Dr. Alex E. Blazer	Course Site	Syllabus
In Class Activities	Selected Reading	Study Questions
Discussion Board	Exam 1	Peer Response
Paper 1	Paper 2	Exam 2

Assignments

American Literary Consciousness from Huck Finn to Music for Torching

English 226B: American Literature II: from 1860

Fall 2006, MW 3:00-4:15PM, 2130 AuSable Hall

In Class Activities

1. Gilman: Character and Reality

In order to to create some class energy, commence our discussion of "The Yellow Wall-Paper," and practice drawing the kinds of connections we'll be making in the essay exam, we'll begin today by working in groups. Break into groups of three or four, elect a secretary and a speaker (the speaker cannot be someone who regularly participates in class discussion), and answer the three questions of your assigned group. Group speakers will report their group's discussion to the rest of the class.

• Narrator Group
  • Do a character analysis of the narrator, elucidating her key traits and how she engenders the core conflict of the story.
  • Discuss the various possibilities of the narrator's condition. How do different reasons behind the condition force different evaluations of the narrator and the story's main conflict?
  • Compare the narrator to other women we've read (James's Daisy Miller, Jewett's Sylvie, Chopin's Edna Pontellier).
• John Group
  • Do a character analysis of John, elucidating his key traits and how he fits into the core conflict of the story.
  • Discuss how John can be evaluated both critically and sympathetically.
  • Compare John to other men we've read (James's Winterbourne, Jewett's hunter, Chopin's Leonce Pontellier).
• Realism and Reality
  • Narratively speaking, what "really" happens in the story?
  • Discuss the various possibilities of how reality is bracketed in this story. How do the different versions of the bracketing compel us to read the meaning of the story differently?
  • Compare "The Yellow Wall-Paper"'s literary style and narrative point of view with other stories we've read (James's "Daisy Miller," Jewett's "The White Heron," Chopin's The Awakening).

2. Washington and Du Bois Debate

Divide into groups of three or four, discuss the following four issues based upon the writer (Washington or Du Bois) that your group is assigned, and elect a secretary who will write down and report the results of your group's discussion to the rest of the class.

1. Define the writer's worldview, in other words, the main theme of piece.
2. What is the writer's political stance?
3. What is the writer's view on education?
4. What is the writer's view on civil rights, specifically regarding relationship between races?

3. Faulkner: The Bundren Family

In order to get back on schedule as well as to generate participation, you will work in seven groups to create a character sketch of Bundrens:

Three Questions

1. What is the character's place within the Bundren family?
2. What is the character's core conflict? What happens to her in the course of the story?
3. What is the most significant quote that illuminates her issue?

Seven Groups

1. Addie
2. Anse
3. Darl
4. Cash
5. Jewel
6. Dewey Dell
7. Vardaman

4. Ginsberg: Culture/Counter-Culture

Today we are going to discuss the attitudes of the Beat Generation in general and Allen Ginsberg in particular toward American culture of the fifties and sixties. Break into five groups and answer some of the following questions for the Ginsberg poem your group is assigned.

• What does Allen Ginsberg see in American culture? What is his critique? Is there a solution?
• What does Ginsberg see in the counter-culture? How and in what ways does the counter-culture provide an alternative to the dominant culture?
• What does Whitman represent for Ginsberg? How is Whitman's vAmerica (Whitman's vision of America) different from the Ginsberg's America? Can Whitman's American be brought back or infused in the current American scene?
• What role to drugs and visions, angels and demons, and/or sanity and madness play in Ginsberg's poetry?

1. Howl, Section 1
2. Howl, Section 2
3. Howl, Section 3
4. "A Supermarket in California"
5. "Sunflower Sutra"

Selected Reading

The Norton Anthology offers over 150 pages of writing by Whitman. I encourage you to read all of these poems, but we'll only have time to examine a limited number of them in class. Please be prepared to discuss the following texts.

