Assignments

English 4665/5665: American Literature from 1920-Present, Spring 2013

TR 3:30-4:45PM, Arts & Sciences 353

Scheduled Assignment Sign Up

Use the following table to sign up for scheduled assignments: the undergraduate literary biography (bio), the undergraduate close reading paper and presentation (close, note that you will be working on this assignment in pairs), and the graduate presentation (present).

 

Graduates should sign up for one slot (present).

 

Undergraduates should sign up for one literary biography (bio) and one close reading (close) spaced out at least two weeks for the other two slots they've signed up for.

 

Written Due Date Presentation Due Date Author Student
S, 1-12
T, 1-15

Eliot

bio 1 Benton Meadows
R, 1-17 R, 1-17

Eliot

close 1

close 2
S, 1-19 T, 1-22

H. D.

bio 2 Dawson Roberts
R, 1-24 R, 1-24

H. D.

close 3

close 4

S, 1-26 T, 1-29

Fitzgerald

bio 3 Nia McRay
R, 1-31 R, 1-31

Fitzgerald

close 5 Owen Clark

close 6 Mark Watkins

S, 2-2 T, 2-5

O'Neill

bio 4 Gray Lindsey
R, 2-7 R, 2-7

O'Neill

close 7

close 8

S, 2-9 T, 2-12

Williams

bio 5 Alison Smith / Mark Watkins
R, 2-14 R, 2-14

Williams

close 9 Suzan Wills

close 10 Catherine Bowlin
S, 2-16 T, 2-19

Stevens

bio 6 Coye Bishop
R, 2-21 R, 2-21

Stevens

close 11 Benton Meadows

close 12 Gray Lindsey
S, 2-23 T, 2-26

Toomer

bio 7 Amy Floyd
R, 2-28 R, 2-28

Toomer

close 13 Jake Ryals

close 14 Brice Scott
S, 3-2 T, 3-5

Rice

bio 8 Catherine Bowlin
R, 3-7 R, 3-7

Rice

close 15 Melissa Haghighat

close 16 Alison Smith
S, 3-9 T, 3-12

Hemingway

bio 9-10 Brice Scott
R, 3-14 R, 3-14

Hemingway

close 17

close 18

S, 3-16 T, 3-19

Treadwell

bio 11 Melissa Haghighat
R, 3-21 R, 3-21

Treadwell

close 19

close 20 Daniel Von Waldner
S, 3-30 T, 4-2

Larsen

bio 12 Suzan Wills
R, 4-11 R, 4-11

Larsen

close 21 Amy Floyd

close 22 Coye Bishop
S, 4-13 T, 4-16

Faulkner

bio 13 Owen Clark / Daniel Von Waldner
R, 4-18 R, 4-18

Faulkner

close 23 Dawson Roberts

close 24 Nia McRay
S, 4-20 R, 4-23

Barnes

bio 14 Jake Ryals

Paper and Author List

Use this table to remind yourself of what authors you studied and wrote about previously. The close reading/presentation, comparison/contrast paper, and research paper must be written on authors not previously written about in the course.

 

Student Close/Present
Compare
 Research

Coye Bishop

 Larsen

Hemingway

O'Neill

 Johnson

Catherine Bowlin

 Williams

Eliot

Fitzgerald

 Rice

Owen Clark

 Fitzgerald

Eliot

Hemingway

 Hemingway new

Amy Floyd

 Larsen

Fitzgerald

Hemingway

 Toomer

Melissa Haghighat

 Rice

H. D.

Hardy

 Treadwell

Gray Lindsey

 Stevens

Eliot

Fitzgerald

 Hemingway

Nia McRay

 Faulkner

Eliot

H. D.

 Treadwell

Benton Meadows

 Stevens

H. D.

Stein

 nature in Toomer, Hemingway, O'Neill, Fitzgerald

Dawson Roberts

 Faulkner

Hemingway

Toomer

 Larsen

Jake Ryals

 Toomer

Stephens

Williams

  

Brice Scott

 Toomer

O'Neill

Rice

 Eliot

Alison Smith

 Rice

H. D.

Williams

 Eliot

Daniel Von Waldner

 Hemingway    

Mark Watkins

 Fitzgerald

Eliot

O'Neill

 Fitzgerald new

Suzan Wills

 Williams

Eliot

Williams		 Fitzgerald

In Class Activities

1. T. S. Eliot's "Other Observations"

Last time, we closely read T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Today, we'll determine what the theme of Eliot's collection Prufock and Other Observations. Break into groups to discuss a particular poem and how it relates to the poems we've already discussed.

