LITR 5535 American Romanticism UHCL 2006 syllabus

Literature 5535: American Romanticism
University of Houston-Clear Lake

Class Meeting: Mondays 4:00-6:50, Bayou 2235 Instructor: Craig White

Office/phone/hrs: Bayou 2529-8; 281 283-3380; M 1-3pm, extra hrs TBA, & by apptmt.

email: whitec@uhcl.edu

Course webpage: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5535

Caveat: All items on this syllabus are subject to change with minimal notification.

Texts

Baym, Nina, et al, eds. Norton Anthology of American Literature. 6^th Shorter Edn. 2003.

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Last of the Mohicans. 1826. NY: Penguin, 1986.

Assignments and grades

Grades and Assignments: Percentages are only approximate, indicating relative weight in considering final grades, which are not computed mathematically but decided subjectively by comparing the quality of a student's thought and writing with that of classmates and wider academic standards.

· Presentations, responses, & webpage postings (10%)

· take-home midterm (20%; due via email within 72 hours of 25 September)

· research proposal (ungraded; due within 72 hours of 9 October)

· research project (40%; due within 72 hours of 13 November)

· final exam (30%; in-class or email 4 December)

Issues such as attendance, preparation, and quality of class participation may influence grades beyond percentages indicated.

Course Objectives:

Objective 1: Literary Categories of Romanticism

Objective 1a. Romantic Spirit or Ideology

· To identify and criticize ideas and attitudes associated with Romanticism, such as desire and loss, rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, the gothic, the sublime, the individual in nature or separate from the masses.

· The Romantic impulse may be as simple as a desire for anything besides “the here and now”—or “reality”; thus the quest or journey of the romance narrative involves crossing physical borders or transgressing social or psychological boundaries in order to attain or regain some transcendent goal or dream.

· A Romantic hero or heroine may appear empty or innocent of anything except readiness or desire to transform or self-invent.

Objective 1b. The Romantic Period

· To observe Romanticism’s concentration in the late 18^th through the 19^th centuries and its co-emergence with the rise of the middle class, the city, industrial capitalism, consumer culture, and the nation-state.

· To observe predictive elements in “pre-Romantic” writings from earlier periods such as “The Seventeenth Century” and the "Age of Reason."

· To speculate on residual elements in “post-Romantic” writings from later periods incl. “Realism and Local Color,” "Modernism," and “Postmodernism.”

Objective 1c: Romantic Genres

To describe & evaluate leading literary genres of Romanticism:

· the romance narrative or novel (journey from repression to transcendence)

· the gothic novel or style (haunted physical and mental spaces, the shadow of death or decay; dark and light in physical and moral terms; film noir)

· the lyric poem (a momentary but comprehensive cognition or transcendent feeling—more prominent in European than American Romanticism?)

· the essay (esp. for Transcendentalists—descended from the Puritan sermon?)

Objective 2: Cultural Issues:

America as Romanticism, and vice versa

· To identify the Romantic era in the United States of America as the “American Renaissance”—roughly the generation before the Civil War (c. 1830-1860, one generation after the Romantic era in Europe).

· To acknowledge the co-emergence and convergence of "America" and "Romanticism." European Romanticism begins near the time of the American Revolution, and Romanticism and the American nation develop ideas of individualism, sentimental nature, rebellion, and equality in parallel.

· Americans as racially divided but historically related people develop "Old and New Canons" of Romantic literature, from Emerson’s Transcendentalism and Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age to the Slave Narratives of Douglass and Jacobs; the Harlem Renaissance of Hughes, Hurston, and Cullen; and the American Indian as a conflicted Romantic icon in Cooper and Zitkala-Sa. (Mexican American Literature is not yet incorporated into this course—class will discuss.)

· The USA's conflicted identity as an economically liberal but culturally conservative nation creates "Old and New Canons" also in terms of gender, in which masculine traditions of freedom and the frontier contrast with feminine traditions of relations and domesticity. (Also consider “Classical” and “Popular” literature as gendered divisions.)

· American Romanticism exposes competing or complementary dimensions of the American identity: is America a culture of sensory and material gratification or moral, spiritual, idealistic mission?

