Assignments
American Literary Consciousness from Huck Finn to Americana
English 226C: American Literature II: from 1860
Winter 2007, Thursday 6:00-8:50PM, 2113 AuSable Hall
In Class Activities
1. Dickinson
Since we have a large class that meets only once per week, I've designed an
in-class activity for us to introduce ourselves to one another, commence our
analysis of Emily Dickinson, compare Dickinson with Whitman, and generate a
spirit of class participation. Break into groups of three or four, discuss
the poem assigned to your group, and answer the three questions.
241 [I like a look of Agony,]
448 [This was a Poet!—It is that]
650 [Pain—has an Element of Blank—]
1129 [Tell all the truth but tell it slant—]
- What is the core conflict of the poem?
- What is the theme of the poem?
- How do Dickinson's conflicts and themes compare to the issues and ideas
of Whitman that we've just discussed?
2. 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 America (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?
- Howl, Section 1
- Howl, Section 2
- Howl, Section 3
- "A Supermarket in California"
- "America"
3. Williams: Memories, Menageries, and Movies
In an effort to break up the long period and put more responsibility on your
shoulders, today we are going to break into five groups for about 20
minutes in order to tackle some key themes in Williams'
The Glass Menagerie.
Here is each group's task:
- Character: Amanda: 1) Do a character sketch of Amanda that 2) highlights
her core conflict by 3) selecting the most significant section of dialogue.
4) Write a thesis statement for a possible paper on the theme of the play
focusing on Amanda's character.
- Character: Tom: 1)
Do a character sketch of Tom that 2) highlights his core conflict by 3) selecting
the most significant section of dialogue. 4) Write a thesis statement for
a possible paper on the theme of the play focusing on Tom's character.
- Character: Laura: 1) Do a character sketch of Laura that 2) highlights
her core conflict by 3) selecting the most significant section of dialogue.
4) Write a thesis statement for a possible paper on the theme of the play
focusing on Laura's character.
- Symbol: Menageries, Movies, and Gum : 1) Determine what the glass
menagerie, movies (or better yet, the fire escape), and gum represent for Laura, Tom, and Jim, respectively.
2) Write a thesis statement for a possible
paper that compares and contrasts what these symbols of illusion mean for
the theme of the play.
- Idea: Memory and Time: 1) List Amanda, Tom, and Laura's relationships
with and/or attitudes toward memory and time and 2) select the most important
dialogue regarding these ideas. 3) Write a thesis statement for a possible
paper that uses memory and time as its theme.
4. Albee, Vonnegut, Silko, Wilson
Break into five groups, discuss the issue assigned to your group, and then
present your answers to the rest of the class.
- Albee's Contemporary Communion: Compare and contrast The Hairy
Ape's Yank's search for belonging and zoo symbol with Jerry's desire
for "contact"—"to understand and just possibly be
understood"—and zoo symbol. How is modern life in the
1920s similar to yet different from contemporary life in the 1960s through
the present?
- Vonnegut's Sexual Dystopia: What social oppressions does the authoritarian
government in the story practice and, more importantly, why does it practice
them? If Vonnegut were to write this story today, 39 years later, what
would he keep and what would he change in order to maintain his critique
of American culture's sexual pathology?
- Silko's Hybridity: How do Native American traditions and American
Catholicism interact in "The Man to Send Rain Clouds"? In what
ways is the narrator of "Coyote Holds a Full House in His Hand" decidedly
Native American, and in what ways does the typical American dream define
him?
- Wilson's Fathers and Sons: Compare and contrast the play's father
and son relationships. What is the play saying about fatherhood in general
and African-American fatherhood in particular?
- Wilson's Responsibility and Storytelling: Discuss the conflict
between responsibility on the one hand and dreaming, storytelling, lottery
playing, sports playing, drinking, philandering and so forth on the other
hand. By the end of the play, what is our attitude toward Rose? toward
Troy? What is the play's theme regarding the conflict between practicality
and illusion?
5. DeLillo's America
"America can be saved only by what it’s
trying to destroy" (256). What is America trying to destroy? What can
save David, us? Americana is a big novel with big themes. For our
final discussion we'll need everyone's input. In five groups, we'll break
down the novel in terms of structure, identity, death, media, and a comparison
with Huck Finn and then reconstruct the larger import of the novel as a class.
