LITR 5535 American Romanticism

Reading & Presentation Schedule

LITR 5535 2005 Schedule of readings: This schedule is subject to change.

N = Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter 6^th edition (2003)

Monday 24 January: Introduction.

Monday 31 January: Columbus, N 25-29; Selections from Genesis (handout); John Smith, N 42-53. Mary Rowlandson, N 135-152. Thomas Jefferson, N 334-342.

selection reader / discussion leader: William White Jr.

poetry: Anne Bradstreet, “To my Dear and Loving Husband,” N 125.

poetry reader / discussion leader: Bob Hoffman

Monday 7 February: Jonathan Edwards, N 182-194, 207-219; Susanna Rowson, Charlotte: A Tale of Truth (handout); Washington Irving, N 446-460 ("Rip Van Winkle"), "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (handout).

selection reader / discussion leader: Karen Locklear

web-highlight(s) from previous semesters’ midterms: Joni Thrasher

Monday 14 February: James Fenimore Cooper, N 460-469. Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, through ch. 11 (through p. 110 Penguin edition); Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), N 1432-1440 (“Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences”); handout: D. H. Lawrence on Cooper's Leatherstocking novels.

selection reader / discussion leader: Phil Thrash

web-highlight(s) from previous semesters’ midterms: Marcia Toalson

Monday 21 February: “The Iroquois Creation Story,” N 17-21; “The Cherokee Memorials,” N 571-581; William Apess, N 476-482. Complete The Last of the Mohicans.

selection reader / discussion leader: Mary Brooks

web-highlight(s) from previous semesters’ midterms: Karen Locklear

Monday 28 February: Take-home midterm exam due within 72 hours of class meeting. Edgar Allan Poe, N 694-696, 704-727 (“Ligeia” & “Fall of the House of Usher”); William Faulkner, “N 2160-66.

selection reader / discussion leader: Michelle Gooding

poetry: Poe, "Anabelle Lee," N 2671

poetry reader / discussion leader: Gina L. Pendola

Monday 7 March: Nathaniel Hawthorne, N 579-584, 610-635 (“Young Goodman Brown,” “May-Pole of Merry Mount,” & “Minister’s Black Veil”)

poetry: Sylvia Plath, "Blackberrying," N 2783

poetry reader / discussion leader: Matt Mayo

Monday 14 March: no class meeting—Spring Break

Monday 21 March: Research Proposal Due (within 72 hours of class). Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, N 812-834. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life . . . , N 939-973.

selection reader / discussion leader: Danny Corrigan

web-highlight(s) from previous semesters’ research projects: Matt Mayo

Monday 28 March: Monday: Abraham Lincoln, N 757-760. Harriet Beecher Stowe, selections from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, N 771-806. Thoreau, N 837-853 (“Resistance to Civil Government”).

selection reader / discussion leader: Bob Hoffman

poetry: Joy Harjo, "Call It Fear," N 2834-5

poetry reader / discussion leader: Mary Brooks

Monday 4 April: Ralph Waldo Emerson, N 482-497, 514-519, 527-533, 539-544 (introduction & opening sections of Nature, The American Scholar, Divinity School Address, & Self-Reliance). (Try to finish at least one of these essays.) Margaret Fuller, N 760-771.

selection reader / discussion leader: Joni Thrasher

poetry: Denise Levertov, "The Jacob's Ladder," N 2708

poetry reader / discussion leader: Danny Corrigan

Monday 11 April: Walt Whitman, N 985-989, 1061-1066 (“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”), 1074-1080 (“When Lilacs . . . “); “There Was a Child Went Forth“ (handout). Carl Sandburg, N 1916-1919. Allen Ginsberg, N 2730-2740. Thomas Wolfe, “The Lost Boy” (handout).

selection reader / discussion leader: Marcia Toalson

poetry: Whitman, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” N 1070

poetry reader / discussion leader: William White, Jr.

Monday 18 April: Henry James, N 1498-1539 (Daisy Miller: A Study)

selection reader / discussion leader: Matt Mayo

Monday 25 April: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), N 1237-1244 (“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”). Sarah Orne Jewett, N 1586-1594. Charles W. Chesnutt, N 1630-1639 (“The Goophered Grapevine”). Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala Sa), N 1792-1807. Black Elk & John G. Neihardt, N 1823-1836. Research Project due (within 72 hours of class).

selection reader / discussion leader: Gina L. Pendola

poetry: Simon J. Ortiz, “Earth and Rain, the Plants & Sun,” N 2814-2815

poetry reader / discussion leader: Michelle Gooding

Monday 2 May: Claude McKay, N 2082-2086. Zora Neal Hurston, N 2096-2109. Jean Toomer, N 2120-2126. Langston Hughes N 2225-2232. Countee Cullen, N 2245-2249. F. Scott Fitzgerald, N 2126-2143 (“Winter Dreams”).

selection reader / discussion leader: Mary Brooks

web-highlight(s) from previous semesters’ final exams: Phil Thrash

Monday 9 May: Final exam during regular class period. Students may take final exam in-class or by email.

web-highlight(s)

The designated student chooses a passage or passages from previous student contributions to the course webpage for the class to review. This informal presentation may lead to a discussion, but a question is not required. The student is required only to find one or more passages before the class meeting, to use the class computer to find and highlight the passage, read it over with the class, and to comment about why s/he chose the passage and either what s/he learned from it or how s/he differs from it. If convenient, the student may copy out the passages desired and email them to the instructor, who will post them to the day’s lecture-webpage.

            Practically, some students fulfilling this requirement in previous courses have simply cut and pasted the highlights into an email to the instructor, who has then simply pasted them into the day’s lecture-page. But if you’re confident navigating the webpage, that will work as well.

            Students are welcome to inquire further about this assignment, as its description remains a work-in-progress.