· Finally, the convergence of "America" and "Romanticism" enables us to investigate to what degree American popular culture and ideology—from Hollywood movies to the ideologies of human rights—represent a popular or derivative form of classic Romanticism.

General Method of Evaluation and Warning about Standards:

Because literature studies qualitative values, this course directs students to think in broadly constructive ways. Only letter grades will be given, and pluses and minuses may appear on component and final grades. The relative weights indicated above may change to significant degrees, positively or negatively, depending on issues such as attendance and quality of participation in class. If a student repeatedly demonstrates lack of preparation for class, as by failing to track discussions, this may detract considerably from a student’s final grade.

As in most literature and humanities courses, quality of writing on exams and papers is the most decisive factor in grading. In reading and grading your writing, I cannot separate your ideas from their expression; that is, the quality of your thought is apparent only in the quality of the writing. Grades and criticisms will often concern the style, rhetoric, and organization of your writing as much as its content. This can be intellectually liberating for you, since I read your writing less for "the right answer" than for intelligent deliberation.

Presentation(s) are graded “silently”—that is, no grade is communicated during the semester. However, your presentation grade will be figured with your attendance and participation in your overall final grade and listed in your Final Grade Report. Judgment of your presentation will be based on the interest of your analysis, the quality of your reading, and the level of discussion.

Email and webpage requirements: Students help develop the course webpage for the following purposes:

· To provide models of completed assignments for students who are unfamiliar with the course’s expectations and standards.

· To provide a medium for sharing work.

· To record the course’s accomplishments and help future courses advance them.

· To prepare a possible online future for the course.

Each student in LITR 5535 2006 must make several contributions to the webpage through the instructor via email or other electronic media. When the course concludes, students may request via email that any or all of their contributions be removed from the webpage. The instructor may delete some student contributions as more samples are gathered and the page is edited.

All webpage contributions are posted as submitted. That is, the instructor does not edit them, nor do the instructor’s grades and comments appear on the webpage. However, students are welcome to submit revised or edited versions of assignments at any time during or after the semester.

Required email contributions:

1. presentation posting, including discussion question(s).

2. midterm exam

3. research proposal

4. research project

Optional email contribution:

5. final exam

Email address: Send all emails to whitec@uhcl.edu. Note the "c" at the end of "whitec." If you send the email to "white" only, it goes to the wrong faculty member.

Attachments, etc.: Try both of the following

· “Attach” your word processing file to an email message. (My computer uses Microsoft Word 2000. The only word processing programs my computer appears unable to translate are Microsoft Works and Apple programs. If in doubt, save your word processing file in "Rich Text Format" or a “text only” format.)

· If you’re not using Word, paste the contents of your file directly into the email message.

If you have trouble reaching me by email, save your word processing file to a 3½“ floppy disk and give it to me. If your name is on the disk, I’ll eventually return it.

Student computer access: Every enrolled student at UHCL is assigned an email account on the university server. For information about receiving your account name and password, call the university help desk at 281 283 2828.

Reassurances: You are not graded on your expertise in electronic media but on your intelligence in reading discussing, and writing about literature. I’ve tried similar email exercises for several semesters; a few students encounter a few problems, but, if we don’t give up, these problems always work out. Your course grade will not suffer for mistakes with email and related issues as long as I see you making a fair effort.

Descriptions of Assignments:

Take-home Midterm Exam (due within 72 hours of 2 October)

Length: 5-7 typed double-spaced pages (equivalent).

Transmission: You must email your exam to me at whitec@uhcl.edu. Your submission will be posted to the webpage.

Topic: Develop an aspect of one of the course objectives. Describe how two or three early American texts from our assigned readings through Cooper exemplify the development of an aspect of Romanticism and how their contributions converge in The Last of the Mohicans, making it a classic or normative text of American Romanticism.

The above paragraph is the formal description of the mid-term assignment—that is, you will not be given another description of the assignment, though of course we can discuss it. The most successful versions of this exam tend to focus on a rather specific aspect of an objective, such as gothic, the sublime, nature, the Romantic hero/ine, the romance narrative, etc. You may focus more specifically than the objective indicates—that is, analyze an aspect of the gothic or a specific feature of the romance or of Romantic spirit, for instance.