- Structure
- Outline what happens in each
of the four numbered Parts of the book. Where does David Bell start (physically,
psychologically, professionally) in Part One, where does he flashback
to in Part Two, what does he do in Part Three, and what happens to him
in Part Four?
- Part One of the novel commences, "Then we came to the end of another
dull and lurid year" (3) and continues in the next chapter, "I had
almost the same kind of relationship with my mirror that many of my contemporaries
had with their analysts. When I began to wonder who I was, I took the
simple step of lathering my face and shaving. It became so clear, so
wonderful. I was blue-eyed David Bell. Obviously my life depended on
this fact" (11). Part Four of the novel commences, "I am falling silently
through myself" (345) and concludes, "At
Love Field I turned in the car and bought a gift for Merry. Then, with
my American Express credit card, I booked a seat on the first flight
to New York. Ten minutes after we were airborne a woman asked for my
autograph" (377).
Is the structure of this novel, David's journey, circular? regressive,
or something else?
- Identity
- What is a schizogram, first introduced on page 22, later mentioned
that Pike was a "living schizogram" (51), and finally used
to classify David's own film (347)? What does it say about David's view
of the world? about the nature of hyperreality in this multi-mediated
culture? What does it say about David's own mind?
- Relationships: Analyze David's relationship with Meredith, his mistresses,
and Sully. What is David's sexual/relationship problem?
- To Jennifer I remained unrevealed. I refused to give her any sense
of myself and I can only guess the reason, that I needed every ego-scrap,
that I feared my own disappearance. To say I took advantage of her
love would be much too mild an indictment. (41)
- "What caused the divorce."
"My image began to blur. This became a problem for both of us. However,
we have continued to be very fond of each other. Divorce is a wonderful invention,
much better than protracted separation or murder. It destroys tension. It liberates
many wholesome emotions which had bee tyrannized by the various mental cruelties.
Divorce is the most educating route to a deep understanding between two people.
It’s the second and most important step in arriving at a truly radiant
form of self-donative love. Marriage, of course, is the first step." (284-5)
- It stopped raining and the fantasies came out to play. Your home
movie had put you in a state of anguish. I tried to console you.
You wanted to be drenched in sin and so I made it my business to
help you along. Old friends have obligations to each other. David,
I truly love you and hate you. I love you because you’re
a beautiful thing and a good boy. You’re more innocent than
a field mouse and I don’t believe you have any evil in you,
if that’s possible. And I hate you because you’re sick.
Illness to a certain point inspires pity. Beyond that point it becomes
hateful. It becomes very much like a personal insult. One wishes
to destroy the sickness by destroying the patient. You’re such
a lovable cliché, my love, and I do hope you’ve found
the center of your sin, although I must say that nothing we did last
night struc me as being so terribly odd. (336)
- Family: Do character sketches of David's dead and probably delusion
mother, Bataan Death March veteran and advertising executive father ("I
wished he were dead. It was the first honest thought which had entered
my mind all day. My freedom depended on his death" [85]), disowned mobster-marrying
sister, and soccer mom sister; and then describe David's relationship
with his family. In what ways do his father and mother create him, his
melancholy?
- Work: Given his film student beginnings and the political absurdities
of office life, how does David (and how do we) regard his career? How
does his profession affect his psyche?
- Art: In what ways does the (blank) novelist Brand serve as a foil for
ex-filmmaker and current television executive David? How does Brand
contrast with and perhaps even correct the problems of American
culture?
- The rain had stopped and we had dinner in a fishnet restaurant
and then set out on foot to search for Bobby Brand’s ascetic
garage, Brand in exile, Brand junkless, Brand writing the novel that
would detonate in the gut of America like a fiery bacterial bombshell.
(112)
- He represented the danger that was lacking in my life, real
danger, not the plastic stuff available in great quantities at the
network or the celluloid peril of those movie roles with which I
challenged the premise of my marriage. (113-4)
- What does David seek to accomplish with his avant-garde documentary?
What does he accomplish?
- It’ll be part dream, part fiction, part movies. An attempt
to explore parts of my consciousness. (263)
- In the larger analysis of
his relationships, family, and profession, what is David's core conflict?
What's wrong with him?
- Film, Television, Radio, Advertising
- How does the mass media landscape shape and affect David's psyche,
the postmodern subject?
- There were times when I thought all of us at the network existed
only on videotape. Our words and actions seemed to have a disturbingly
elapsed quality. (23)
- We seemed to be no more than electronic signals and we moved through
time and space with the stutter and shadowed insanity of a TV commercial.