 

Here are the poem groups:

  1. "Portrait of a Lady"
  2. "Preludes"
  3. "Rhapsody on a Windy Night"
  4. "Morning at the Window" and/or "The Boston Evening Transcript"
  5. "Aunt Helen" and/or "Mr. Apollinax"
  6. "Hysteria," "Conversation Galante," and/or "La Figlia Che Piange"

Here are the discussion questions:

  1. What is the core conflict of your assigned poem(s)?
  2. What is the meaning of your assigned poem(s)?
  3. How do the conflict and meaning of your assigned poem(s) correspond to the conflict and meaning of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "Cousin Nancy"?

Groups will report their findings to the class, and the class will explore the overall theme of Eliot's collection.

2. Buttons, Observations, and Gardens

Just as we did with Eliot's Prufrock and Other Observations, we'll determine H.D.'s overarching idea in Sea Garden. In order to obtain a sense of the vicissitudes of modern poetry, we'll also compare and contrast H.D.'s style and theme with Stein's and Eliot's. Break into 4 groups of 3- members to discuss one of H.D.'s poems.

 

Here are the groups and poems:

  1. "Sea Rose," "The Helmsman,""Mid-Day," "Pursuit," "The Contest," "Sea Lily"
  2. "The Wind Sleepers," "The Gift," "Evening," "Sheltered Garden," "Sea Poppies," "Loss"
  3. "Garden," "Sea Violet," "The Cliff Temple," "Orchard," "Sea Gods," "Acon," "Night"
  4. "Prisoners," "Storm," "Sea Iris," "Hermes of the Ways," "Pear Tree," "Cities"

Here are the questions:

  1. What are the key tensions and overall meaning of one poem from your assigned list?
  2. Given our discussion of the poems Tuesday and your group's discussion today, what is the overall theme of H.D.'s collection shaping up to be?
  3. Compare and contrast H.D.'s poetical style and issues with Gertrude Stein's (Groups 1 and 3) or T. S. Eliot's (Groups 2 and 4).

3. In Hemingway's Time

For our first day of discussion of Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time, let's break into two person groups to discuss the tone, character, core conflict, and theme of the assigned short story as well as how the intercalary chapters fit with the short story. As groups report back, we'll develop a more complete portrait of Nick Adams as well as the thematic and structural connections among the stories.

 

I. Indian Camp

II. The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife

III. The End of Something

IV. The Three Day Blow

V. The Battler

VI. A Very Short Story

VII. Soldier's Home

Comparison/Contrast Paper

While the close reading paper requires undergraduates to practice attentive analysis of a key passage and the book review calls for graduate students to summarize and evaluate a scholarly book on postmodern literature, the comparison/contrast paper instructs all to analyze how one particular idea, issue, or characteristic functions both the same way and different ways in two works of modernist American literature. For example, you could compare and contrast the Expressionistic techniques of Eugene O'Neill and Elmer Rice, the idea of the "modern man" in Eliot and Fitzgerald, or how H.D. and William Carlos Williams treat the natural image.

 

Undergraduates should write a 5-6 page comparison/contrast paper on in class works only, but not ones written on in the close reading or research papers.

 

Graduates should write a 6-7 page comparison/contrast paper on one in class work and one outside class work (let the professor know the outside work at least two weeks before the due date), but not one studied in the presentation or research paper.

Research Paper

The close reading paper asked undergraduates to closely read a work and the midterm exam tested undergraduates and graduate students alike to make connections and distinctions among the themes and style of modernist texts. The research paper will afford you the time and space to perform a sustained and sourced discussion of a significant issue in a modernist work. Your thesis-driven paper should employ textual analysis and support its interpretation of the issue with scholarly criticism. Here is how to conduct literary research.