You are required to review and make one citation of one of the earlier course midterms posted on the webpage. The only difference may be that summer offerings of LITR 5535 do not read The Last of the Mohicans. You are also welcome to cite external sources, though this assignment does not have a research requirement. A Works Cited is not required. You are expected to incorporate major ideas from class lecture and discussion. A member of this class should recognize your ideas and references as relevant to our course as it has developed thus far. You can’t simply express the ideas you walked in with; you must demonstrate learning.

Research Project

Examples on webpage: Students should review examples of previous student research proposals and projects on the “Model Assignments” sub-page of our course webpage.

Students may choose from two options for their research projects.

· Option 1: 12-15 page traditional analytic / research essay relevant to course.

· Option 2: 15-20 page journal of research and reflections concerning a variety of materials relevant to the course.

Weight: approximately 40% of final grade

Due dates:

· proposal due via email within 72 hours of 16 October

· project due via email due within 72 hours of 13 November

Research proposal: Due via email within 72 hours of 16 October.

Write at least two paragraphs containing the following information:

· Indicate which option—Option 1 (essay) or Option 2 (journal)—your research project will take. (If you’re stuck between the options, or trying to choose between different subjects, explain and explore the situation—I’ll reply as helpfully as I can.)

· If Option 1, list the primary text(s) you intend to work with. Explain the source of your interest, why the topic is significant, and what you hope to find out through your research. Describe any reading or research you have already done and how useful it has been.

· If Option 2, mention your possible choices of topics and areas of research for categories listed in Option 2 (journal) requirements.

· Explain the source of your interest, why the topic matters, and what you want to learn.

· Mention the types of research you intend, e. g., Background (encyclopedias, handbooks, critical digests, etc.), Secondary (advanced scholarly articles or books exploring a particular question, or reviews of scholarly books), etc.

· For either option, conclude by asking the instructor at least one question about your topic, possible sources for research, or the writing of your research project.

· Email or otherwise transmit an electronic version of your proposal to me at whitec@uhcl.edu.

· Research report proposals will be posted on the course webpage.

· If you want to confer about your possible topic before submitting a proposal, welcome to confer in person, by phone, or email.

Response to Paper Proposal

· The instructor will email you a reaction okaying the proposal and / or making any necessary suggestions.

· You are welcome to continue going back and forth with the instructor on email until you are satisfied with your direction.

· Student does not receive a letter grade for the proposal, only a “yes” or instructions for receiving a yes. Students will not lose credit for problems in reaching a topic as long as they are working to resolve these problems.

· The only way you can start getting into trouble over the proposal is if you simply don’t offer very much to work with, especially after prompts from instructor. An example of a really bad proposal is one sentence starting with “I’m thinking about” and ending with “doing something about Poe,” then asking, “What do you think?” In these cases, a bad grade won’t be recorded, but the deep hole the student has dug will be remembered. Notes regarding the paper proposal may appear on the Final Grade Report.

Research Project (due within 72 hours of 13 November):

Description of Research Options:

Option 1 (analytic / research essay) requirements

· This option is a more or less standard "Graduate Literature Paper" in which the student analyzes a literary text or texts relevant to American Romanticism.

· The topic is open to any method of literary analysis, but it must have some relevance to the course. That is, a member of our class reading your essay would be able to recognize the relevance of its text(s) and major themes.

· Possible topics: tracing in one text, or comparing and contrasting in more than one text the development of a theme, image, symbol, usage of language, character type, plot pattern, genre, aesthetic style, problem, or conflict.

· In terms of primary texts, you may choose a text from beyond this course, but if you use more than one primary text, one should probably be from the course readings.

· In terms of research, you must incorporate references to at least three secondary and background sources--that is, your research sources must include both secondary and background types of research. (Distinction explained below.)

· Follow MLA style for documentation and mechanics.

· Length: 12-15 pages + Works Cited

· Research Requirements: One or two primary sources; at least 3 secondary and background sources (distinction explained below). At least one source should be "print"--i. e., not from the internet.

Option 2 (journal) requirements

Purpose: Students will extend their range of knowledge or familiarity with American Romanticism, its authors, and / or its constituent styles or genres. In brief, the journal might answer the question, "What do I want to know about this field of study, and in what types of sources or references do I find this knowledge most accessible?" For your reader, the journal will demonstrate “What I have learned, and how I learned it.”