 

Walt Whitman

Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855)

"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

"Song of Myself" (1881) [note: not the 1855 version]

Study Questions

It's easy to get behind in a fast-moving survey course. In order to actively keep up with the reading and prepare for class discussion, I suggest the following strategy:

1. Read the author biographies in the Norton anthology, for they often frame the themes of the selected texts.
2. Peruse anthology's companion website, Anthology of American Literature.
3. Take notes while you're reading, either in the margins or in a notebook (highlighting doesn't count).
4. Record at least three significant or favorite passages for each work.
5. Read your peers' discussion board responses on Blackboard.
6. Answer the study questions, which will typically be available the Friday before the work will be discussed. I suggest writing a short, informal response and citing key passages in the text that support your response.

Actively keeping up with the reading in this manner will serve you well on the papers and exams.

• Walt Whitman
  • According to the Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855), what is the role of the poet in American society? Do you think he achieves that function in "Song of Myself"?
• Emily Dickinson
  • Judging from her poetry, how do you think Dickinson lives her life? What is Dickinson's relationship with life? According to her mindset, how are life and death related? How does her world view contrast with Whitman's?
• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • Do a character sketch of Huck Finn. Who is he? What kind of person is he? What does he want out of life? Why does he do what he does? What does he fear?
  • Compare and contrast Huck's relationship with the Widow Douglas and with Miss Watson. Compare and contrast his relationship with Pap and with Jim. Does this have any relationship to the identities he assumes?
  • Compare and contrast Huck's shams with the Duke and Dolphin's and with Tom Sawyer's. What kind of morality does Huck have at the beginning of his story as compared to the end. What does the story suggest about the American brand of morality and civilization?
• Henry James, "Daisy Miller: A Study"
  • First, contrast James's narrator with Twain's. What kind of realism does James create as opposed to Twain? Second, characterize the Americans abroad, Daisy Miller and Frederick Wintermute. What particularly American issues of gender, class, and age does the story portray?
• Sarah Orne Jewett, "A White Heron"
  • What makes this a regional story? What are the hierarchical polarities that Jewett sets up in Sylvia's character as well as between Sylvia and the ornithologist?
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wall-paper"
  • Despite the story's fantastical flourishes, it remains an example of realism. Why? At first glance, this story seems to be very straightforward and didactic, like Jewett's. What is the moral? On the other hand, it is also ambiguous. In what ways is its lesson ambivalent
• Kate Chopin, The Awakening
  • Day 1: Define Edna's awakening. What is she waking from and what is she awakening into? Define Edna's desire. How does it compare with Madame Ratignolle's or Mademoiselle Reisz's?
  • Day 2: Why does Edna make the choice that she does? Compare her choice with Daisy Miller's, Sylvia's in "A White Heron," and the narrator's in "The Yellow Wall-paper." What does this say about the role of women at the turn of the century? about women's literary imagination?
• Booker T. Washington, from Up from Slavery
  • How does Washington characterize the feelings of (former) slaves toward whites? Why and how does Washington reconcile the races?
• W. E. B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk
  • What are Sorrow Songs? In what three ways does Du Bois think that Washington is wrong in his policies on race relations? If Washington's concern is educational/financial, what is Du Bois'?
• Robert Frost
  • Does nature make Frost happy? What does nature inspire Frost to think about? How does Frost's poetry illustrate the modernist worldview?
• Wallace Stevens
  • What is the relationship between reality and the imagination? between nature and culture? between physics and metaphysics? How does poetry compose reality?
• Hart Crane
  • Describe Crane's conflicted attitude toward America in The Bridge. What does he appreciate about our past? What does he criticize and valorize about the present modernity?
• Claude McKay
  • What are roots? In McKay's mind—in McKay's poetry—how does his heritage affect his current cultural situation and vice versa?
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Babylon Revisited"
  • What were the Twenties like for Americas abroad? What are they like in the story's present time of the early Thirties? Contrast Charlie's past behavior, lifestyle, and world view with his present behavior, lifestyle, and world view.
• Ernest Hemingway, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"
  • How does Hemingway's laconic writing style complement Harry's alienation and repression? How does Harry feel about love, the war, his life, his writing?
• William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
  • Day 1: Why is this story told from so many points of view? What is the effect of telling the story from so many perspectives? How does this narrative fragmentation correspond with the family disfunction? What is the significance of the title?
  • Day 2: Compare and contrast the Tyrones and the Bundrens, particularly in terms of the father and mother figures.
• Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night
  • Day 1: Sketch each of the characters. What are their core fears, desires, conflicts? How do each of them relate to the past?
  • Day 2: Describe the Tyrone family unit. What unites and divides them? How might the breakdown of the family mirror the modernism breakdown we've been discussing?
• John Berryman
  • What is Berryman's view of the world? What is Henry's view of the world? Why might Berryman create a poetic alter ego, and how does that alter ego effect the confessional tone of Berryman's poems?
• Sylvia Plath
  • Would you characterize Plath's poetry as confessional? What does she confess? Does she absolve herself, or asked another way, does she resolve anything?
• Allen Ginsberg
  • How does Ginsberg feel about American society in such poems as "Howl" and "A Supermarket in California"? How does he bridge a pre-modernist poet like Whitman with modernist poets like Frost and Stevens?
• David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross
  • On the one hand, how does the play play into the culture of narcissism we've been discussing? On the other hand, in what ways does the play criticize the business and financial pressures that compel people to act so greedily?
• Amiri Baraka, "Dutchman"
  • What is Baraka saying about African-American male identity? What is he suggesting about race relations? How and why does the drama play on both African-American and white stereotypes?
• Toni Morrison, "Recitatif"
  • What does the story suggest about race relations during childhood vs during adulthood? What does the story theorize about the nature of memory and, by extension, our postmodern identity?
• Leslie Marmon Silko, "Lullaby"
  • Describe what white culture does to Indian culture by looking at the specific instance of Ayah's family. Compare and contrast Silko's use of memory and identity in this story with Morrison's in "Recitatif."
• John Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse"
  • Why does the narrator included metafictional commentary about the nature of writing stories? How does the metafiction correlate with Ambrose's coming-of-age tale? What does the funhouse metaphorically and symbolically represent?
• Robert Coover, "The Babysitter"
  • Delineate the story's multiple and opposing narratives. Why might the utilize these multiple perspectives? What does it suggest about the nature of reality and storytelling in postmodern culture?
• A. M. Homes, Music for Torching
  • Why do Elaine and Paul torch their home? Why do they have affairs? Why do they need perfection and comfort? How do the last twenty pages of the novel change its stakes and theme? What does the novel suggest about contemporary suburban life and culture?

