- Spring 2020
Syllabus Description:
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English 352 A
Online: Canvas + Zoom
Prof. Robert E. Abrams
Tel: 206-765-0547
Email: rabrams@uw.edu
Because of Covid-19, classroom meetings have been converted to remote delivery via Zoom sessions which will be available online on M,W, 6:30-8:30 PM, from March 30 through June 3, with the exception of the holiday on Monday, May 25. As you will recall, MW, 6:30-8:30 PM, is when this class was initially scheduled to meet on campus. So keep these time slots open for your remote attendance via Zoom. Your availability to attend class on MW, 6:30-8:30, was assumed when you initially enrolled.
IMPORTANT: ALL ANNOUNCEMENTS SENT TO STUDENTS IN THIS CLASS WILL BE SENT THROUGH CANVAS. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CHECKING FOR THEM REGULARLY. THE REMOTE DELIVERY OF THIS COURSE REQUIRES YOUR TIMELY RECEIPT OF ALL MESSAGES.
Assigned texts are available at the University Bookstore (check with the bookstore about how to obtain them). Here are the assigned texts for purchase:
Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass: Frederick Douglass
The Portable Thoreau, Henry David Thoreau
Summer On The Lakes, Margaret Fuller
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
The Portable Hawthorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Other assigned readings are available in the “Pages” section of Canvas.
Let me emphasize that this is a heavy reading course, and, as such, it is suitable as an online offering, since your reading can be done at home. Pre-Civil War literary language in the U.S., I should caution, is sometimes dense, complicated, and often difficult to read—although enormously rewarding and eloquent—and students enrolling in this course should be prepared to encounter difficult language as they explore authors such as Emerson, Hawthorne and Melville. Along with so-called “classic” American authors, however, you’ll also note important sections of the course on slavery and race, and on “white/Native American relations.” Let me add that nineteenth-century feminism will remain a component of how we approach SUMMER ON THE LAKES and also the ordeal of Hester Prynne in THE SCARLET LETTER.
Important Notice:
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Faculty Syllabus Guidelines and Resources. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form available at: https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/.
Assignments:
1. Two essays, 4 3/4 to 5 1/4 pages long (approximately 1520-1680 words), are due on Thursday, May 7, at noon, and Friday, June 5, also at noon. Double-space your essays; maintain 1-inch margins all around; use 12-point font; place your name and a title at the top; use endnotes rather than footnotes, and you can choose from any number of endnote styles that are available online. Prompts will be available as announcements in Canvas before the essays are actually due. You should submit your essays to me as Word files, attached as emails addressed to rabrams@uw.edu.
2. There will be a do-it-at-home final examination at the end of the quarter which will cover all reading materials plus all online lectures. The exam will be available on Canvas. You will be given plenty of time to complete the exam, but you will be required to submit it by 8:30 PM, Weds., 10 June.
3. Yur two essays and your final will each count 1/3 in my computation of your course grade.
INCOMPLETES: I quote University Incomplete Policy directly: “Incomplete grades may only be awarded if you are doing satisfactory work up until the last two weeks of the quarter.” .No exceptions to this policy will be granted.
NOTE CAREFULLY: YOUR WRITTEN WROK SHOULD REPRESENT YOUR OWN THINKING AND WRITING. IN OTHER WORDS, IN OTHER WORDS, IT SHOULD NOT BE PLAGIARIZED. PLAGIARISM IS A VERY SERIOUS OFFENSE, AND ALL CASES OF PLAGIARISM IN THIS CLASS WILL BE REPORTED TO THE UNIVERSITY FOR APPROPRIATE DISCIPLINARY ACTION.
The following statement was prepared by the Committee on Academic Conduct in the College of Arts and Sciences. It amplifies the Student Conduct Code (WAC 478‐120).
