Spring, 2002	Sandra A. Zagarell
English 353	Rice 126 (440) 775-8585 [messages: 8570]
MWF, 1:30-2:20 King 227	Office Hours: W: 2:30-3:30, F, 12:00-1:00, and by appointment
	E-mail: sandra.zagarell@oberlin.edu

American Literature: 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)

TEXTS

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

Assigned texts:

Written assignments:

 

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.

Generally the week's classes will include one lecture, which will accommodate class participation, and two discussions. I may ask students to initiate selected discussions.

                         

SCHEDULE

Feb.  4		First Class
Feb. 6	Qs	What was literature in the antebellum U.S? Read PaulLauter, "Introduction" to the Early Nineteenth Century Section [H, pp. 1355-1386] and Howard on "Genre" (hand-out)
Feb. 8		We'll pursue the question of what literature was in the antebellum U. S. by reading some examples of era's writing: Quinney's "Speech" (H, 1405-09), Sigourney's "Indian Names" (H, 1508-09), Bryant's "The Prairies" (H, 2818-21), Poe's "To Helen" (H, 2458) and "The Philosophy of Composition" (H, 2449-2457)       Useful background on critical/historical approaches to this period on reserve includes essays in the CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AMERICAN LIT., VOL II by  Michael Bell ("Beginnings of Professionalism" and "Women's Fiction and the Literary Marketplace in the 1850s") and Jonathan Arac ("Establishing National Narrative"). * *  *   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * LECTURE/ESSAY
Feb. 11		Emerson, "The American Scholar" [H]
Feb. 13		Emerson, Self-Reliance" [H]
Feb. 15	P	Emerson, "Experience"  [H; read this essay twice]
Feb. 18		Thoreau, from Walden [H]
Feb. 20	P	Thoreau, "Walking" [H]
Feb. 22		Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government" [H] * *  *   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * NARRATIVE OF MANY GENRES
Feb. 25	Qs	Melville, Moby-Dick (separate text)
Feb. 27		"    "          "    "
March 1	P	"    "          "    "
Mar.   4		"    "          "    "
Mar.   6		"    "          "    "
Mar.   8		Taking stock and looking ahead *   *    *    *    *    *    * SLAVE NARRATIVES
Mar.11		Harriet Jacobs, Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl (separate text)
Mar.13	Qs	Same as above
Mar. 15		"    "          "    " FIRST PAPER DUE
Mar.18		Frederick Douglass, Narrative Of The Life Of....  [H]
Mar.20	Qs	"    "          "    "
Mar. 22		"    "          "    "
Mar. 23-31		SPRING BREAK *   *    *    *    *    *    *
April 1		"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 (both on ERes). This         informational-exploration session will be held on the 4th floor of Mudd Library. We'll work with materials from Special Collections, which is housed on that floor, and will talk with Special Collections librarian Ed Vermue. We'll be 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 to consider the "popular" appeal of much antebellum writing. This gets obscured if we concentrate too exclusively on "classics," on works of writing as though they existed between a book's covers only, or on current modes of reading. I'll therefore ask you to look carefully throughone antebellum magazine, working in pairs and taking note of what's there, what impression the magazine's look and contents give of the era, and how this project affects your understanding of antebellum literature. You'll report on this work next week. WORK PUBLISHED IN ANTEBELLUM MAGAZINES
Apr. 3		Melville, "The Paradise of Bachelors" and "The Tartarus of Maids" [H]
Apr. 5		Harding Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills" [H] MAGAZINES, ANTEBELLUM CULTURE, READING ANTEBELLUM WRITING
Apr. 8		Reports on poking around in antebellum magazines and newspapers.
Apr. 10		Same as above
Apr. 12		No class HISTORICAL NOVEL
Apr. 15		Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter[H; be sure to read "The Custom House"; it's part of The Scarlet Letter)
Apr. 17	P	The Scarlet Letter
Apr. 19		"    "          "    " SECOND PAPER DUE FIRST-PERSON NOVEL
Apr. 22		Elizabeth Stoddard, The Morgesons (separate text)
Apr. 24	P	The Morgesons
Apr. 26		"    "          "    " EXPANSIVE EGO/MODERN EPIC
Apr. 29		Walt Whitman, from  "Leaves of Grass," 1855 edition: "Preface,""Song of Myself" [H]
May 1	P	Same as above
May 3		"    "          "    " CONCENTRATED EGO/LYRIC
May 6		Poetry by Emily Dickinson (selections from HEATH + hand-out)
May 8	Qs	Same as above
May 10		"    "          "    "
May 13		THIRD PAPER DUE

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

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 or prep. papers for discussions, explore an antebellum magazine and report briefly on your findings 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.

PAPERS

 

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 Spring 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.

Subjects, and suggestions for topics follow. Suggested topics are intended to get you thinking. You may develop another instead.

First paper. Suggested Topics: Lay out an approach you want to take as a reader to one of the texts read so far, explaining why you've selected the approach you take and what it yields for the text you've chosen. You may selected any text read through  Jacobs' Incidents. Or explore how a text you select from among the same readings guides and challenges readers to experience specific cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and/or political processes. Your paper should, of course, explain what you take those processes to be.

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.

Second paper. Texts you may write on: Douglass' Narrative, Hawthorne's  The Scarlet Letter, or magazine materials, including the magazine fiction by Melville or Harding Davis. 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 by 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 a collectivity of some sort which you'll need to specify) in one of these works. For this paper, too, you may work on a topic related to our magazine unit: do come see me if you decide on that.

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.

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 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, such as an illness or a family emergency, which you discuss with me at least 24 hours in advance unless the situation materializes more suddenly. 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 done the reading, turned in both papers, fulfilled all other written requirements, engaged in a magazine/newspaper project (including the class presentation on it) and generally taken part in the class.

Evaluation

Papers and other writing will count for approx. 65% of your final grade; class participation--your engagement in class discussion, your preparedness, your magazine project--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, concerns or interests. My office hours are Wednesday, 2:30-3:30,

Friday 12-1 and by appointment.

A final observation: in English 353 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