Peer Response

1. Goals

As this is Supplemental Writing Skills course, you have the opportunity to revise your two formal papers based upon comments by your peers and myself. You will provide constructive criticism to 3 or 4 other members of the class as will they to you. Take this opportunity to re-see and hone your papers, not only in terms of grammar and style but analytical content.

• Exchange papers (formatted in Word or Rich-Text format only, not Works) with your group via Blackboard > Groups > Paper # - Group # > File Exchange.
• Provide me with your peer responses (to be graded as part of your Informal Writing gade) via Blackboard > Assignments > Paper # Peer Response. Copy and paste all responses into one document before submitting.
• Provide your peers with your responses by printing out all of their papers and your response. You may also upload the response to your group page in Blackboard.

2. Peer Response Groups

• Paper 1: Short Paper Peer Response Groups
• Group 1: Katie Aasland, Shelly Mumah, Mitchell Rowland, Shareeda Terry, Sarah Vanuffelen
• Group 2: Wendy Lamberts, Angela Lang, Ryan Nystuen, Carrie Palmer, Ashley Stewart
• Group 3: Kristina Boes, Amanda Brzezicki, Kate Geskus, Tim Rasler, Joni Roach
• Group 4: Megan Bowen, Amanda Brower, Gary Nye, Claire Walsh
  
• Group 5: Matt Chicola, Danielle Engle, Julia Grandy, Mike Schmit
• Paper 2: Research Paper Peer Response Groups
  • Group 1: Katie Aasland, Kristina Boes, Megan Bowen, Matt Chicola, Wendy Lamberts
  • Group 2: Amanda Brower, Amanda Brzezicki, Angela Lang, Shelly Mumah, Mike Schmit
  • Group 3: Kate Geskus, Danielle Engle, Julia Grandy, Ryan Nystuen, Mitchell Rowland
  • Group 4: Carrie Palmer, Tim Rasler, Shareeda Terry, Claire Walsh
  • Group 5: Gary Nye, Joni Roach, Ashley Stewart, Sarah Vanuffelen
    