Length: Approximately 15-20 pages.

Quality & Coherence of journal submissions:

If you choose the journal option, you are not choosing an option that involves less work than the traditional research paper option. You are expected to do as much work and your writing will be judged by similar standards. A journal provides more varied opportunities for learning, but don’t regarding the journal as a “data dump” waiting for reclamation. Organize your diverse findings into larger themes.

The final grade will be determined largely by your journal’s “whole reading experience” for the instructor, who is reviewing your journal not as a reference work but from beginning to end. Therefore you need to emphasize transitions or continuity between parts. Develop larger insights and share them with your reader. The introduction and conclusion provide the primary opportunities for generalizing on what you’re learning overall, but throughout you should be making connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

I may not be able to emphasize enough the importance of writing your journal as a readable, focused, organized, coherent text. Journal-writing students who have been disappointed with their grades have often reacted, “I didn’t know you would grade so strongly on connections between parts.” To gain more sense of expectations regarding the journal assignment, review those posted online. Most are successful samples. You can observe efforts by their authors to organize the diverse parts into a cogent whole.

Then what’s the difference between the essay (option 1) and journal (option 2)?

· An essay emphasizes and develops your insights and opinions about a text or set of texts, or it applies a “reading or interpretive methodology” to a text or texts.

· A journal emphasizes knowledge you have gathered. Often, instead of being focused on a text, this knowledge concerns a movement or figure or genre in literary history. The essay happens “in” the texts; the journal stands somewhat outside.

· Both the essay and the journal are read as unified explorations of a subject.

Possible Topics:

Elements from or relevant to course objectives should be a first consideration. Here are some possible topics.

Literary or stylistic subjects: romance, gothic, sublime, Romantic lyric poetry, Romantic nature

Historical or cultural subjects: When was Romanticism? Abolition, Romantic feminism, slave narratives, the Harlem Renaissance

Author studies: If you go this route, try to have a particular focus or sub-topic of interest rather than an “all-about” approach.

Review samples under “Model Assignments” on course webpage.

Research Journal--suggested contents: (page suggestions are for double-spaced print)

(Aside from the introduction and conclusion, all the numbers and items below are variable according to your interests and findings.)

· Introduction (required): rationale: what you wanted to learn and how; preview contents, general themes, choices (1-1 & 1/2 pages)

Optional elements:

· Overview of subject digested from several sources. (2-5 pages)

· Review of two student papers from previous course on webpage. (2-3 paragraphs each)

· 1-3 reviews of scholarly books or articles on your subject (2-3 paragraphs each)

· Review of 2-3 websites (1-2 paragraphs on each site?)

· For such reviews, critique their organization and contents. What did you learn? What questions did they raise?

· Many other possibilities!

· Conclusion (required): In terms either of variety, priority, or unity, what have you learned from the gathering of your journal? Where might this knowledge take your studies or your teaching? What new issues have been introduced that you might like to study next? (2-3 pages)

Explanation of Research Terms

Primary texts. In research writing for literature, primary texts are usually works of fiction, poetry, or drama, though other genres may be similarly analyzed.

Background sources refer to handbooks, encyclopedias, and companions to literature that provide basic generic, biographical, or historical information. For purposes of Literature, these books are generally shelved in the PR and PS sections of the Reference section of the library.

Secondary sources refer to critical articles about particular authors or texts. (When you write your analytic / research paper, you are creating a secondary source.) These may take the form of articles or books. Articles may be found in journals or in bound collections of essays. Secondary books may be found on the regular shelves of the library. To find secondary sources, perform a database search on the MLA directory in the Reference section of the library--the reference librarians will help you.

Documentation style: MLA style (parenthetical documentation + Works Cited page, as described in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4^th or 5^th edition.

Other mechanical issues: A cover sheet is not necessary.

Email copy of paper to instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu. You are welcome to give me a hard copy on or around the due date, but before the semester is over you are required to provide an electronic copy.

Final exam (Monday 4 December, 4-6:50pm):

Content: two hour-plus essays from a choice of four or five questions. The content will concentrate on materials since the midterm, but some of the question options will allow you to include texts from before the midterm.