(24)
- I wanted to free myself from that montage of speed, guns, torture,
rape, orgy and consumer packaging which constitutes the vision of
sex in America. (33)
- The movies were giving difficult meanings to
some of the private moments of my life. (35)
- We become documentary. We become newsreels telling what
we think is the truth. (117)
- I hurried toward the hotel, my pockets full of scraps of paper,
index cards, neatly creased sheets, Scotch-taped fragments, throwaways
uncrumpled and hand-pressed, what detritus and joy, a grainy day,
child of Godard and Coca-Cola. (269)
- The camera implies meaning where no meaning exists. (286)
- We're all on tape. All
on tape. All of us. (371)
- Given the warcasts, David's cancelled Soliloquy, and the general
attitude of the office/television network, what is the novel saying about the television
industry's place in American culture?
- "The
important thing is the sound. If we could just get that sound on
the airwaves, just once, I honestly think we could take credit for
expanding the consciousness of our nation to some small degree."
"Yes," Weede Denney said. "It would be almost as good as Ruby
shooting Oswald." (66)
- Taking into account David's father's occupation and characterization, what is the
novel's attitude toward advertising and its influence on our culture?
- Opposite a picture of several decapitated villagers was a full-page
advertisement for a new kind of panty-girdle. (104)
- The dream made no allowance for the truth beneath the symbols,
for the interlinear notes, the presence of something black (and somehow
very funny) at the mirror rim of one’s awareness. This was
difficult at times. But as a boy, and even later, quite a bit later,
I believed all of it, the institutional messages, the psalms and
placards, the pictures, the words. Better living through chemistry.
The Sears, Roebuck catalog. Aunt Jemima. All the impulses of all
the media were fed into the circuitry of my dreams. One thinks of
echoes. One thinks of an image made in the image and likeness of
images. It was that complex. (130)
- "What is the role of commercial television in the twentieth
century and beyond?"
"In my blackest moods I feel it spells chaos for all of us."
"How do you get over these moods?" I said.
"I take a mild and gentle Palmolive bath, brush my teeth with Crest, swallow
two Sominex tablets, and try desperately to fall asleep on my Simmons
Beautyrest mattress."
"Thank you." (274)
- What is the relationship between advertising, television, and the American
dream?
- "The TV set is a package and it’s full of products.
Inside are detergents, automobiles, cameras, breakfast cereal, other
television sets. Programs are not interrupted by commercials; exactly
the reverse is true. A television set is an electronic form of packaging.
It’s
as simple as that. Without the products there’s nothing. Educational
television’s a joke. Who in America would want to watch TV
without commercials?"
"How does a successful television commercial affect the viewer?"
"It makes him want to change the way he lives."
"In what way?" I said.
"It moves him from first person consciousness to third person. In this
country there is a universal third person, the man we all want to
be. Advertising has discovered this man. It uses him to express the possibilities
open to the consumer. To consume in America is not to buy; it is to dream.
Advertising is the suggestion that the dream of entering the third person singular
might possibly be fulfilled." (270)
- What is the place of art in contemporary American cultural landscape,
in the mind of the postmodern subject?
- Like all those who loiter around talent I tended to overpraise
Sullivan and to consider her work one of the essential measures in
the salvation of the republic, and it did not seem impossible to
me that Indiana might rise to new spiritual heights thanks to Sullivan’s
three pieces of carefully handcrafted afterbirth. (106)
- The movie functions best as a sort of ultimate schizogram, an exercise
in diametrics which attempts to unmake meaning. I like to touch the
film. I like to watch it move through the projector. This is my success.
Sullivan and Brand, in their surgical candor, taught me to fear and
envy the artist. (Brand, of course, as it turned out, was a writer
of blank pages. That’s how I think of him, definitely a novelist,
by all means a craftsman of high talent—but one who chose words
of the same color as the paper on which they were written.) I wanted
to become an artist, as I believed them to be, an individual willing
to deal in the complexities of truth. I was most successful. I ended
in silence and darkness, sitting still, a maker of objects that imitate
my predilection. (347)
- Death
- David's (and America's) preoccupation with death is a central issue
of the novel.
- "I'm dying, David."
"Don’t generalize, Wendy." (25)
- We must draw up a blueprint for dying. (142)
- One of these days some smart copywriter will perceive the true
inner mystery of America and develop an offshoot to the slice-of-life.