3. Written Peer Response

Answer the following questions as you formulate your one page, double-spaced response to each peer's paper. Because these peer response papers and sessions help your peers revise their papers and thus improve their grade, it is very important that you offer the best constructive criticism in the strongest possible terms, both in writing and in the group meeting. Do not simply say that a peer's paper is okay. Even if you find no problems, engage a dialogue with the paper's interpretation.

• Style and Grammar
  • Does the paper follow the formal and stylistic guidelines of the Modern Language Association? Does it maintain 1-inch margins, a header, double-spacing, etc.? Does it properly quote and cite sources?
  • Mark grammatical, usage, and typographical/computer errors. However, if they are so frequent that you're doing more marking than reading, write a general note to the author explaining that fact.
• Thesis
  • What is the writer's thesis?
  • Is the thesis sufficiently complex and complicated, in other words, does it break down general issues to their nuanced parts?
  • Does the paper cut to the quick of the core conflicts and ideas of the work of literature?
• Argument and Interpretation
  • What evidence does the paper use to argue its case?
  • Does the paper state more than the obvious, general reading and make complex and sophisticated interpretations of the work?
  • Does the paper convince you of its interpretation of the work of literature? Why or why not?
• Organization
  • Does each paragraph advance, support, and/or develop the controlling thesis?
  • Do the paper's paragraphs and/or sections build upon and/or follow each other in logical, effective ways?
• Voice
  • Does the paper use a formal, strong, and authoritative voice adequate to its interpretation?
  • Does the paper represent the voice of the work of literature fairly?
• Successes and Weaknesses
  • Where is the paper most successful? least?
  • What does it do right? Where does it need work?
• Quality and Creativity
  • Is the paper of sound quality and caliber?
  • Does the paper approach its text in innovative, original ways?

4. Verbal Peer Response

In the peer response meeting, group members will share their responses in verbal form. Writers take turns listening to their group members review their work. Specifically, the group should go around the circle and address the following issues. The process should take 7-10 minutes per writer and last 35-50 minutes depending on the size of the group.

• Paper 1: Short Paper
  1. Thesis: What is the paper's thesis or controlling idea?
  2. Comparison: Does the paper effectively compare and contrast the two works while defining their version of modernism?
  3. Anything Else: What other revisionary comments do peers have about the paper?
• Paper 2: Research Paper
  1. Thesis: What is the paper's thesis or controlling idea?
  2. Research: Does the paper effectively analyze the work while using research to help make its case?
  3. Anything Else: What other revisionary comments do peers have about the paper?

Discussion Board Response

Blackboard Post: You will respond to a reading, and post your response to our course discussion board at Blackboard > Discussion Board. The response should

• be formatted in Word or Rich-Text Format (not Works) only according to the MLA styled template,
• be 2 double-spaced pages long,
• show your active engagement in the text's issues (don't simply summarize the text, tentatively analyze and interpret its meaning; if you've signed up for a poet, feel free to closely read just one or two poems),
• help your peers understand the text by pointing out key issues, and
• broach issues for class discussion.

Informal Presentation: You will also be responsible for a brief, informal presentation which introduces the key issues and possible themes of the text as you see them and also broaches issues for class discussion.

 

Due Dates:

1. Your discussion board response will be due in Blackboard > Discussion Board on the Wednesday before we discuss an essay in class. If you do not submit your response to Blackboard before the text is discussed in class, you will fail the assignment.
2. Your brief, informal presentation will be due on the day we discuss the reading in class. This date is approximate for we sometimes fall a day behind.
3. I will return your graded response to you in Blackboard > My Grades > Discussion Board Response by the Friday of the week we discussed the article in class.
4. For example, we are scheduled to discuss James on Monday, 9-11. Therefore, John Doe's summary will be due in Blackboard > Discussion Board by Wednesday, 9-6. In class on Monday, 9-11, John will informally present his reading of James' story and I will grade his response and return it to him Blackboard > My Grades > Discussion Board Response by Friday, 9-15.