 

You will write an 8-10 page research paper, incorporating at least 5 scholarly articles, on a work read in class (but not one written on in either the close reading paper or the comparison/contrast paper) or a work not studied in class by one of the authors studied in class.

Exam

You will compose two 5-6 page essays selected from a set of 4-6 questions. We will generate topics as a class on Thursday, April 18, and I will create 4-6 questions from those topics on Tuesday, April 23.

 

Answer 2 of the 5 questions below. Do not use an author's work in more than one essay; and do not repeat your comparison/contrast paper topic. Not all authors' works are appropriate for all essays. Choose works which afford adequate material to address the question at hand. Have a controlling idea, an interpretation, a thesis that bridges the works. Make connections and distinctions among the texts; compare and contrast the works' key ideas. Support your points with textual evidence (pertinent quotations); avoid plot summary. Organize essays by argument and analysis. You will be graded on your interpretive understanding of the work as well as your ability to compare and contrast meanings and issues.

 

Questions

Parameters

Undergraduate Assignments

Literary Biography

GeorgiaVIEW Post

You will sign up to write a literary biography of an author we're reading in class and post it to both 1) GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Literary Biographies and 2) GeorgiaVIEW > Dropbox > Literary Biographies. Much like a Norton anthology or Contemporary Authors author biography, this paper should

Below is a list of sources that will help you collect the information for your literary bibliography. They are available through the GCSU Library.

Informal Presentation

You will also be asked to introduce the author and work on the first day of class discussion. Your graded paper will be returned to you within a week of your presentation in GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Literary Biography.

Due Dates

  1. Your written literary biography will be due in both 1) GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Literary Biographies and 2) GeorgiaVIEW > Dropbox > Literary Biographies three days before we discuss the author in class. If you do not submit your written summary to GeorgiaVIEW before the article is discussed in class, you will fail the assignment.
  2. Your brief, informal presentation will be due on the day we discuss the author in class. This date is approximate for we sometimes fall a day behind.
  3. I will return your graded literary biography to you in GeorgiaVIEW > Dropbox > Literary Biography a week after we discuss the article in class.
  4. For example, we are scheduled to discuss Eliot on Tuesday, 1-15. Therefore, someone's literary biography will be due in GeorgiaVIEW by Saturday, 1-12. In class on Tuesday, 1-15, that student will informally present her literary biography. I will return the graded literary biography to her the following week in GeorgiaVIEW > Dropbox > Literary Biography.

Note: It is extremely important for each person to turn in the literary biographies on time and attend class for the presentation component. Biographies will be penalized one letter grade for each day, not class period, that they are turned in late. Failing to present the article to the class without providing a valid absence excuse will result in a one letter grade penalty.

Close Reading

Sign up in pairs to analyze a key passage in a formal 5-6 page paper and formal 5-7 minute presentation not including reading the passage aloud. Your essay and presentation should 1) do a line-by-line examination of the most important passage in the assigned work, interpreting it sentence-by-sentence through nuanced reading of (for example) figurative language, diction, connotation, and symbol, and 2) arguing the passage's centrality to understanding the core conflicts and overall theme of the work by explicating the fundamental conflicts with the particular lines of text. Your essay should be driven by a thesis that argues the work's theme and logically organized by close reading of the text: unpack the tension and conflict, connotation and diction, idea and theme. Your well-organized presentation should clearly convey your ideas to the class, and each member should speak during the presentation.

Graduate Assignments

Book Review

Review a monograph of postmodern literature (subject to professor approval two weeks before the due date) by appreciating and interrogating its argument, summarizing and evaluating its interpretation. Example reviews of varying lengths are available on Postmodern Culture.

Presentation

For the 30 minute presentation, you will sign up to research and present/teach an scholarly journal article or book chapter that advances class discussion as well as understanding of a literary work. Provide the professor the article at least one week before your presentation. On the day of the presentation, upload to GeorgiaVIEW > Dropbox > Presentation a 2 page document describing the other articles you considered teaching and why you chose to teach the article over the others. Retrieve your graded presentation in GeorgiaVIEW > Dropbox > Presentation approximately one week after the presentation.

 

© Alex E. Blazer 2024