The slice-of-death. (272)
- Discuss Warren Beasely's "Death Is Just Around
the Corner" radio show, first introduced on page 93 with a final
taped monologue of it provided on page 365.
- Describe Warburton's (aka Trotsky, aka the Mad Memo
Writer) philosophy of life and death.
- "We are endlessly dying," Warburton said. "We
begin dying when we are born. A short time later we die. By universal
consent, more or less, this is known as death. In time the so-called
resurrection of the body takes place. Soul and body become joined
in what we have already defined as the state of death. But although
we are in the state of death we are not dead because body and soul
are intact once again and there is no recourse but to resume the
process of dying. Or, if you will, the process of living—the
words are interchangeable really. And since this process of dying
goes on for all eternity we cannot be said to be waiting for death.
Nor are we looking back on something which is not there but here.
In this paradoxical, redundant and somewhat comical passage, what
Augustine is getting at beyond all the gibberish is that death
never dies and that man shall remain forever in the state of death.
(100-1)
- Discuss the relationship between war (Vietnam War and World War II)
and media mores in the postmodern era.
- The war was on television every night but we all went to the
movies. Soon most of the movies began to look alike and we went
into dim rooms and turned on or off, or watched others turn on
or off, or burned joss sticks and listened to taps of near silence.
(5)
- Opposite a picture of several decapitated villagers was a full-page
advertisement for a new kind of panty-girdle. (104)
- "What do you think of the war?" I said.
"
I’ve seen it on television. It’s sponsored by instant coffee
among other things. The commercials are very tasteful in keeping with the serious
theme of the program’s content." (284)
- They hadn’t gotten us
into this. We had, our generals had, or our country which treasured
the sacrifice of its sons, making slogans out of their death and
selling war bonds with it or soap for all we knew. (297)
- Does the novel valorize or criticize the culture of chemical consumerism and deadly violence that America has become?
- We want to wallow in the terrible gleaming mudcunt of Mother
America. (That’s what [Black Knife] said.) We want to come
to terms with the false anger we so often display at the increasing
signs of sterility and violence in our culture. Kill the old brownstones
and ornate railroad terminals. Kill the rotten stinking smalltown
courthouses. Blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Blow up Nantucket. Blow
up the Blue Ridge Parkway. We must realize we are living in Megamerica.
Neon, fiber glass, Plexiglass, polyurethane, Mylar, Acrylite. (119)
- One of the important things money buys is speed. Speed and a
glimpse of death. (147)
- What the heck, this is America. Bad as it is, we have
to learn to live with it. (220)
- How might film offer an alternative to death if artistically pursued?
- The
possibilities of film seemed unlimited. Through the camera lens
passed the light of a woman’s body. I felt I could do things
never done before. A hawk glanced off the sun and I plucked it
out of space and placed it in the new era, free of history and
death. (33)
- Does the commune offer an authentic alternative to the culture
of death?
- We
don’t
expect to accomplish anything. We just don’t
want to be part of the festival of death outh there. (355)
- From Adventures to Americana
- Compare and contrast David
Bell's American journey to Huck Finn's: "To construct one's
own reality, then bend it to an implausible extreme, was an adventure even
more thrilling than the linguistic free falls of the network" (58). What
does each character learn about himself and America: "There is nothing
more thrilling than the first days of a long journey on wheels into the
slavering mouth of an incredible and restless country" (111)?
- Compare and contrast the conclusions of Americana and The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. What does Huck (fail to) learn? What
does David (fail to) learn: "But in the mirror, these things considered,
I looked not bad. Indeed I remained David Bell" (334)?
- Why does David return to New York? Why does
Huck want to light out of civilization? After reading Americana do
you want to light out or stay? Do you think American can be saved by what
it's trying to destroy?
Selected Reading
The Anthology of American Literature offers over 130 pages of
writing by Whitman and over 40 by Dickinson. 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
"Song of Myself"
"To You"
"One's-Self I Sing"
"I Hear America Singing"
"Poets to Come"
"From Pent-Up Aching Rivers"
"Once I Pass'd through a Populous City"
"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"
"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"
from Democratic Vistas
Emily Dickinson
125 [For each ecastic instant]
241 [I like a look of Agony,]
249 [Wild Nights—Wild Nights!]