Note: It is your responsibility to remember to post your response on time.

 

Blackboard Due Date	Presentation Due Date (approximate)	Reading	Student
M, 9-4	W, 9-6	Twain	Sarah Vanuffelen
W, 9-6	M, 9-11	James	Shelly Mumah
	W, 9-13	Jewett	Mitchell Rowland
W, 9-13	M, 9-18	Gilman	Shareeda Terry
		Chopin	Katie Aasland
			Wendy Lamberts
W, 9-20	M, 9-25	Washington
		Du Bois	Angela Lang
	W, 9-27	Frost	Ashley Stewart
W, 9-27	W, 10-4	Stevens	Carrie Palmer
		Crane	Amanda Brzezicki
W, 10-4	M, 10-9	McKay	Ryan Nystuen
	W, 10-11	Fitzgerald	Gary Nye
		Hemingway	Kate Geskus
W, 10-11	M, 10-16	Faulkner	Kristina Boes
			Joni Roach
W, 10-18	M, 10-23	O'Neill	Tim Rasler
W, 10-25	M, 10-30	Berryman	Amanda Brower
W, 11-1	M, 11-6	Plath
	W, 11-8	Ginsberg	Megan Bowen
W, 11-8	M, 11-13	Mamet	Claire Walsh
	W, 11-15	Baraka	Julia Grandy
W, 11-15	M, 11-20	Morrison	Danielle Engle
		Silko	Mike Schmit
W, 11-22	M, 11-27	Barth
	W, 11-29	Coover
W, 11-29	M, 4-17	Homes	Matt Chicola

In-Class Exam

The first exam will consist of two essays answered in one 75 minute class period. One essay will ask you to discuss two authors with respect to their literary period; another essay will pose a thematic question. The goal of the exam is for you show your understanding of literary periods and the transition between periods by being able to make comparisons and contrasts among works of literature. Although you will not have to write about every author we have covered, you should be prepared to effectively discuss most of them:

1. Walt Whitman, poetry
2. Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
3. Sarah Orne Jewett, "A White Heron"
4. Henry James, "Daisy Miller: A Study"
5. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wall-paper"
6. Kate Chopin, The Awakening
7. Booker T. Washington, from Up from Slavery
8. W. E. B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk

If I were preparing for this exam, I would create and review a separate page of notes for each period and movement consisting of the following:

• lists the time period's major socio-cultural concerns
• notes how the movement reacts to its time period in terms of its own literary issues
• charts the paramount literary style as well as the intent or reasoning for that approach

I would also create and review a page of notes for each author consisting of the following:

• for stories, chart the main characters' core conflicts and actions; for poems, note the core conflicts
• note the key conflicts and themes
• determine how the author/text complements and transgresses the period or movement
• select signicant passages that represent the core conflicts and theme (if you cannot memorize them, being able to paraphrase will be of invaluable help on the exam)

Although you could simply review your original class notes, I advise composing these set of notes for doing so attunes your thinking and writing process to the cause of the exam in a much more active way than using old notes. Constructing notes is prewriting for the essay exam.

Short Paper

While the midterm exam tested your ability to make thematic connections and distinction within an in-class, timed setting, the short paper asks you to continue that process—but at home and with less authors to juggle. Choose two modernist authors (Frost through O'Neill) who share a common theme or issue and write a short paper that 1) defines modernism through their writing while 2) also comparing and contrasting their theme, issue, or conflict. This paper is part exam in that it requires you to define the period and make comparisons and part paper in that it expects a certain specificity of thesis and level of analysis not afforded by timed exams. Moreover, as this is an SWS course, you will be given feedback on your first draft and allowed to revise.