Open-book, open-notebook.

Format: either in-class or email.

· Exam questions will likely be introduced beforehand. They will resemble the set of questions asked in previous final exams for this course.

· Since you will know the exam before it is due, you may prepare as much as you like in terms of studying, outlining, arranging sources, etc. Please limit your total writing time to approximately three hours.

· As with the midterm, refer at least once to previous semesters’ answers to your question(s).

· If you take the exam in class, just show up at 4pm with paper, pen, books, and notebooks. You must finish writing by 6:50pm.

· If you take the exam by email, you can take the exam any time after the final class meeting. The exam must be turned in by 9pm, 4 December. Please keep a log indicating when you stop and start.

Class Presentation-discussions & responses

Most class meetings feature 2 or 3 student presentations. Each student will lead at least one. The purposes are to develop the seminar style and give students practice in managing high-level presentations and discussions. The purpose is not to relieve the professor of his duties. The easiest class to prepare is one in which I just talk for three hours. You’ll hear plenty from me anyway . . . .

These presentations take three forms:

· Text-objective discussion leader

· Poetry reader

· Web highlight

Assignments are decided partly by student choice and partly by chance; student preferences are not guaranteed. On the first class day, students indicate preferences for presentations, and volunteers are solicited to make the next class’s presentations. Before that meeting I will prepare a presentation schedule and email it to the class for review. Everyone will receive a printed-out schedule assigning students to presentations for the rest of the session.

“Silent Grade” for presentation, responses, etc.

You are graded for the quality of your work in presentations, responses, and general class participation, but this grade is not announced until the end of the semester, when it is recorded in your “Final Grade Report” (see below). The reason for this “silent grade” is to avoid unproductive behavior from students in relation to the presentations, such as second-guessing, comparing grades, competing to each other’s detriment, or performing to the teacher. Altogether the presentations are a cooperative exercise on the part of the class, so it’s better to keep grading out of sight; however, since some students would work less otherwise, the leverage of a grade is necessary.

Descriptions of individual presentation assignments

Text-objective discussion leader

The student leads a discussion of part of the day’s reading assignment.

1. Identify the Course Objective(s) relevant to the discussion.

2. Direct the class to one or two passages in the reading assignment.

3. Read passage(s) aloud.

4. Briefly interpret passage in relation to objective.

5. Lead discussion by asking questions or inviting challenges to interpretation.

Poetry reader

1. Announce author, title, and location of poem in the Norton Anthology. Except in a couple instances, the poems are written by living poets as a way of connecting our course to contemporary literature. The student reads a poem from the Norton Anthology, then interprets the poem’s romantic (or non-romantic) qualities and invites comments from other students.

Good poems give rise to many potential insights, but the overriding purpose of this presentation is to relate the poem to the course content of American Romanticism. Therefore the reader’s introduction and interpretation to the poem should emphasize how the content and/or style of the poem conforms to or resists a Romantic interpretation. Discussion may inevitably raise issues apart from Romanticism, but it is the presenter’s duty to return the discussion and summary to Romantic themes.

2. Project an outline of your presentation on the webpage. (Email to instructor at least an hour before class.)

3. Introduce, read aloud, and briefly interpret your assigned poem relative to Romanticism and possibly one or two course objectives.

Limit any biographical information on the poet to material directly relevant to subject of American Romanticism. Do not simply review the life of the poet. Rather, touch on a couple of relevant highlights or ignore this aspect altogether. Get to the poem as directly as possible.

For interpretation, consider these three standard questions:

· What is “Romantic” about the poem? (Refer to course objectives or previous discussions, or speculate on additional meanings of Romanticism or “romantic.”)

· What in the poem resists or violates Romanticism or a romantic interpretation?

· What about the poem seems identifiably American?

4. Ask two or more questions regarding the poem or your interpretation and lead discussion.

5. Ten-minute time limit for presentation itself. Discussion may run longer.

Web highlight

Student selects passages from the designated “Model Assignments” and emails them with introduction and conclusion to instructor. This presentation may lead to some discussion, but a question is not required. Project a copy of your presentation on the webpage. The purpose of this presentation is to provide another angle by reviewing previous articulations of our course’s subject matter, and to familiarize students with assignments and standards of student work.

