Emmons, Ann E.

English

University of Montana

University of MontanaScholarWorks at University of MontanaSyllabi Course SyllabiFall 9-1-2018LIT 236L.02: LT Hist: Modern AmericanLiteratureAnn E. EmmonsUniversity of Montana, MissoulaLet us know how access to this document benefits you.Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabiThis Syllabus is brought to you for free and open access by the Course Syllabi at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted forinclusion in Syllabi by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contactscholarworks@mso.umt.edu.Recommended CitationEmmons, Ann E., "LIT 236L.02: LT Hist: Modern American Literature" (2018). Syllabi. 8109.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabi/8109Ann Emmons and Morgan Beavers Ann’s office hours: T-R  9:00 - 10:30 and by appt., Corbin 353 Ann’s phone (text is best): 529-4586  Ann’s email: ann.emmons@umontana.edu Morgan’s office hours: T-R, 12:20-2:00 and by appt., Corbin 257 Morgan’s email: marymorganbeavers@gmail.com  Modern American Literature: Literary Histories (Fall 2018) 11:00 - 12:50 T R , Fine Art 302   “I try to laugh / At whatever life brings / Cause when I look down / I just miss all the good stuff / When I look up / I just trip over things.” Ani DiFranco, “As Is” “[Literature does] educate us about life. … I’m thinking of the great question of nineteenth-century Russian literature: how should one live? A novel worth reading is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility, of what human nature is, of what happens in the world. It’s a creator of inwardness. … I can’t care about a book that has nothing to contribute to the wisdom project.” Susan Sontag, The Paris Review Interview “wonder is defined as a constriction and suspension of the heart caused by amazement at the appearance of something so portentous, and unusual that the heart suffers a systole. Hence wonder is something like fear in its effect on the heart. This effect of wonder, then, this constriction and systole of the heart, springs from an unfulfilled but felt desire to know… Now the man who is puzzled and wonders apparently does not know. … Hence wonder is the movement of the man who does not know on his way to finding out.” Albertus Magnus, Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle Overview:  The University of Montana’s “Literary Histories” series replaces the survey course. Or, more accurately, it slows down the survey course’s too-cursory and too-rapid  introduction to the major authors, genres, and works of an extended time period and a given language and culture in favor of more-focused consideration of  the intersection of literature and larger cultural and political movements:  how does literature reflect and/or define a nation’s sense of self and a nation’s history?; what is the relationship between literature and life, fact and fiction?; what is fake news? At the most immediate level, this means that we’re reading entire texts rather than snippets of text (and, more tangentially, it means that your University is listening to you, hears your complaints and responds). It also means that courses must focus on a specific historic theme or moment. I have focused this course on Space and Migration: the (often mythologized) American move West, to space “enough.”  In addition, many of you are not and do not intend to become English majors and thus do not intend more-specialized literary study; much of our discussion will therefore focus on the translation of literary “close-reading” techniques and interpretive strategies to all efforts at careful reading and interpretation.  The list of required texts for this course is long and your weekly reading assignments will average 100 pages.  This reading -- careful, engaged, on-time -- is your primary responsibility for this course. Writing assignments are limited to two short (4-5 page) essays, plus one significant effort at revision.  We will, however, talk about writing -- yours and others' -- all semester and we will all be stronger, more-confident writers come December. (That’s one of the happier consequences of reading 1300 pages in 13 weeks ….) I’m happy directing your reading, but less happy dictating your reading. If you would like to substitute another text (one you hoped to see on the syllabus but don’t), appropriate to the unit of study, please come see me and we’ll work out an independent-study option for that unit. NB: this creates more work for me. Please don’t take advantage and substitute a novel that you’ve recently read just to reduce your own workload. Your substituted text should be one you’ve long wanted to read, or one you read long ago in a different time and place, when you were a different reader, one that has haunted you since, but that you have not yet encountered on a course list.  Finally, I expect that laptops and smart phones are being used in the service of our class activities and that they will not distract you, me, or the other students in the class; distractions include noise and your wayward attention. You may take notes on a laptop only if you sit within the first row of the classroom.     Required Texts: Herman Melville, Benito Cereno Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Experience” - digital copy on Moodle Annie Dillard, “Teaching a Stone to Talk” Toni Morrison, “Strangers” - digital copy on Moodle Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” - digital copy on Moodle Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon Hernan Diaz, In the Distance Leslie Silko, essay to be determined (digital copy on Moodle) Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses  Requirements Writing Portfolio 40% Midterm exam 15% Mini Research Projects 20% Final exam (cumulative) 25%  Your essays must be turned in at the beginning of class on the day they are due, typed and double-spaced, with 1” margins, using in-text citations (MLA format). You must revise your first essay; this revision will be graded as a separate stand-alone essay (meaning 3 essays grades compose your “Writing Portfolio” grade). Additional instructions will be provided when the essays are assigned. I encourage you to visit Morgan or me during office hours to discuss the papers and your writing in more detail. The Writing Center (LA 144) also provides valuable assistance.   