The Re-Making of "America" and "Americans":
American Literature at the Turn into the Twentieth Century

The period between the Civil War's end and World War I was a time of extraordinary ferment in America. It was an era of intense social, political, economic, and demographic conflict and change. The nation witnessed the spread of cities--and of slums; of increased immigration--and of reactions to it ranging from xenophobia through efforts to assimilate immigrants as "Americans" to centrist tolerance of their differences; of racial apartheid and lynching, and resistance to them; of intensified organization for women's rights (and divisions within the woman's movement, especially over questions of race); of the solidification of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant chauvinism side-by-side with the transformation of the United States into a visibly multi-ethnic society. It was time when both wealth expanded and poverty expanded and reform movements proliferated. It was also a time when the U.S. began to assert its position as an international power, becoming involved not only in the Spanish-American War (1898), but in ongoing war in the Philippines.

American literature was a key participant in this ferment. As the audience for literature became more national--partly in consequence of the literary industry's ability to reach far-flung readerships--American writing continued the cultural work of defining "Americans" in which it had engaged since the republic's beginnings. Realist and regionalist literature focused on the rhythms, the small and large dramas, the tensions, disappointments and satisfactions of what was identified as "ordinary life," in ways which expanded images of Americans, but also preserved certain boundaries of class, race, ethnicity, gender definition, and sexuality. The parameters of specific genres of literature were being re-drawn, with some being newly codified, including "the novel," "the short story," "the sketch," "the book review." This made entry into writing as a profession easier, while also establishing possibilities for and limits on representation. At the same time, publishing by and for particular groups was beginning to flourish, both locally and nationally. The African American press was taking off. So were publishing on the part of other racially or ethnically defined publishing venues. Radical publishing was also on the rise. Moreover, literature by newer "Americans," recently emancipated African Americans, Native Americans, and progressives of all identities occasionally appeared in "mainstream" outlets such as the prestigious Atlantic Monthly magazine. While no checklist could begin to give a sense of the era, the introductory essay to it by Elaine Hedges et al in Volume II of the Heath Anthology of American Literature (pp. 1-34) is a useful starting point.

Some of the key questions which will circulate through our reading and discussions this semester are: How did various kinds and works of literature participate in conversations about what "America" and "Americans" were? How did literature represent "Americans?" How did it reflect on a nation whose regions and borders were changing? How did it address the nation's participation in an international economy? its roles as an international actor? How did "America" look to those at its borders, who were being absorbed into it or pushed further out? What was literature? What generic--and content--criteria were being established for short fiction, memoirs, essays, and the novel? What aesthetic criteria were emerging for "highbrow" literature How do we in the early twenty-first century read literature written around the turn into the twentieth? What continuities do we see between then and now? What discontinuities?

I'm sure you'll formulate other questions over the course of the semester; we'll want to integrate these into our discussions.

The semester schedule below uses several abbreviations. Here's the key to them.

Assigned texts:

H = Heath Anthology of American Literature.

C = Coursepack

ERes = Electronic Reserve

 

Written assignments:

P = Prep. paper. You'll be writing four of these over the course of the semester.
Qs = Study questions. You'll be writing six sets of these over the course of the semester.
More complete information about Ps and Qs and other matters follows in and after the schedule for the semester.

The Coursepack contains nineteenth-century texts not included in the Heath. You may purchase it in the English Department office, Rice 130. The cost is $5.00. Please have exact change or be prepared to write a check to give the English Department's Administrative Assistant, Ms. Elkevizth, who cannot make change. Books--Hopkins' Contending Forces, Twain's Pudden'head Wilson, Howells' The Rise of Silas Lapham, The Heath Anthology of American Literature, 4th edition, Vol. II--are available for purchase at the Bookstore. There is a reserve shelf in Mudd Library for this course with books you might find interesting and/or useful.

All of the reading listed below is mandatory unless otherwise indicated by the abbreviation "rec.," for recommended. Headnotes in the Heath Anthology which introduce authors whose works we read will be required reading, to have been read for the class on which we begin discussion of the relevant work.

Feb. 4		First Class
Feb. 6	Qs	Elaine Hedges et al, Introduction to "Late Nineteenth Century" Section [H] * * * * * * *
Feb. 8		THE ARTS OF FICTION; MARKETS FOR FICTION Constance Fenimore Woolson, "Miss Grief" [H]
Feb. 11	Qs	Steven Mailloux, "Interpretation" [ERes]
Feb. 13		Charles Chesnutt, "The Wife of His Youth" [H]
Feb. 15		Stephen Crane, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" [H] * * * * * * * THE ARTS OF WRITING "RACE" and "AMERICA"
Feb. 18		Chesnutt, Journal Entries [C], "Po' Sandy" [H]; rec. William Dean Howells, "Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt's Stories" [H]
Feb. 20		Kate Chopin, "Desiree's Baby" [H]
Feb. 22	P	George Washington Cable, "'Tite Poulette" [H] Select a detail from one of the pieces we read this week and discuss what you take to be its implications for the work as a whole. Identify why you see the detail and the work as you do (i.e., identify your approach to interpretation)
Feb. 25		Read the 2 short pieces on "character" on ERes, one by McKeon, one by Abrams. Also Pauline E. Hopkins, Contending Forces [novel; separate text]
Feb. 27	Qs	CF
March 1		" " " " " " "
March 5		Mark Twain, Pudden'head Wilson [novel; separate text], and Twain's preface to it [C]
March 7		PW
March 9		" " " " " " " FIRST PAPER DUE * * * * * * * READING REGIONALISM, READING "AMERICA"
March 11		William Dean Howells, from "Criticism and Fiction," Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, "A New-England Nun" [H], and cover and material from Harper's Bazar, May, 1887 [C]
March 13	P	Thomas McLaughlin, "Figurative Language" [ERes]
March 15		Freeman, "A Poetess" [C]

