Ellis (Hope College)

General Information

Abstract

My goal in teaching this course is to provide a flexible framework within which students can examine in historical context American writing through a representative sample of works that stresses the diversity of experience and poetics characteristic of American Literature. Throughout the course I suggest certain fundamental issues to guide our work, but I rely on the students to formulate their own questions and methodologies to examine them. My suggestions include: that we approach American writing both as history and as "art" and question what these terms might mean to the writers we study and to us as readers in the 1990s; that we look for American identity as expressed in language, focusing on the diversity of identities characteristic of American multiculture; that we think about how geography and language interact; that we explore the relationship between American ideologies and expectations and what surfaces in the literature associated with this America place; that we wonder about how we today might be influenced by the ideas and assumptions expressed in the literature we read; that we speculate how literature can be instrumental, historically, and as a tool to shape our own futures.

Beyond these general guidelines, it is my hope that students will as much as possible take control of the course to ask their own informed questions and structure their own active learning, in part by debating the usefulness of the questions I might want them to ask themselves.

Population

This course is an introduction to American Literature from 1860. It serves a wide range of students, no more than half of whom are English majors. Class standing is fairly evenly distributed between sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Enrollment tends to be 35-40, and the format is "mixed lecture and discussion," in other words, a combination of (1) group discussion; (2) 15-20 minute "mini-lectures"; (3) small group discussions, projects, or presentations; and (4) individual student presentations.

Texts

Lauter, et. al., The Heath Anthology of American Literature, volume II various "occasional pieces" (photocopied handouts)

General Pedagogy

During the semester students are required to write 3 short (1000 word) papers and approximately 7-9 informal worksheets. In addition, they are required to work collaboratively with other students in team direction of a class discussion or project for one meeting, for which they must prepare (as a group) a written lesson plan including goals and strategies. As a final project, students write and annotate a pastiche of a work (or works) we have studied during the semester.

Readings & Pedagogy

Unit #1

Readings for Unit #1: Davis , "Life in the Iron Mills"; Jewett "A White Heron"; Phelps, from The Story of Avis; Freeman, "The Revolt of `Mother'" (2 weeks)

IN-CLASS WRITING FOR UNIT #1

Unit #2

Readings for Unit #2: Clemens, from The Gilded Age and "The War Prayer"; James , Daisy Miller; Garland : "Up the Coule"; Sinclair , from The Jungle (2 weeks)

INFORMAL WORKSHEETS FOR UNIT #2

(DISCUSSION OF FIRST ESSAY)

Unit #3

Readings for Unit #3: Standing Bear , "What I Am Going to Tell You . . ."; Ghost Dance Songs; Eastman , from From the Deep Woods to Civilization (1 week)

INFORMAL WORKSHEETS FOR UNIT #2

Unit #4

Readings for Unit #4: Gilman , "The Yellow Wallpaper"; Bonnin, from "Impressions of an Indian Childhood" and from "The School days of an Indian Girl"; Eaton , "Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian"; Carved on Walls : Poetry by Early Chinese Immigrants; Du Bois , from The Souls of Black Folks (2 weeks)

INDIVIDUAL & GROUP PROJECTS

Unit #5

Readings for Unit #5: Jeffers , "Apology for Bad Dreams," "Credo," "Rock and Hawk," "Cassandra," "The Beauty of Things"; Williams , "The Great Figure," "The Descent"; Eliot , The Waste Land; Stein , "The Geographical History of America" (1 week)

Unit #6

Readings for Unit #6: Hemingway : "Hills Like White elephants"; Faulkner , "Barn Burning," "A Courtship" (1 week)

Begin Discussing Second Essay

Unit #7

Readings for Unit #7: Toomer, "Karintha," "Song of the Son," "Blood-Burning Moon"; , "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Weary Blues," "Freedom Train"; Blues Lyrics; Hurston, "Sweat"; Bennett , "Heritage," "To Usward," "Advice" (1 week)

Unit #8

Readings for Unit #8: O'Neill, "The Hairy Ape"; Maltz, "The Happiest Man on Earth"; Le Sueur , "Women on the Breadlines" (1 week)

Unit #9

Readings for Unit #9: Albee , The Zoo Story (1 week)

ORAL INTERPRETATION & PRESENTATION

Unit #10

Readings for Unit #10: Yamamoto , "Seventeen Syllables"; Hinojosa-Smith , "Sometimes It Just Happens That Way; That's All"; Silko , "Lullaby" (1 week)

Unit #11

Readings for Unit #11: Ginsberg , from Howl ; Snyder , "Riprap," "It Was When"; Reed, "I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra"; Ashberry , "The Instruction Manual," "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape"; Rich , "Diving into the Wreck"; Ortiz, from Sand Creek; Cervantes , "Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway," "Poem for the Young White Man . . ." (1 week)

THIRD AND FINAL ESSAY

Unit #12

Readings for Unit #12: Review of material already covered.

Final Exam and Project: Pastiche and Annotation