One of the most common forms of cheating is plagiarism, using anotherʹs words or ideas without proper citation. When students plagiarize, they usually do so in one of the following six ways:
• Using another writerʹs words without proper citation. If you use another writerʹs words, you must place quotation marks around the quoted material and include a footnote or other indication of the source of the quotation.
• Using another writerʹs ideas without proper citation. When you use another authorʹs ideas, you must indicate with footnotes or other means where this information can be found. Your instructors want to know which ideas and judgments are yours and which you arrived at by consulting other sources. Even if you arrived at the same judgment on your own, you need to acknowledge that the writer you consulted also came up with the idea.
• Citing your source but reproducing the exact words of a printed source without quotation marks.
This makes it appear that you have paraphrased rather than borrowed the authorʹs exact words.
• Borrowing the structure of another authorʹs phrases or sentences without crediting the author from whom it came. This kind of plagiarism usually occurs out of laziness: it is easier to replicate another writerʹs style than to think about what you have read and then put it in your own words. The following example is from A Writerʹs Reference by Diana Hacker (New York, 1989, p. 171).
o Original: If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling for linguists, it was also
startling news for animal behaviorists.
o Unacceptable borrowing of words: An ape who knew sign language unsettled linguists
and startled animal behaviorists.
• Borrowing all or part of another studentʹs paper or using someone elseʹs outline to write your own paper.
COURSE CALENDAR
Mar 30: Course Introduction
What follows is a schedule of readings. Complete all scheduled readings before the online zoom sessions (M, W, 6:30-8:30), during which they will be addressed.
American Transcendentalism
April 1: Emerson: selections from “Nature,” from “The American Scholar,” and from "The Divinity School Address.” All selections available in the Pages section of Canvas.
Apr 6: Emerson. From "Circles," from "The Poet," and from "Experience.” All selections available in the Pages section of Canvas.
Apr 8: Thoreau. "Civil Disobedience." From Walden, first read the chapters on "Economy" and "Where I Lived, What I lived For," in their entirety. Then, from "Solitude," a brief selection, beginning with the para that begins with "Any prospect," and ending with the para that ends with "friends sometimes." Then, a somewhat longer selection from "Visitors," beginning w/ the para that begins, "Who should come to my lodge," and ending w/ the para ending with: "dark and muddy.”
Apr 13: Whitman, "Song of Myself" (all Whitman selections are available in the Pages section of Canvas.)
April 15: Whitman, “Song of Myself"
April 20: Whitman, “The Sleepers,” “A Noiseless Patient Spider," "Song of the Open Road”
American Gothicism
April 22: Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown," "My Kinsman, Major Molineux."
Close Study of a Major American Novel
Apr 27, 29, May 4: Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (read approximately 1/3 of the novel for each class session)
White/Native American Relations
May 6: Margaret Fuller, Summer on the Lakes. Assigned selections from this text are now conveniently available in Pages.
MAY 7, THURSDAY, NOON: THE FIRST OF YOUR TWO ESSAYS IS DUE. SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY ON LINE IN WORD TO rabrams@uw.edu
May 11: In Pages on Canvas, read Indian Removal Act, Black Hawk’s Autobiography,
Preface to Chief Seattle’s Speech, and Chief Seattle’s Speech
Slavery and Its Aftermath
May 13, May 18: :Frederick Douglass, Narrative, and Ralph Ellison, “Harlem is Nowhere” (the Ellison selection is available in Pages)
Second Study of a Major American Novel:
May 20: Moby-Dick, chaps. 1-23.
May 25: Holiday
May 27: Moby-Dick: As a minimum read at least Chaps 28-31, 34-36, 41-42, 47-49. You are encouraged—but not required—to read Chaps 28-49 in their entirety.
June 1: Moby-Dick, read at least chapters 53, 93-95, 99, 109,128, 132-Epilogue. You are encouraged to read Chaps 50-Epilogue in their entirety.
June 3: Course Conclusion.
Final; Examination: Available on Canvas, with plenty of time to consult your notes and to develop your questions.