258 [There's a certain Slant of light,]
303 [The Soul selects her own Society—]
324 [Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—]
341 [After great pain, a formal feeling comes—]
414 ['Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch,]
435 [Much Madness is divinest Sense—]
441 [This is my letter to the World]
448 [This was a Poet— It is That]
650 [Pain— has an Element of Blank— ]
754 [My life had stood—a Loaded Gun—]
1129 [Tell all the truth but tell it slant—]
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:
- Read the author biographies in the Norton anthology, for they often frame
the themes of the selected texts.
- Peruse anthology's companion website, Anthology
of American Literature.
- Take notes while you're
reading, either in the margins or in a notebook (highlighting doesn't
count).
- Record at least three significant or favorite passages for
each work.
- Read your peers' discussion board responses on Blackboard.
- 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?
- Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, "A New England Nun"
- In what ways is this regionalist? In what ways might it be realist?
Why is Louisa referred to as an uncloistered nun at the end of the story?
- 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?
- Charles Waddell Chesnutt, "The Wife of His Youth"
- Describe Mr. Ryder's race, class, and love interests. Why does he reveal
"the wife of his youth"?
- 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?
- Stephen Crane, "The Open Boat"
- What does this confrontation with nature suggest about individual agency?
Why is the rescuer called a "saint"? Is this term appropriate?
Why or why not?
- Frank Norris, "A Deal in Wheat"
- What does the story suggest about America's changing relationship with
nature? What does the story say about individual agency in an age of
power-brokers and commodity markets?
- Jack London, "The Law of Life" and "To Build a Fire"
- Compare and contrast Koskoosh ("The Law of Life") and the
man's ("To
Build a Fire") attitudes toward their snowy deaths.
- T. S. Eliot
- Describe your experience reading "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
and The Waste Land. How did they make you feel? Why? What
is Eliot's view of love and passion? of the modern world?
- Marianne Moore
- Describe Moore's view of the mind and reality in poems such as "Poetry"
and "The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing."
- Describe Moore's view of how mortality and death affect consciousness
and life in "A Grave."
- Describe Moore's view of (the authors)
of the war in "The Paper
Nautilus" and "In Distrust of Merits."
- William Carlos Williams
- Judging from "Tract," "To Elsie," "At the
Ball Games," and "The Yachts," how does Williams regard
modern culture?
- Countee Cullen
- What does "Heritage" suggest about the attitude of modern
African-Americans to Africa? to America?
- Langston Hughes
- What are the blues and why does Hughes have them? What is the relationship
between the blues and democracy?
-
Ellen Glasgow, "The Difference"
- Discuss the differences between the Victorian woman and the modern
woman.
-
F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" and "Winter
Dreams"
- Describe modern femininity and sexuality in the two stories. Compare
and contrast how the men in the stories regard Bernice and
Judy.
-
William Faulkner, "That Evening Sun"
- Compare the children's attitude toward Nancy's situation with their
mother's attitude. What does the story suggest about the themes of family,
race, and gender in the 1920s and 1930s?
-
Ernest Hemingway, "Big Two-Hearted River"
- Why is Nick camping and fishing? What do the minimalist style and muted
tone suggest about his psychological state?
- Eugene O'Neill, The Hairy Ape
- The play presents a multifaceted debate on the status of the common,
working man. Describe each of the four character's (Paddy, Long, Mildred,
Yank) attitudes toward labor and class?
- 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?
- Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
- Given the atmospheric setting and Tom's narrative
framing of the play, where does this play take place? What
does the play suggest about the function of memory and
illusion? And how is this dreamspace different from, say,
O'Neill's? What about this play is modernist, what postmodernist?
- Leslie Marmon Silko, "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" and "Coyote
Holds a Full House in His Hand"
- How do Native American traditions and American Catholicism
interact in the first story? In what ways is the narrator
of the second story decidedly Native American, and in what
ways does the typical American dream define him?
- Edward Albee, The Zoo Story
- Compare and contrast The Hairy Ape's Yank's
search for belonging and zoo symbol with Jerry's desire
for "contact"—"to understand and just
possibly be understood"—and zoo symbol.
How is modern life in the 1920s similar to yet
different from contemporary life in the 1960s through
the present?
- Kurt Vonnegut, "Welcome to
the Monkey House"
- What social oppressions does the authoritarian government
in the story practice and, more importantly, why does
it practice them? If Vonnegut were to write this story
today, 39 years later, what would he keep and what
would he change in order to maintain his critique of
American culture's sexual pathology?
