Literature 5535: American Romanticism    University of Houston-Clear Lake

Class Meeting: Tuesdays 4:00-6:50, Bayou 3233      Instructor: Craig White    

Office/phone: Bayou 2529-8; 281 283-3380 Office Hours: T 2-4, Th 5-7, & by apptmt.

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

 

In the interests of balancing the pace and leadership of discussion across the semester and of making sure some poems got read, I’ve added a couple of “low-stakes” seminar exercises promoting student leadership and discussion.

 

Informal “Discussion-Starter” exercise

The “Discussion-Starter” exercise resembles the “selection reader” but has no requirements for Bedford Glossary references or webpage submissions.

Broad, flexible format for discussion-starter:

·        Identify idea, theme, problem, or issue in the day’s readings

·        Direct class (page numbers) to one or two brief passages in the day’s assignment and read selections, briefly commenting on application to opening theme or idea.

·        (The order of the first two steps may be reversed.)

·        Ask a question to begin discussion. The question should follow from your reading, but it may also appeal more broadly to the challenges that the text may present to the class.

·        Lead discussion. (May segue into instructor’s resumption of class leadership)

·        No requirements for written summary or email / webpage posting.

 

Informal “Poetry-Reader” exercise

This is obviously a lot like the formal poetry-reader exercise, but the stakes are lower and the time involved should be shorter. The main purpose is to share some post-Romantic poems that the class otherwise might not encounter.

·        Assigned reader may briefly introduce the poem but may also simply get the class on the page and start reading.

·        Comment only briefly (if at all) about the poem, highlighting one or two Romantic or anti-Romantic highlights.

·        Ask a question of the class to start discussion.

·        Lead discussion (May segue into instructor’s resumption of class leadership)

·        No requirements for written summary or email / webpage posting.

 

 

LITR 5535 2003 Schedule of readings & presentations: This schedule is subject to change.

 

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

 

Tuesday 26 August: Introduction; students indicate presentation preferences.

 

Tuesday 2 September: Columbus, N 25-29; Selections from Genesis (handout); John Smith, N 42-53. Anne Bradstreet N 114-119, 124-131. Mary Rowlandson, N 135-152.

selection reader(s): Mary Arnold

discussion recorder: Nancy Gordy

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

poetry reader: Charley Bevill

discussion recorder: Thomas Parker

 

(Sept. 8 Last day to drop class with refund)

 

Tuesday 9 September: Jonathan Edwards, N 182-194, 207-219; Thomas Jefferson, N 334-342; Susanna Rowson, Charlotte: A Tale of Truth (handout); Washington Irving, N 446-460 ("Rip Van Winkle"), "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (handout).

selection reader(s): Nancy Gordy

discussion recorder: Mary Arnold

poetry: James Wright, "A Blessing," N 2752

poetry reader: Emily Masterson

discussion recorder: Mindi Swenson

 

Tuesday 16 September: 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. Selected Students start Cooper’s Deerslayer.

selection reader(s) (from Last of the Mohicans): Ashley Salter

discussion recorder: Yvonne Hopkins

Discussion starter (for Deerslayer): Simone Rieck

 

Tuesday 23 September: “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(s) (“The Iroquois Creation Story”): Rosalyn Mack

discussion recorder: Ashley Salter

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

poetry reader: Emily Islam

discussion recorder: Holly Anderson

Discussion starters:

Last of the Mohicans: Kristy Pawlak

Deerslayer: Sheila Newell

 

(September 26: last day to apply for fall 2003 graduation)

Tuesday 30 September: Take-home midterm exam due within 72 hours of class meeting. Edgar Allan Poe, N 694-696, 696-7 (“Sonnet—To Science”), 703-04 (“Annabel Lee”), 704-727 (“Ligeia” & “Fall of the House of Usher”)

selection reader(s): (Poe stories): Chris Lucas

discussion recorder: April Patrick

poetry: Poe, "Anabelle Lee," N 2671

poetry reader: Marion F. Carpenter Jr.

discussion recorder: Rosalyn K. Mack

 

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

selection reader(s): April Davis

discussion recorder: Sherry Evard

poetry: Sylvia Plath, "Blackberrying," N 2753

poetry reader: Thomas Parker

discussion recorder: Charley Bevill

 

Tuesday 14 October: Research Proposal Due (within 72 hours of class). 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). (Each student should try to finish at least one of these essays.) Margaret Fuller, N 760-771.

selection reader(s): Kristy Pawlak

discussion recorder: April Davis

poetry: Denise Levertov, "The Jacob's Ladder," N 2671

poetry reader: Holly Anderson

discussion recorder: Marion F. Carpenter Jr.

 

Tuesday 21 October: Henry David Thoreau, selections from Walden, N 853-938. Annie Dillard, selections from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (read at least chapters 1-4, 6, 7, 10, 11)

selection reader(s) (for Walden): Sheila Newell

discussion recorder: Simone Rieck

selection reader(s) (for Pilgrim): Sawsan Sanjak

discussion recorder: Kristy Pawlak

 

(27 October: last day to drop a fall class or withdraw for the semester)

 

Tuesday 28 October: Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, N 812-834. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life . . . , N 939-973.

selection reader(s): Kina Lara

discussion recorder: Emily Masterson

poetry: Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays," N 2669

poetry reader: April Patrick

discussion recorder: Sawsan Sanjak

Tuesday 4 November: 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(s): Sherry Evard

discussion recorder: Kina Lara

poetry: Theodore Roethke, "I Knew a Woman," N

poetry reader: Vanoy Billingsley

discussion recorder: Emily Islam

 

Tuesday 11 November: 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(s): Theresa Matthews

discussion recorder: Vanoy Billingsley

poetry: Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish,” N 2650

poetry reader: Mindi Swenson

discussion recorder: Chris Lucas

 

Tuesday 18 November: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), N 1237-1244 (“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”). Sarah Orne Jewett, N 1586-1594. Charles W. Chesnutt, N 1630-1647 (“The Goophered Grapevine”). Wovoka, N 1771-74. 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(s): Simone Rieck

discussion recorder: Sheila Newell

poetry: Randall Jarrell, “Thinking of the Lost World,” N 2673-75

informal poetry reader: Sherry Evard

 

Tuesday 25 November: Thanksgiving Holiday

 

Tuesday 2 December: 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 (Fitzgerald): Yvonne Hopkins

discussion recorder: Theresa Matthews

 

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