Twice a semester, you must research a question raised in class and present your findings - and their relationship to the text and/or the course - in 1 to 2 pages (plus bibliography).  Your research must include one peer-reviewed scholarly source.  (We will talk about the available academic-journal search engines in class.  The first of two “mini research projects” must be submitted by October 11, the second by November 29.  And, each must be submitted within 1 week of our conclusion of the text in question.   Both the midterm and the final exam will feature a combination of questions on terminology and short essays; more details to follow later in the semester.  Academic Honesty  All work that you submit for this class must be your own, and it must be written exclusively for this course. The unacknowledged borrowing of others’ words or ideas—whether from books, the internet, or other sources—constitutes the serious academic crime of plagiarism. If you fail to document properly those sources consulted for your writing, you risk an automatic failure for the entire course. If you have any doubts or questions about plagiarism or the University’s policy on it, please see me or Morgan.  Special Needs If you have a documented disability, or otherwise anticipate needing special accommodations for this course, please bring this to my attention as early in the semester as possible so that we have an understanding and can make arrangements.    Tentative Schedule NB: this schedule is truly tentative and will be adjusted according to the needs of the class. Specific reading assignments will be determined at least one week in advance. All reading must be completed by class time on the date listed; please note that you are not prepared for class unless you have that reading in front of you as we discuss it.   Introduction: Close Reading Wk 1 (August 27) ● t Course introduction ▪ As I Lay Dying excerpt ▪ Moby Dick excerpt ▪ Begin Touching the Void Reading: Begin Benito Cereno ● r Touching the Void   Reading for week 2: Benito Cereno, part I  Wk 2 (September 3) ● t Discussion: Touching the Void reading for Thursday: finish Benito Cereno r Discussion: Benito Cereno reading for week 3:  “Rip Van Winkle”; “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” selections (on Moodle)  Wk 3 (September 10) ● t Discussion: Looking West Reading for Thursday: “Teaching a Stone to Talk” ● r Lecture: Phenomenology: how we know what we know Reading for week 4: “Experience”  Wk 4 (September 17)  NB: HF is our longest novel/this is your heaviest reading load. Begin early. ● t Lecture: Phenomenology continued reading for Thursday: Begin Huck Finn ● r Lecture: The American Vernacular and Narrative Structure Reading for week 5: continue Huck Finn;  Toni Morrison, “Strangers,” digital copy on Moodle   Wk 5 (September 24) ● t Writing Workshop ● r Writing Workshop reading for Week 6: finish Huck Finn   Wk 6 (October 1) ● t Discussion: Huck Finn Reading for Thursday: begin As I Lay Dying ● r Lecture: American Modernism Reading for Week 7: finish As I Lay Dying   Wk 7 (October 8) ● t Discussion: As I Lay Dying; Midterm review ● r Midterm Exam; Essay-Prompt Development  Reading for Week 8: Begin Song of Solomon You must have submitted your first mini research project by October 11  Wk 8 (October 15) ● t Lecture: American Magical Realism reading for Thursday: Continue Song of Solomon ● r Discussion: Song of Solomon reading for Week 9: none - writing weekend  Wk 9 (October 22) ● t Essay 1 due; Writing Workshop  reading for Thursday: Finish Song of Solomon ● r Discussion: Song of Solomon reading for Week 10: select poems (to be determined)  Wk 10 (October 29) ● t Environmental Literature Lecture and Discussion (Morgan) ● r Environmental Literature Discussion (Morgan) reading for Week 11: Hayden White, “On Narrativity”(digital copy on Moodle); In the Distance  Wk 11 (November 5) ● t No Class. Election Day ● r Lecture: American Modernism II (Narrative Form) Discussion: In the Distance  Reading for Week 12 (none; writing weekend   Wk 12 (November 12) ● t Writing Workshop ● r Writing Workshop ● f Revised Essay 1 due to my English Dept mailbox by 5:00 pm FRIDAY reading for week 14: Wai Chee Dimock, "Introduction" to Through Other Continents (on Moodle); Stuart Hall excerpts (on Moodle)  Wk 13 (November 19)  ● t No Class ● r No Class (Thanksgiving)    Wk 14 (November 26) r Lecture: World Literature  reading for Thursday: Silko essay (on Moodle); begin All the Pretty Horses ● t Discussion:  All the Pretty Horses reading for week 15: finish All the Pretty Horses You must have submitted your second mini research project by November 29  Wk 15 (December 3) ● t Discussion: All the Pretty Horses reading for Thursday: finish All the Pretty Horses ● r Course review ● f Essay 2 due, to my English Department mailbox by 5:00 pm FRIDAY  Optional Final-Exam Review Sessions, time and location to be determined  Final Exam: Friday December 14, 10:10 - 12:10 

LIT 236L.02: LT Hist: Modern American Literature

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LIT 236L.02: LT Hist: Modern American Literature

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