ENGL 353 A: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century

English  353: American Literature, Later Nineteenth-Century

Prof. Robert E. Abrams

Meetings: M, W, 3:30-5:20 PM, Low 101 

Phone: 206-765-0547

Email: rabrams@uw.edu

Course Description:

A study of representative American texts culled from the latter half of the nineteenth century and deliberately selected to span a gamut of genres: the novel, the short story, poetry, autobiography, the essay and the speech. Students should expect that in taking this course, they will keep needing to re-test the aesthetic ground-rules, and to keep re-adopting to radically different varieties of voice, ranging from Huck Finn’s down-home utterances to Dickinson’s gnomic phraseology to Henry James’s elaborately woven syntax.   Themes will include race, immigration, industrial revolution, class, relationships between native Americans and white America, and the frontier—lots of long-familiar subjects.  Even so, there’s no getting around the absence of a single perspective or voice through which to treat these issues.  What is representative about the American texts selected, that is to say, is the fact that either individually, or sometimes in juxtaposition, they force one to think from several different standpoints all at once, to read different voices, and to span a gamut of worlds.  

Texts: For your convenience, and to ease the strain on your budgets, all assigned readings in this course will be available in the Pages section of Canvas.

Requirements:

Formal essays:  Two 4 ½ to 5-page papers are due on Feb 9 and Mar 9.  Essay prompts will be available reasonably ahead of essay due dates in Announcements.  Check all Announcements on a regular basis.  This is very important.

Final Examination: A take-it-at-home final examination will be available on Canvas from Weds., Mar 16, 9 AM until Thurs, Mar 17, 6 PM, at which time the exam will become due. You will probably not need all this time to complete the exam—especially if you’ve done all readings and have reviewed all lectures during the quarter.  But this large window of time is open to you in consideration of your busy, crowded schedules during exam week.  During this window of time, you will be able to take portions of the exam, to migrate away from it, and then to return to the exam to complete remaining responses to questions.  Issues and concepts covered during classroom sessions as well as all reading assignments will be covered in this exam.

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NOTE CAREFULLY: ALL OF YOUR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS SHOULD REPRESENT YOUR OWN THINKING AND WRITING.  IN OTHER WORDS, THEY 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.

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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/.

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                                                            Course Calendar

Please note: our meetings at least through Jan 26 are online via Zoom.  Here's the link:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://washington.zoom.us/j/93223399393

Jan 3: Introduction to the Course 

A Game-Changing American Poet: Emily Dickinson

Jan 5: Dickinson, read the following poems, all available in Pages, in Canvas:   USE OF PERSONA: "I started early;" POEMS ON RELIGION AND GOD: "'Faith' is a fine invention," "I shall know why," "There's a certain slant," "He fumbles at your soul," "I know that He exists," "I cannot live with you,"  "The soul should always stand;" :  POEMS ON DEATH: "Because I could not stop,"  "I heard a Fly buzz."  

Jan 10:  POEMS ON NATURE, "I'll tell you how," "A bird came down the walk;" POEMS ON DESIRE, "Success is counted sweetest," "Exultation is the going," "Undue significance a starving man" PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SELF: “I felt a Funeral,” “I’m Nobody,” “Alone, I cannot be." 

A Game-Changing American Novel

Jan 12: Twain, HUCKLEBERRY FINN  (read at least the first half)

Jan 17: HOLIDAY

Jan 19:  Twain, HUCKLEBERRY FINN  (finish reading the novel) 

Industrial Revolution, Urbanization, and Class Polarization

Jan 24:  Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills" 

Jan 26: Crane, MAGGIE 

The Civil War:

Jan 31: Crane, THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE 

Henry James: Modern Gothicism 

Feb 2: James, “The Turn of the Screw”

Post-Slavery Race Relations.

Feb 7:  DuBois, THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK.

Feb 9: Continuation of discussion of DuBois; also read Ellison, “Harlem is Nowhere.”  PAPER ONE DUE.  See Announcement ahead of time for prompts.

Native American Speeches

Feb 14: Preface to “Chief Seattle’s Speech,” “Chief Seattle’s Speech,”

and from “Native American Speeches,” read only from Excerpt 3 onward        

American Heterogeneity and Flux:  Is there an American Focal Center? 

Feb 16 Crane, “The Blue Hotel,” “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky”

Feb 21: Holiday 

Feb 23: Excerpts from Henry James, The American Scene

Turn-of-the Century American Feminism

Feb 28:  Chopin, THE AWAKENING (at least the first half)  

Mar 2:  Continued discussion of Chopin, THE AWAKENING

Mar 7: Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Mar 9: Course Conclusion.  Second essay due, 9 AM, Thurs, 10 MAR.

Final Examination. Take-home available on Canvas as a "Quiz" from Weds, Mar 16, 9 AM until Thurs, Mar 17, 6 PM, at which time the exam will become due and access to the exam on Canvas will close.