English 353: American Literature, Later Nineteenth-Century
Prof. Robert E. Abrams
M, W: 4:30-6:20
Phone: 206-765-0547
Email: rabrams@uw.edu
OFFICE HOURS: Every Tuesday, 2-4 PM. Make sure that you email me at least 2 hours ahead of time to make an appointment. My office hours are virtual: available online. The link to reach me online is as follows:
https://washington.zoom.us/j/5436685630
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 native American speech. Students should expect that in taking this course, they will keep needing to re-adopt to different varieties of style and voice, ranging from Huck Finn’s down-home utterances to Dickinson’s gnomic phraseology to Henry James’s elaborately woven syntax to the multiplicity of voices in texts such as "Life in the Iron Mills" and THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK. Themes will include race, immigration, class differences and tensions, pioneering feminist fiction, relationships between native Americans and white America, and the frontier—lots of long-familiar subjects. My aim is to teach a diversified and broadly inclusive course in keeping with the increasing heterogeneity and complexity of the U.S. in the decades following the Civil War.
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.
INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS SEEKING TO REGISTER IN ENGLSH 353:
Many 300-level English courses (such as this one) are restricted only to ENGL majors during Period 1 registration. Most courses which are initially restricted to ENGL majors become available to non-majors beginning in Period 2 (about five weeks into the pre-registration process). Add codes may be available from the instructor during Period 3 (beginning on the first day of classes for the quarter).
If you plan to seek instructor permission to add an English course during Period 3 (which starts on the first day of school), be sure to ATTEND ALL CLASS MEETINGS during the first two weeks of classes. Instructors will be reluctant to issue entry codes to students who have missed one or more class meetings.
Requirements:
Formal essays: Two essays, approximately 5 pages long, will be due on May 4 and June 1. Essay prompts will be available reasonably ahead of essay due dates in Announcements. Check all Announcements on a regular basis.
Informal summary essays:
You are required to write 11 relatively short summary essays during the quarter addressing issues which you deem important in classroom lectures and reading assignments. These summary essays can be considered “low stakes writing,” but they are expected to show a level of detail indicating attendance at lectures and classroom discussions and the careful reading of assignments. I've discovered over the years that students find these summary essays to be less stressful than exams, and they prove to be more indicative than exams of what students are actually getting out of the course. In most cases, these essays will be graded "credit," and your overall course grade will be based on your two longer essays. In some cases, I will raise your overall grade in the course if your summary essays are especially well-written, detailed, and intelligent. Missing essays or an especially poor group of essays will result in a reduction in your overall course grade.
These summary essays will be collected and submitted to me at the end of the quarter, but during the quarter you should write them on a regular basis, when assigned readings and classroom lectures and discussions are fresh in your mind. They are all due on Tuesday, June 6, 9 A.M. Gather them all together into a single file in Word (no pdf. copies will be accepted), number each essay keyed to the numbers assigned to each essay below, and you should submit the aggregated file of numbered essays as an email attachment addressed to rabrams@uw.edu. All essays should be single spaced, in 14-point font, with one-inch margins on all sides. Summary essays should be submitted as follows (but please note that you are allowed to omit either Essay #6 or Essay #9 below, in keeping with my notification at the outset of the Course Calendar regarding your option to omit reading assignments on either April 26 or May 10):
- Essay covering all assigned reading, lectures, and classroom discussion on March 29 and April 3. Approximately 1 to 1.5 pages, single-spaced.
- Essay covering all assigned reading, lectures, and classroom discussion on April 5 and April 10. Approximately 1 to 1.5 pages, single-spaced
- Essay covering the assigned reading, the lecture, and the classroom discussion on April 12.. Approximately ¾ page, single-spaced.
- Essay covering the assigned reading, the lecture, and the classroom discussion on April 17. Approximately ¾ page, single-spaced.
- Essay covering all assigned reading, lectures, and classroom discussion on April 19 and April 24. Approximately 1 to 1.5 pages, single-spaced.
- Essay covering the assigned reading, the lecture, and the classroom discussion on April 26. Approximately ¾ page, single-spaced.
- Essay covering all assigned reading, lectures, and classroom discussion on May 1 and May 3. Approximately 1 to 1.5 pages, single-spaced.