1. Introduction: Student writes at least three sentences describing the assignment, how s/he went about developing it, and preview leading themes of what s/he found. The student reads this introduction to begin the presentation. Students may also ad-lib as helpful.

2. Two or more selections from assigned models: Students will be assigned to review midterms, proposals, projects, or finals. Student copies sections from assigned models and pastes them into posting. Or the student may ask for links to assigned models for wider review. Student reads or highlights selections, commenting on strengths and weaknesses.

3. Conclusion: Student writes 3-5 sentences summarizing what s/he learned from the review, what themes were emphasized, what about the models was either impressive or disappointing, and what kinds of “models” have been created for our own semester’s work.

Main mistake or misconception to avoid: Your presentation may be your big moment leading the class, but you must avoid the temptation to use it as a do-or-die opportunity to deliver a lecture or demonstrate your mastery of the course’s subject matter. Your purpose is above all to start and lead a discussion. As a veteran teacher, I can swear that you never finish saying all you could say, and no one ever wishes you could!

Having instructed this course several times, I’ve consistently found that in the best presentations the presenter speaks well but briefly, rarely more than 2-3 minutes at a time, and interspersing insights into the comments before and after the reading and into the discussion.

Final Grade Report

I will turn in final grades to the registrar during the week following your exam. Additionally, I will email each student a final grade report or tally. Though this message should be accurate, it will be “unofficial” in that none of its information is recorded or supported by the university registrar. The message will appear thus:

STUDENT NAME

Contact information

Absences:

Presentation grade(s):

Midterm grade:

Research proposal:

Research Project:

Final exam grade:

Course grade:

Class participation: Your reading for the course is partly tested by your participation in class discussions of reading assignments led by the selection readers and instructor. If you do not participate in or “track” these discussions, the instructor will assume you have not prepared for class, and your participation & overall grade will suffer.

· At least occasionally each student should participate in discussion by specifically referring to contents or specific pages of the reading assignment.

· Students should give visible evidence of reading by “tracking” the discussion. If students appear unusually bored or clueless, they usually blame it on the content, but it’s often a fair sign that they haven’t done their reading and so are incapable of following the discussion.

· Students’ participation is judged less on quantity than on appropriateness to the topic under discussion and the point being pursued. When you are called upon to speak, you should try to make one point per turn. Avoid having a list of remarks on several topics—that tends to confuse your instructor’s or classmates’ response. Choose the most important thing to say at the given moment.

· If occasionally I don’t follow up your individual comments, this doesn’t indicate a negative reaction. I used to follow up every student’s comment, but the class had trouble discerning when I really had something to say from when I was simply making a point of politeness. Unless I have something potentially valuable to add, I let a student’s comment “speak for itself” rather than forcing further comment when none may be necessary. You’re welcome to blame any awkwardness on my lack of mental resources rather than any lack of interest in your remarks.

COURSE POLICIES

Attendance policy: You are expected to attend every scheduled class meeting but are permitted one free cut without comment or penalty. Attendance may not be taken systematically, but if you miss more than one meeting (including the first), you begin to jeopardize your status in the course. If you continue to cut or miss (especially early classes), you should drop the course. Even with medical or other emergency excuses, a high number of absences or partial absences result in a lower or failing grade.

Academic Honesty Policy: Please refer to the catalog for the Academic Honesty Policy (2006-7 Catalog, pp. 74-77). Plagiarism—using research without citations or copying someone else’s work as your own—will result in a grade penalty or failure of the course. Refer to the UHCL catalogue for further details regarding expectations and potential penalties.

Disabilities: If you have a disability and need a special accommodation, consult first with the Health Center and then discuss the accommodation with me.

Incompletes: A grade of "I" is given only in cases of documented emergency late in the semester. An Incomplete Grade Contract must be completed.

Late submissions: Any student who submits late materials is subject to lower grades, either in individual grades or course grades.

LITR 5535 2006 Schedule of readings: This schedule is subject to change.

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

Monday 21 August: Introduction; students indicate presentation preferences.

Monday 28 August: Columbus, N 25-29; Selections from Genesis (handout); John Smith, N 42-53. Mary Rowlandson, N 135-152. Thomas Jefferson, N 334-342.