• Length: 4-5 pages
• If either your first or second draft does not meet the length requirement, the second, graded draft will be penalized.
• Format: MLA style in a Word or Rich-Text Format.
• Here is an MLA styled template for Microsoft Word.
• Due Dates
• Wednesday, October 25
• Draft 1 is due to me via Blackboard > Assignments > Paper 1, Draft 1.
• Draft 1 is due to your peer response group via Blackboard > Groups > Paper 1 - Group # > File Exchange.
• Wednesday, November 1
• Electronic: Peer Responses are due to me via Blackboard > Assignments > Paper 1 Peer Response. Be sure to attach all of the the files at once before clicking the Submit button.
• Print Out: Peer responses are due to your peers via print out (print out the entire paper and peer response) and, if you wish, Blackboard > Groups > Paper 1 - Group # > File Exchange.
• Wednesday, November 8
• Draft 2 is due to me only via Blackboard> Assignments > Paper 1, Draft 2.

Research Paper

You've explored authors and their works in study questions and class discussion. You've come to general conclusions about the nature of the realist and regionalist period in the first exam; and you've worked with two modernist authors in the short paper. Now, you can devote an entire paper to one author, to one work. Select a work of literature (or two or three closely related poems, or short stories) that we've read in class, but not one on which your your short paper focused. See me if you want to pursue a text not covered. In a focused, thesis-driven paper, rigorously interpret and analyze that piece using specific textual evidence (i.e., quotes) and literary research (3-4 scholarly journal articles, books, or book chapters) to support your argument. Although this is a research paper, the emphasis should be on your ideas, your way of reading the text; the research is necesary but of secondary importance: do not let it overwhelm your voice. I'll be glad to discuss paper topics with you at any time.

• Length: 6-8 pages
  • Your paper will be penalized one-third of a letter grade if it does not end at least halfway down on the sixth page while implementing 12 pt Times New Roman font, double-spacing, and 1" margins. If it does not end at least halfway down on the fifth page, it will be penalized two-thirds of a letter grade. Since you are expected to write a complete paper on the first draft, the length penalty will carry over to the second draft grade.
• Style: MLA style
• One-third of a letter grade will be deducted for problems in each of the following two categories: 1) margins, 2) font size/style and line-spacing, and 3) quoting and citing. Before you turn in a formal paper, make sure your work follows MLA style by referring to my FAQ on papers and using the checklist on the MLA style handout. Correct MLA style in the second draft will void the first draft's MLA style penalty.
• Format
  • Your paper must be formatted in either Microsoft Word or Rich-Text Format.
• Due Dates
• Draft 1: Monday, November 20
• Draft 1 is due to me via Blackboard > Assignments > Paper 1 Draft 1.
• Draft 1 is due to your peer response group either in print or Blackboard > Groups > Paper 2 - Group # > File Exchange.
• Peer Response: Monday, November 27
• Peer Responses are due to me via Blackboard > Assignments > Paper 2 Peer Response. Copy and paste all responses into one document before submitting.
• You must print your peer responses for your peers. You may also upload your responses to Blackboard > Groups > Paper 2 - Group # > File Exchange.
• Draft 2: Monday, December 4
• Should you choose to revise, you must submit a one or two paragraph statement describing what you learned about your first draft from your peers and professor, what stylistic and substantive changes you made in the second draft, and how your interpretation re-envisioned the text in the second draft.
• Draft 2 and accompanying revision statement are due to me only via Blackboard> Assignments > Paper 2 Draft 2.
• Grade
  • You will be assessed on your understanding of the text, your ability to analytically interpret the text, your thesis, and your use of scholarly criticism to support your analysis.

Take-Home Exam

Although our class has some writing issues with constructing theses and working with research, it nonetheless has done very well with comparing and contrasting ideas and themes. Therefore, the take-home exam will be optional. To help you decide if you wish to take the exam, regular and alternate grade distributions follow. For my part, I will grade the second draft of all research papers by Thursday night, December 7 and inform you what your final grade in the course would be if you decided not to take the final exam. Go to Blackboard > My Grades > Research Paper Final Grade.