- Essay covering the assigned reading, the lecture, and the classroom discussion on May 8. Approximately ¾ page, single-spaced.
- Essay covering the assigned reading, the lecture, and the classroom discussion on May 10. Approximately ¾ page, single-spaced.
- Essay covering the assigned reading, the lecture, and the classroom discussion on May 15. Approximately ¾ page, single-spaced.
- Essay covering all assigned reading, lectures, and classroom discussion on May 17 and May 22. Approximately 1 to 1.5 pages, single-spaced.
- Essay covering the assigned reading, the lecture, and the classroom discussion on May 24. Approximately ¾ page, single-spaced.
Class Format: I will begin each class with a lecture. You will then have a 10-minute break. This will be followed by class discussion.
All supplementary visual materials projected on the screen in class will be available as well in the "Pages" section of Canvas for this course.
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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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PLEASE NOTE: YOU ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE ALL READING ASSIGNMENTS MINUS ONE OF THE FOLLOWING (YOUR CHOICE): THE TWO TALES BY CRANE ON MAY 10, OR THE LONG NOVELLA BY HENRY JAMES ON APRIL 26
Course Calendar
Mar 27: Introduction to the Course
A Game-Changing American Poet: Emily Dickinson
Mar 29: Dickinson, read the following poems. 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."
Apr 3: 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
Apr 5: Twain, HUCKLEBERRY FINN (read at least the first half)
Apr 10: Twain, HUCKLEBERRY FINN (finish reading the novel)
Industrial Revolution, Urbanization, and Class Polarization
Apr 12: Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills"
Apr 17: Crane, MAGGIE
The Civil War:
Apr 19: Crane, THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
Apr 24: Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, and Melville, from Battle Pieces
Henry James: Modern Gothicism
Apr 26: James, “The Turn of the Screw”
Post-Slavery Race Relations.
May 1: DuBois, THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK. Read only the following excerpts:
The Forethought, read the entirety
Chap. I: From "Between me and the other" to "roughly in his face"
Chap II: From "The problem of the twentieth" to "worse rather than better"; from "To understand and criticize" to "martyr to duty;" from "Had political exigencies" to "problem of the color line"
Chap. III: From "Easily the most striking" to "well in the world"; from "Mr. Washington represents" to "children, black and white"; from "The black men of America . . . the pursuit of happiness."
Chap. IV: Read the entirety
Chap. V: From "Teach workers to work" to "not an abortion"
Chap. VI: From "In rough approximation" to "delusion of black"; from "From such schools" to "we sight the Promised Land"
Chap. VII: From "But we must hasten" to "as though they had not come"; from "It is a land of rapid" to "by their forced labor"
Chap. VIII: From "We seldom study the condition" to "continued bankruptcy of the tenant"
Chap IX: From "The world-old phenomenon" to "of the white race;" from "This unfortunate economic situation" to "to human progress;" from "The centre of this spiritual turmoil" to "wavers and disappears"
Chap XIII: Read in its entirety.
Chap. XIV: From "They that walked in darkness" to "greatest gift"; from "Through all the sorrow" to "goes his way"
May 3: Continuation of discussion of DuBois; also read Ellison, “Harlem is Nowhere”
PAPER ONE DUE 9 AM. May 4. See Announcement ahead of time for prompts.
Native American Speeches
May 8: Preface to “Chief Seattle’s Speech,” “Chief Seattle’s Speech"
American Heterogeneity and Flux: Is there an American Focal Center?
May 10: Crane, “The Blue Hotel,” “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky”
May 15: Excerpts from Henry James, The American Scene
Turn-of-the Century American Feminism
May 17: Chopin, THE AWAKENING (at least the first half)
May 22: Continued discussion of Chopin, THE AWAKENING
May 24: Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
May 29: HOLIDAY
May 31: Course Conclusion. Second essay due, 9 AM, June 1. Please note: I will accept late essays up until Friday morning, June 9, 9 AM without a penalty. However, because I have lots to read during exam week, and must strictly budget my time, I won’t be able to offer commentary on essays submitted after 9 AM June 1.
Your set of weekly summary essays is due on Tuesday morning, June 6, 9 AM. See instructions earlier in this syllabus under "Requirements."