- August Wilson, Fences
- Fathers and Sons: Compare and contrast
the play's father and son relationships. What is the
play saying about fatherhood in general and African-American
fatherhood in particular?
- Wilson's Responsibility and Storytelling:
Discuss the conflict between responsibility on the
one hand and dreaming, storytelling, lottery playing,
sports playing, drinking, philandering and so forth
on the other hand. By the end of the play, what is
our attitude toward Rose? toward Troy? What is the
play's theme regarding the conflict between practicality
and illusion?
- Don DeLillo, Americana
- Discuss the mediated landscape of contemporary America, a country whose culture is divided and whose fundamental dream is in question. What are David Bell's issues regarding media and identity, family and sexuality, art and commerce?
- Compare and contrast David Bell's American journey with Huck Finn's. What does each character learn about
himself and America? Compare and contrast the conclusions
of Americana and The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn. What does Huck (fail to) learn? What does
David (fail to) learn? Why does David return to New
York? Why does Huck want to light out of civilization? After reading Americana, do you want to light out or stay?
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.
- Peer response grades will be placed in the the second paper draft final
grade and not in the peer response assignment dropbox. The
final peer response grade will be calculated by averaging the peer responses
from both papers.
2. Peer Response Groups
- Paper 1: Short Paper Peer Response Groups
- Group 1: Monica Birchman, Janine Elliott, Benedict Hahnenberg, Megan
McPoland, Kelsey Root
- Group 2:
Dren Briggs, Brittny Heys, Davey Johnson, Dan Kyle, Jeffrey Rosloniec
- Group 3: Tracy Brosseit, Jessica Folkert, Don Ivers, Mandy Noble, Christopher
Scheil
- Group 4: Kristiana Correll, Jon Gano, Susan Plasman,
Allan Vander Laan
- Group 5: Kristin Day, Tiffany Gates, Ben Knight, Shelly Reese, Brad Wancour
- Paper 2: Research Paper Peer Response Groups
- Group 1: Monica Birchman, Brittny Heys, Christopher
Scheil, Brad Wancour
- Group 2: Janine Elliott, Jessica Folkert, Jon Gano, Mandy Noble,
Shelly Reese
- Group 3: Tracy Brosseit, Kristiana Correll, Benedict Hahnenberg,
Ben Knight, Jeffrey Rosloniec
- Group 4: Tiffany Gates, Don Ivers, Davey Johnson, Megan
McPoland, Susan Plasman
- Group 5: Dren Briggs, Kristin Day, Dan Kyle, Kelsey Root, Allan
Vander Laan
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
- Thesis: What is the paper's thesis? Does
it make a defendable claim, control the argument, and structure the
paper?
- Comparison: Does the paper effectively compare and contrast
the two works?
- Anything Else: What other revisionary comments do peers have
about the paper?
- Paper 2: Research Paper
- Thesis: What is the paper's thesis or controlling idea?
- Research: Does the paper effectively analyze the work while
using research to help make its case?
- 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 2-3 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:
- Your discussion board response will be due in Blackboard > Discussion
Board on the Thursday 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.
- 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.
- I will return your graded response to you in Blackboard > My
Grades
> Discussion Board Response by the next class period.
- For example, we are scheduled to discuss James on 1-25.
Therefore, Mandy Noble's summary will be due in Blackboard > Discussion
Board by Thursday, 1-18. In class on Thursday, 1-25, Mandy will informally
present her reading of James's story and I will grade her response and return
it to Blackboard > My
Grades > Discussion Board Response by Thursday, 2-1.
Note: It is your responsibility to remember to post
your response on time.
