feb.	The Scarlet Letter
29 Feb.	The Scarlet Letter
2 Mar.	The Scarlet Letter
7 Mar.	"Self-Reliance" & "Circles," Emerson (reserve); "Walking," Thoreau (reserve); excerpt from Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Fuller (reserve)
9 Mar.	"The Imp of the Perverse," Poe; Preface, Introduction, Chapters I & X from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs (reserve); "Hints to Young Wives" & "Independence," Fern (reserve); Life in the Iron Mills, Davis (reserve)
10 Mar.	*MIDTERM DUE*
14 Mar.	"An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man," Apess (reserve); Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass
16 Mar.	Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
21 Mar.	Selected Poems, Dickinson
23 Mar.	Selected Poems
4 Apr.	Leaves of Grass, Whitman
6 Apr.	Leaves of Grass
7 Apr.	*OPTIONAL ESSAY DUE*
11 Apr.	Moby Dick, Melville
13 Apr.	Moby Dick
18 Apr.	Moby Dick
20 Apr.	Moby Dick
25 Apr.	Moby Dick
27 Apr.	Moby Dick
2 May	The Morgesons, Stoddard
4 May	The Morgesons
9 May	The Morgesons
11 May	The Morgesons
16 May	*FINAL ESSAY DUE*