- Spring 2021
Syllabus Description:
English 353—American Literature, Late 19th Century
The entire emphasis in this course will be on day-by-day reading, preparation, and discussion. I’m asking that you read the assignments for each class-meeting as listed below, do some sharp thinking about them, and join the Zoom sessions read to write and talk about them
For each day’s reading assignment, I have posted a set of study questions or prompts. You are responsible for giving good close thought to each of these questions before joining the meeting. You should have something in mind to say about each of the questions for the day; you should be prepared to write a short essay on one of them.
Between five and ten times during the quarter, without announcing it in advance, I will ask that you spend about twenty-five minutes in writing a brief essay on one of the topics provided for that day. You’ll need to have done some purposeful thinking before class; twenty-five minutes is enough time to write down an argument you’ve already got in mind, but probably not enough to think one up and then write it. You are free to use texts, notes, outlines, rough drafts, whatever you find useful in writing these essays.
If you miss class or are unprepared on a day when I call for a paper, check with me and we’ll agree on a topic you can use for a make-up. But no more than two of the papers can be made up that way.
These papers will be the only written work required in this class. There will be no mid-term or final exams, no term paper, no extra-credit projects.
On days when no paper is called for, we will discuss the readings. I will do very little lecturing. Your active participation in class-discussion is required; it will count for 25 percent of your grade; the essays will count for the other 75 percent. Joining in the meeting and answering questions I ask of you will earn a 2.0 for discussion. To raise your grade above that, you’ll need to volunteer comments at least five times. Obviously, the more you contribute, the better.
March 29—Introductory matters
March 30—Mark Twain, “How to Tell a Story,” “The Jumping Frog,” “Jim Baker’s Blue Jay” (All Mark Twain readings are from The Great Short Works of Mark Twain.)
March 31—Mark Twain, “Jim Blaine and His Grandfather’s Ram,” “The Great Landslide Case,” “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”
April 1-- Mark Twain, “The Story of a Speech” and “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”
April 5, 6, 7, 8—William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham
April 12, 13—Mark Twain, “Old Times on the Mississippi”
April 14—Mark Twain, The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg”
April 15—Mary Wilkins Freeman, “A Mistaken Charity”; Rose Terry Cooke, “Miss Beulah’s Bonnet”; Kate Chopin, “A Gentleman of Bayou Teche”—all in American Women Regionalists
April 19, 20, 21, 22—Henry James, The American
April 26—Freeman, “A New England Nun”; Cooke, “How Celia Change Her Mind”; Alice Scary, “Passages from the Married Life of Eleanor Holmes” (Regionalists)
April 27—Chopin, “A Point at Issue!,” “Madame Celestin’s Divorce,” “The Kiss,” and “A Lady of Bayou St. John” (The Awakening and Selected Short Stories)
April 28—Chopin, “Miss McEnders,” “La Belle Zoraide,” “The Story of an Hour” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings” (Awakening)
April 29—Chopin, “A Shameful Affair,” “At the ‘Cadian Ball,” “A Respectable Woman,” “Athenaise” and “The Storm” (Awakening)
May 3, 4—Chopin, “The Awakening”
May 5—Grace Elizabeth King, “One of Us”; Mary Austin, “The Walking Woman” (Regionalists); Chopin, “Regret” (Awakening)
May 6—Alice Dunbar-Nelson, “The Stones of the Village” (Regionalists); Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby” (Awakening)
May 10—Charles Chesnutt, “The Goophered Grapevine,” “Po’ Sandy” and “The Conjurer’s Revenge” (All Chesnutt readings are from The Conjure Woman.)
May 11—Chesnutt, “The Gray Wolf’s Ha’nt” and “Hot Foot Hannibal”
May 12—Chesnutt, “Mars Jeems’s Nightmare” and “Sis Becky’s Pickaninny”
May 13—Stephen Crane, “A Mystery of Heroism,” “An Episode of War” and “The Upturned Face” (All Crane readings are from The Great Short Works of Stephen Crane)
May 17, 18—Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
May 19—Crane, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” and “The Blue Hotel”
May 20—Crane, “The Monster”
May 24, 25, 26, 27—Frank Norris, McTeague
May 31—Memorial Day
June 1—Freeman, “A Poetess” and “A Village Singer”; Dunbar-Nelson, “M’Sieu Fortier’s Violin” (Regionalists); Chopin, “Wiser than a God” (Awakening)
June 2—Zitkala-Sa, “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” and “The School Days of an Indian Girl” (Regionalists)
June 3—Sui Sin Far, “The Sing Song Woman,” “Mrs. Spring Fragrance,” “The Inferior Woman” and “’Its Wavering Image’” (Regionalists)