Blackboard
Due Date |
Presentation
Due Date
(approximate) |
Reading |
Student |
M, 1-15 |
R, 1-18
|
Freeman |
Adrienne Briggs |
Jewett |
Benedict Hahnenberg |
R, 1-18 |
R, 1-25 |
Twain |
Brad Wancour |
James |
Mandy Noble |
R, 1-25 |
R, 2-1 |
Crane |
Brittny Heys |
Norris |
Shelly Reese |
R, 2-1 |
R, 2-8 |
Eliot |
Ben Knight |
Janine L. Elliott |
R, 2-8 |
R, 2-15 |
Moore |
Kristi Correll |
Williams |
|
R, 2-22 |
R, 3-1 |
Cullen |
Megan McPoland |
Hughes |
Don Ivers |
R, 3-8 |
R, 3-15 |
Glasgow |
Jessica Folkhert |
Fitzgerald |
Kristin Day |
R, 3-15 |
R, 3-22 |
O'Neill |
Dan Kyle |
Monica Birchman |
R, 3-22 |
R, 3-29 |
Plath (note: do not respond to the same poems) |
Kelsey Root |
Jeffrey Resloniec |
Ginsberg |
Davey Johnson |
R, 3-29 |
R, 4-5 |
Williams |
Tiffany Gates |
C. Scheil |
R, 4-5 |
R, 4-12 |
Albee |
Susan Plasman |
Wilson |
Jon Gano |
Allan Vander Laan |
R, 4-12 |
R, 4-19 |
DeLillo |
Tracy Brosseit |
|
Short Paper
The goal of the first paper is for you to articulate a general understanding
of an important topic within American literature between the Civil War and
1910 by connecting and differentiating readings. Compare
and contrast two authors (Whitman, Dickinson, Freeman, Jewett, Chestnut, Twain,
James, Crane, Norris, London) on a general topic like (but not limited to)
individuality and agency, society and nature, morality and racism, or gender
and sexuality, by first positing a particular,
comparative yet differential, and argumentative thesis and then proving that
thesis with rigorous analysis of textual evidence. As this is an SWS course,
you will be given feedback on your first draft and allowed to revise if you
so choose.
- Length: 4-6 pages
- If either your first or second draft does not meet the length requirement,
the final grade will be penalized.
- Format: MLA
style in a Word or Rich-Text Format.
- Due Dates
- Draft 1: Thursday, February 22
- Draft 1 is due to me via Blackboard > Assignments > Short
Paper Draft 1.
- Draft 1 is due to your peer response group via Blackboard >
Groups > Short Paper - Group # > File Exchange.
- Peer Responses: Thursday, March 1
- Electronic: Peer Responses are due to me via
Blackboard > Assignments > Short Paper 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 > Short Paper - Group # > File Exchange.
- Optional Draft 2: Thursday, March 15
- Should you choose to revise, you must include 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 texts
in the second draft. Moreover, you must highlight your revisions using
your word processing program's text highlighter. Note that revision does
not automatically guarantee either a better grade or an A.
- Optional Draft 2, with revision statement and highlights, is due to
me only via Blackboard> Assignments > Short Paper 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 regionalist, realist
and naturalist period through your first paper. Now, you can devote an entire
paper to one modernist author, to one modernist work (Eliot, Moore, Williams,
Cullen, Hughes, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, O'Neill). Select a modernist
work of literature (or two or three closely related poems, or short stories)
that we've read in class. 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
- Here is an MLA styled template for Microsoft
Word.
- One-third of a letter grade will be deducted for problems in each of
the following three 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
- Due Dates
- Sources: Thursday, March 22
- Submit a list of ten secondary sources you may use for the
research paper. Half must be books or book chapters; half must be
scholarly journal articles. For books and journal articles that only
appear in print, submit a photocopy of the first page of the book chapter
or journal article.
- If you do not submit your list of sources with photocopies
the week before the paper is due, then your final grade on the research
paper will be penalized one-third of a letter grade.
- Draft 1: Thursday, March 29
- Draft 1 is due to me via Blackboard > Assignments > Research
Paper Draft 1.
- Draft 1 is due to your peer response group via Blackboard >
Groups > Research
Paper - Group # > File Exchange.
- Peer Response: Thursday, April 5
- Electronic: Peer Responses are due to me via
Blackboard > Assignments > Research
Paper 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 > Research
Paper - Group # > File Exchange.
- Optional Draft 2: Thursday, April 12
- Should you choose to revise, you must include 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
texts in the second draft. Moreover, you must highlight your revisions
using your word processing program's text highlighter. Note that revision
does not automatically guarantee either a better grade or an A.
- Optional
Draft 2, with revision statement and highlights, is due to me only via
Blackboard > Assignments > Research
Paper
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.
