Spring, 2001	Sandra Zagarell
English 353 MW, 12:00-1:15 King 123	Rice 126, (440) 775-8585 Office Hours: Tu, 3:00-4:00, W, 2:00-3:30, & by appt
	E-mail: Sandra.Zagarell@oberlin.edu

AMERICAN LIT: 1825-1865

"A work of writing comes to its particular form of existence in interaction with the network of relations that surround it: in any instance, writing orients itself in or against some understanding of what writing is, does, and is good for that is culturally composed and derived." (Richard Brodhead, Cultures of Letters, p. 8)

THE HEATH ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, Vol. I, (HEATH); Herman Melville, MOBY-DICK; Harriet E. Jacobs, INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL; Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS; Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER

Generally classes a week combine an open lecture format which accommodates class participation and class discussion.

Feb. 5	Introduction and practical matters
Feb. 7	What was literature for antebellum Americans? Read: Lauter's Introduction to the era in HEATH,pp.1227- 60. We'll pursue the question by reading some examples of era's writing: Quinney's "Speech" (1875- 77), Sigourney's "Indian Names" (2726-27), Bryant's "The Prairies" (2711-14), Poe's "To Helen" (1505), "The City in the Sea" (1507-9), and "The Philosophy of Composition" (1529-37). Useful background on critical/historical approaches to this period on reserve includes: CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AMERICAN LIT., VOL II, Michael Bell, "Beginnings of Professionalism" and "Women's Fiction and the Literary Marketplace in the 1850s"; Jonathan Arac, "Establishing National Narrative."
Feb. 12	Lecture/essay Emerson, "The American Scholar," "Self-Reliance"
Feb. 14	Emerson, "Experience" (read this essay twice)
Feb. 19	Thoreau, from WALDEN (pp. 2112-2115), "Walking"
Feb. 21	Thoreau, 'Resistance to Civil Government"
Feb. 26	Narrative of many genres: Melville, MOBY-DICK (separate text)
Feb. 28	" " " "
March 5	" " " "
March 7	" " " "
March 12	Slave narratives: Harriet Jacobs, INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL (sep. text)
March 14	" " " "
March 16	FIRST PAPER DUE
March 19	Frederick Douglass, NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF.... (1754-1817)
March 21	" " " "

*** SPRING BREAK ***

April 2	"What was Literature?" revisited: read Ronald J. Zboray, "Antebellum Reading and the Ironies of Technological Innovation" and chapter 3 of Richard Brodhead, The School of Hawthorne (R). This informational-exploration session will be held in Mudd Library's Special Collections section on the 4th floor, where we'll talk with special collections librarian Ed Vermue. We'll get introduced to Oberlin's holdings in antebellum magazines and books and get some hands-on experience with them. One aspect of our work over the next two weeks will be considering the "popular" appeal of antebellum writing, which gets obscured if we concentrate too exclusively on "classics" or on current modes of reading. I'll therefore ask you to look carefully through one antebellum magazine, either alone or in pairs, taking note of what's there, what impression the magazine and its contents give of the era, and how this project affects your understanding of antebellum literature. You'll report on this work next week.
April 4	Work published in antebellum magazines: Melville's "The Paradise of Bachelors" and "The Tartarus of Maids" (2437-2454); Fanny Fern, selections in Heath (2038-2045)
April 9	Publishing and magazine writing. Reports on poking around in antebellum magazines and newspapers.
April 11	Publishing and magazine writing. Reports on poking around in antebellum magazines and newspapers.
April 16	Historical novel. Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (separate text: please read THE CUSTOM HOUSE; it's part of THE SCARLET LETTER)
April 18	THE SCARLET LETTER
April 20	SECOND PAPER DUE
April 23	First-person novel. Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS (separate text)
April 25	THE MORGESONS
April 30	EXPANSIVE EGO/MODERN EPIC. Walt Whitman, from "Leaves of Grass," 1855 edition: "Preface," "Song of Myself" (2729-2794)
May 2	same as above
May 7	CONCENTRATED EGO/LYRIC. Poetry by Emily Dickinson (selections from HEATH + hand-out)
May 9	same as above
May 12	THIRD PAPER DUE

You are expected to have finished reading each work and thinking about each topic to be discussed by the date on which consideration of them will begin, and to review them for subsequent classes. You will also be asked to write two out of a possible three papers (see below), prepare written questions for discussion sections, explore an antebellum magazine and report briefly on your findings (this can be done singly or in pairs), and actively participate in class. Your regular presence and genuine participation in discussion will be important factors in your contribution to the class and in what you get out of it. Though I may not always take attendance, I will be aware of presence and absences. Unexcused absences will be taken into account when I calculate your final grade for the course.

There will be two papers, chosen from a possible three. Each will be 8-10 pages in length. Because College regulations require me to notify you and your adviser about the level of your performance at mid-semester I must have written work from you before Break. Therefore you will be required to write the first paper. You may elect to do either the second or the third; if you'd like to write three papers rather than two, you may. Due dates, subjects, and suggestions for topics are as follows. Suggested topics are intended to get you thinking and are not mandatory.

First paper: Suggested Topics: The appeal (to an antebellum readership; to a reader in 2001) of one or two of the pieces read. Or: lay out the approach you take as a reader of one of these texts and discuss the reading it yields. Choose from among the works read this far, through Douglass' Narrative. If you want to write about something in the HEATH ANTHOLOGY we have not discussed in class, come talk to me about the topic before you begin work on it. You may also devise your own topic.

Second paper: Texts you may write on: Douglass' NARRATIVE, Jacobs' INCIDENTS; Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER, magazine materials. Suggested topics: 1) Modes of representing race/class/gender in one of these works. 2] The rhetorical means by which these works appeal to readers, seeking to stir up their thinking and to activate them; 3] going further with your work on an antebellum magazine. You could do that in the context of exploring authorship, literature, readerships,and/or the antebellum literary marketplace, or in some other way. You'll want to talk with me about this one.

Third paper: TEXTS: THE MORGESONS, LEAVES OF GRASS, poetry of Dickinson. Suggested topic: constructions of the self (in the context of or over and against the collectivity) in one of these works. For this paper, too, you may also work on a topic related to magazines: do come see me if you decide on that.

Papers should be in typescript, double-spaced. They should be titled. Format for quotations should follow the guidelines of the MLA HANDBOOK or another reliable guide. You may use secondary sources if you wish, though you are not required to do so. You MUST indicate your sources through proper foot- or endnotes and accompany your paper with a bibliography if you do use secondary materials. Papers should be proof-read for spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. Please stick to the required length for papers.

LATE PAPERS WITHOUT EXTENSIONS WILL BE PENALIZED. I will deduct one grade (e.g. lower a paper from, say, a B+ to a B) for each day of lateness unless you have a valid excuse which you discuss with me in advance--an illness, a family emergency. Since you're being given the semester's schedule at the semester's beginning and can plan ahead, work pressure from other courses does not constitute valid grounds for lateness. You cannot pass the course unless you have turned in both papers, engaged in a magazine/newspaper project, and fulfilled all other requirements.

Papers will count for approx. 65 % of your final grade; class participation -- your engagement in class discussion, your preparedness, your work on a magazine project, including presentation -- will count approx. 35%.

Please feel free to check in with me if you want feedback on your classwork, if you want to discuss paper topics in advance or your written work after I've evaluated it, or if you have other questions or concerns. My office hours are Monday and Wednesday, 2:00-3:30.

One last note: remember that there is a Reserve Shelf with selected reading for this course.