 

Grade Distribution with Exam	Grade Distribution without Exam
discussion board response, 5% peer response, 5% in-class exam, 20% take-home exam, 25% short paper, 20% research paper, 25%	discussion board response, 5% peer response, 5% in-class exam, 30% short paper, 30% research paper, 30%

 

While the first exam required you to examine authors in a timed, closed book setting, the take-home final exam allows you one week to formulate your comparative discussion of four authors using the textual evidence an open book exam affords. Answer either two essay questions from Group A or just one essay question from Group B. Use an individual author only once in the exam. Organize essays by argument and analysis. Have a controlling idea, an interpretation, a thesis that bridges the authors. Support your points with textual evidence (explanation, paraphrase, and/or quotes) but avoid plot summary. Make connections and distinctions between the texts; in other words, compare and contrast the authors and their world views.

• Group A: Two Essays Using Two Authors Each
  • Modernist/Postmodernist Genre Study: Compare and contrast the worldviews and forms of one modernist (Frost, Stevens, Crane, McKay, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, O'Neill) and one postmodernist (Berryman, Plath, Ginsberg, Mamet, Baraka, Morrison, Silko, Barth, Coover, Homes) regarding one genre—fiction, poetry, or drama. For example, compare and contrast one modernist play (O'Neill's), in terms of theme and style, with one postmodernist play (Mamet's or Baraka's). Or, you could do fiction (Faulkner vs Homes or Hemingway vs Barth). Or, you could do poetry (Stevens vs Berryman or Crane vs Ginsberg). The important thing to do is compare and contrast the authors in terms of the themes and style of their respective periods.
  • Identity and Individuality: Compare and contrast how two postmodern authors (Berryman, Plath, Ginsberg, Mamet, Baraka, Morrison, Silko, Barth, Coover, Homes) view identity and individuality. You could, for instance, compare and contrast Mamet's view of competive, hierarchical masculinity with Baraka’s use and abuse of stereotypical identity. Or, you could contrast Berryman or Plath’s confessional identity with Ginsberg’s. Or, you could make an interesting combination of your own.
  • Sexual Dynamics: Compare and contrast the sexual dynamics or gender battles and identities in the works of two authors we've read since the short paper (Berryman, Plath, Ginsberg, Mamet, Baraka, Morrison, Silko, Barth, Coover, Homes). You could, for instance, compare and contrast the fantastical yet embattled status of women in Coover, Plath, and/or Baraka. Or, you could compare and contrast the idea of masculinity in Mamet and Baraka. Or you could compare the dysfunctional sexualities in Coover and Homes. Or, you could implement an interesting comparison and contrast of your own.
  • A Theme of One's Own: Examine a theme to two authors who we've read since the last exam (Berryman, Plath, Ginsberg, Mamet, Baraka, Morrison, Silko, Barth, Coover, Homes). For example, you could examine the use and abuse of psyche in O'Neill, Morrison, and/or Palahniuk. Or you could analyze a theme of your choosing.
• Group B: One Essay Using Four Authors
  • American Literature II : Using four authors (one realist/regionalist, one modernist, and two postmodernists), discuss how American literature has changed thematically and formally since 1865 by tracing, i.e., comparing and contrasting, how a single topic is treated over the last 140 years. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, race, gender, reality, representation, identity. Possible questions include, but are not limited to: How do racial issues change from Twain's time to Morrison’s? How do gender roles and/or sexual dynamics change from Chopin to Homes? What transformations does the American family undergo from Chopin to Homes? How does the nature of identity change from Gilman to Barth? How do the representation of reality and reality of representation evolve from realism, through modernism, and to postmodernism? You may also trace an interesting issue of your own choosing.
• Length: 6-8 pages
  • Write either 3-4 pages each for both essays in Group A, or 6-8 pages for the only essay in Group B.
• Format: MLA style in Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, OpenOffice, or Rich-Text Format.
• Due Date: The exam is due via Blackboard > Assignments > Take-Home Exam by Thursday, December 14.
  • If I do not receive your exam in Blackboard by 11:59PM on Thursday, December 14, I will assume that you are exercising the option of not taking it.
• Grades, Comments, and Paper Return:
• You can access your final grade in the course via the Registrar after Monday, December 18.
• If you want comments, please ask for them. If you do request comments, you can access your graded exam in Blackboard >My Grades > Take-Home Exam Feedback after Monday, December 18.