Student |
Author/Topic |
Monica Birchman
|
O'Neill, The Hairy Ape |
Dren Briggs
|
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby or "Winter Dream" |
Tracy Brosseit
|
Fitgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" |
Kristi Correll
|
Moore |
Kristin Day
|
Kristin Day, The Great Gatsby |
Janine Elliott
|
Hughes |
Jessica Folkert
|
Fitgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" |
Jon Gano
|
Hemingway |
Tiffany Gates
|
Faulkner |
Benedict Hahnenberg
|
Moore or Cullen |
Brittny Heys
|
Fitzgerald |
Don Ivers
|
Hughes |
Davey Johnson
|
Hughes |
Ben Knight
|
Faulkner |
Dan Kyle
|
O'Neill |
Megan McPoland
|
Fitzgerald |
Mandy Noble
|
Fitzgerald |
Susan Plasman
|
O'Neill |
Shelly Reese
|
Fitgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" |
Kelsey Root
|
|
Jeffrey Rosloniec
|
Moore |
Christopher Scheil |
Oppen |
Allan Vander Laan |
Hughes |
Bradley Wancour |
Moore |
Exam
Answer two essay questions, one from Group A and
one from Group B. Use an individual author only once and write
3-4 pages for each essay, 6-8 pages for the entire exam.
Organize essays by argument and analysis. Have a controlling idea, an interpretation,
a thesis that bridges the two authors. Support your points with textual
evidence (explanation, paraphrase, and/or quotes) but avoid plot summary.
Make complex connections and subtle distinctions between the texts; in other words, compare
and contrast the authors and their world views.
- Group A: Period
- Modernist/Postmodernist Genre Study: Compare and contrast
the worldviews and forms of one modernist (Eliot, Moore, William
Carlos Williams, Cullen, Hughes, Glasgow, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway,
O'Neill) and one postmodernist
(Plath, Ginsberg, Tennessee Williams, Silko, Albee, Wilson, Vonnegut,
DeLillo) regarding one
genre—fiction,
poetry, or drama. For example, compare and contrast one modernist play
(O'Neill), in terms of theme and style, with one postmodernist play
(Williams or Albee). Or, you could do fiction (Fitzgerald vs DeLillo
or Faulkner vs Silko). Or, you could do poetry (Eliot vs Ginsberg
or Williams vs Plath). The important thing is
to compare and contrast the authors in terms of the themes and style
of their respective periods.
- Defining Postmodernism: Choose
two postmodernist authors (Plath, Ginsberg, Tennessee Williams, Silko, Albee,
Wilson, Vonnegut, DeLillo) who share a common theme or issue
and write an essay that 1) defines some of the major tenets postmodernism through their writing and world view while
2) also comparing and contrasting their theme, issue, or conflict.
- Group B: Themes
- Despair: Modernism is arguably a literature of despair
over the loss of tradition and of desperation regarding the American culture
that carries into some segments of postmodernist literature while other aspects of postmodernist literature revel in ironic play rather than despair. Write
an essay that compares and contrasts two texts' (modernist and/or
postmodernist) meditations on hope and hopelessness and/or mediations
of disheartenment and disillusionment.
- Dysfunctional Family Bonding: Compare and contrast family dynamics in the work of two authors (modernist and/or postmodernist). What drives these families into dysfunction? What compels them to create a more perfect union? How do issues of individualism and the American dream play into family discord?
- Race and/or Class: Compare and contrast what race and/or class means in twentieth-century America according to the work of two authors (modernist and/or postmodernist). How does race divide people; and how might it build community? In what ways does America transcend race through the promise of mobility; in what ways is America irrevocably divided by caste? Feel free to tackle one or the other or the interaction of the two, but be sure to tackle the subtleties and paradoxes of race and/or class in the work of two authors.
- Length: 6-8 pages
- Write two essays of 3-4 pages each but do not use the same author
twice.
- Format: MLA style in Corel
WordPerfect, Microsoft
Word, Microsoft Works, OpenOffice,
or Rich-Text Format.
- Due Date: The exam is due via Blackboard > Assignments >
Exam by Thursday, April 26. I will glady accept exams early.
- If I do not receive or cannot open your exam, I will send an
email Friday morning. If I still do not receive or cannot open
your exam by Saturday, April 28, you will automatically fail the
course.
- Grades, Comments, and Paper Return:
- You will be graded on your understanding of the twentieth-century literary and cultural period(s) as
well as your ability to compare and contrast authors' world views and themes.
- You can access your final grade in the course via the Registrar after
Thursday, May 3.
- If you want comments, please ask for them. I will not return exams of those who do not request feedback. If you do request comments,
you can access your graded paper in Blackboard >My Grades > Exam
after Thursday, May 3.