March 18

Sarah Orne Jewett, "In Dark New England Days" [C]

March 20		Hamlin Garland, "Up the Coule" [H]
March 22		Alice Dunbar-Nelson, " A Carnival Jangle," "The Praline Woman," M'sieu Fortier's Violin" [C]
March 23-March 31		SPRING BREAK * * * * * * * BORDERS, CONFLICT, EXPANSION
April 1		Abrams on "Tone," [ERes]; John Milton Oskison, "The Problem of Old Harjo" [H]
April 3		(Gertrude Bonnin) Zitkala-Sa, "Impressions of An Indian Girlhood" [C]; from "The School-Days of an Indian Girl" [H]
April 5	P	Edith Maud Eaton/Sui Sin Far, "Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian" [H]; "Its Wavering Image"[C] on tone in one of the pieces assigned since Break
April 8		Eaton/Sin Far, "The Wisdom of the New," "The Am- ericanizing of Pau Tsu" [C] "
April 10	Qs	Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, from The Squatter and the Don [H] [H]
April 12		Get together in pairs to discuss plans for second paper.
April 15	Qs	Jose Marti, "Our America"
Ap. 17		" "; McKeon, "Indirect Discourse" [ERes] SECOND PAPER DUE * * * * * * * "AMERICA"/"AMERICANS" IN REALIST AND NATURALIST LITERATURE
Ap. 19		Stephen Crane, "The Open Boat" and poems from "War is not Kind" [H]
April 22		Finish "The Open Boat"; also read Henry James, "The Art of Fiction" [H]
Ap. 24		James, "Daisy Miller: A Study" [H]
Ap. 26		" " " " "
Ap. 29		Amy Kaplan, from "The Mass-mediated Realism of William Dean Howells" [ERes] and Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham [novel; separate text]
May 1	P	The Rise of Silas Lapham
May 3		" " " " " " "
May 6		Kate Chopin, The Awakening [novel; H]
May 8	Qs	" " " " " " "
May 10		" " " " " " " and wrap-up
May 14		Noon. Final Paper Due

Some particulars:

Classes will generally follow one of two formats: lectures--which will accommodate give-and-take among class members and between class members and me--and discussions, which will primarily involve you. I may sometimes ask students to pair up to initiate discussions.

Attendance is mandatory. As a rule, I'll take attendance; more than 3 unexcused absences will lower grade in the course. Please note that attendance means full participation in class: being up-to-date on the reading, bringing the texts to be discussed to class, turning in prep. papers or study questions when they're required, being actively present, which is to say engaged in class and participating thoughtfully in discussion.

You'll be doing various kinds of writing for this course. 1] Study questions (Qs). These are two or three questions about the reading for the day which are of interest to you. Some may be factual (as in: who was Alice Dunbar-Nelson's readership?), but some should also be analytic (as in: How and to what ends does Chesnutt's "The Wife of His Youth" play with the form of the well-crafted short story?) A prep. paper (P) is a 1-1/2 page exploration of an aspect of a specific text, either one I've identified or, when I've indicated no topic, one you've chosen because it interests you. Prep. papers are analytic in character--that is, they engage with a question, such as one you might pose for Qs, or work out a provisional understanding of an element or detail of a text (say, the implications of the use of doubles in Pudden'head Wilson).

You'll also be writing three 5-page papers, the first due March 6, the second due April 15, the third due May 14. The first paper may be on anything we read through Pudden'head Wilson. The second may be on anything we read after March 8 through the selection from The Squatter and the Don. The third may be on any of the works read from "Nuestra America/Our America" onwards or on any writing in the Heath by an author we've read after Spring Break that was not discussed in class. If you want to write on something we haven't talked about as a class, however, you'll need to come and talk with me well in advance. (I recommend doing this in any case. If you can't make my office hours I can schedule a meeting at a different time.)

We'll cover specific guidelines for the papers before they're due. A general rule of thumb for English papers is that they be focused on a subject they can discuss thoroughly within the assigned page-length, that they develop your own insights about the work or works discussed, and that they engage closely with the text. This translates as: depth, specificity, originality. You may use secondary sources; you must cite them if you do. BUT: you should not be writing a research paper.

I will also ask you to write a paragraph to be appended to each paper in which you identify the question(s) you want to pursue and why, as well as the approach you take in your paper and why you take it. Your grade for the course will be based on all aspects of the work required for the course. Written work--Ps, Qs, and papers--will count for approximately 75% of your grade; class participation about 25%. You must complete all written work in order to pass the course. LATE WORK WILL BE PENALIZED. NO WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE END OF READING PERIOD UNLESS YOU HAVE ARRANGED FOR AN INCOMPLETE THROUGH THE OFFICE OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS.

Do come to see me if you have any questions or if you want to talk about the course. Don't let a question develop into a problem! My office hours are listed at the top of the syllabus. I'll be happy to set up an appointment at another time if you cannot make my scheduled office hours.

One last note: in English 257 Oberlin College's Honor System is in effect, as it is throughout the College. The purpose of the system is to maintain a high standard of integrity in all academic work at Oberlin College. Its basic assumption is "that all academic work submitted is the sole and original product of the individual student. The System respects the students' ability to maintain this standard and encourages the further development of this ability"(from Oberlin College Course Catalogue, 1996-97, p. 14). The Honor System's terminology and implementation are detailed in the "Rules and "Regulations" section at the back of Fusser's and on line under "Rules and Regulations" at http://www.oberlin.edu/%7Estlife/r_r/honor.html.