American Literature Spring 2015

American Literature Spring 2015 Description: In this semester-length required English course, we will read and analyze a wide variety of American literature, and the people who made it, from the beginnings to the present. Students will take an active role in the learning process, participating in class, directing discussions, and seeking after knowledge. The course covers the major eras and movements [for example, realism, romanticism, and transcendentalism] in American literature by considering representative authors, relating them to their historical and literary contexts, and comparing them across time, movements, and genres. Objectives: At the end of the semester, the successful student will be able to: Relate a work to its historical and cultural contexts; demonstrating comprehension in class discussions and in written assignments; Identify traditional literary influences on contemporary American literature; Recognize common literary themes found in American literature (for example, alienation, sense of loss, appearance vs reality, the mysterious stranger, redemption, self-discovery, and coming of age); Consider a work in light of a particular theme, technique, or influence and craft an essay in response to that focus; Define and use literary terms (for example, plot, characters, theme, setting, point of view, rhythm, meter, and figurative devices) in oral and written responses to readings; Analyze an author s style by examining his or her word choice, sentence structure, and use of description to create a mood or tone; Collect, evaluate, and organize information; Use traditional sources and electronic databases to access information; Write well-structured, coherent essays in varied forms analyzing particular themes, characters, or ideas from a work; Relate common themes, characters and ideas in American literature across the works we study; and, Read a work of American Literature, create a focus based on themes discussed during the semester, design a research strategy, and present the work to the class in the role of teacher. Evaluation Criteria: Evaluation will be based upon daily participation, presentation assignments, written assignments, and a poetry analysis project with a multi-modal presentation in lieu of a final exam. 1

Primary Materials: Text Baym, Nina, General editor. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter seventh edition. New York: WW Norton & Co., 2008. ISBN: 978-0-393-93057-3. Media The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, directed by Peter Hunt [DVD]. Monterey Video, 2007. Run time: 213 minutes. American Experience: Walt Whitman (2008), directed by Mark Zwonitzer and Jamila Wignot [DVD]. PBS, 2008. Run time: 120 minutes. A Streetcar Named Desire Two Disc Special Edition [1951], directed by Elia Kazan [DVD]. Warner Home Video, 2006. Run time: 122 minutes. [Still contains the altered ending which is NOT the same as the play s.] Death of a Salesman (1985), directed by Volker Schlöndorff [DVD]. Image Entertainment, 2003. Run time: 136 minutes. [may be viewed if we are ahead of schedule!] Emerson: The Ideal in America (2007), directed by David A. Beardsley [DVD]. Custom Flix, 2007. Run time: 53 minutes. The Last of the Mohicans (1992), directed by Michael Mann [DVD]. Twentieth Century Fox, 2001. Run time: 112 minutes. Long Day s Journey Into Night (1987), directed by Jonathan Miller [DVD]. Image Entertainment, 2005. Run time: 170 minutes. [may be viewed if we are ahead of schedule!] Moby Dick (1956), directed by John Huston [DVD]. MGM, 2001. Run time: 116 minutes. The New World (2006), directed by Terrence Malick [DVD]. New Line Home Video, 2006. Run Time: 150 minutes. Rappaccini s Daughter (1980), directed by Dezso Magyar [DVD]. Monterey Video, 2005. Run time: 57 minutes. Thoreau's Walden: A Video Portrait (2012), directed by David Marlin [DVD]. Photovision, 2012. Run time: 27 minutes. 2

Proposed Schedule Week 1 January 21 st and 23 rd [A week] Syllabus and textbooks The Beginnings to 1700: A New World Introduction and Time-line (1-16) Multi-Media Project 1: Select one of the writers/works below and create a PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of 15 slides [not including the title slide, The end slide, or the sources slide(s)] or 5-7 minute video or other electronic presentation. Include background information on the author and a few quotations from his/her work to help us understand why this selection was included as American literature. Include pictures, maps, video clips, and any other media that will help you to help us understand the selection(s). The presentations will be due February 2 nd. Technical difficulties are not an excuse for not being ready or for stalling in presentation, so test your delivery feasibility ahead of time! The Iroquois Creation Story (17-21) Pima Stories of the Beginning of the World (21-24) Christopher Columbus (24-28) Alvar Nũnez Cabeza de Vaca (28-36) Thomas Harriot (36-42) John Smith (43-57) William Bradford (57-75) John Winthrop (75-87) Roger Williams (87-96) Anne Bradstreet (97-117) Mary Rowlandson (117-134) Edward Taylor (134-142) Cotton Mather (143-149) Pontiac: Speech at Detroit (207-209) Red Jacket: Speech to the US Senate (214-216) 3

Tecumseh: Speech to the Osages (216-218) These presentations are due on Monday, February 2 nd! The New World [DVD] Week 2 January 26 th and 28 th [B week] The Beginnings to 1700: A New World The New World [DVD] Work time for multi-media project assignment #1 Week 3 February 2 nd, 4 th, and 6 th [A week] The Beginnings to 1700: A New World Multi-Media Project 1 presentations are due Monday the 2 nd Early American Literature 1700-1820: An Expanding World leads to an Enlightenment, a Great Awakening, and a National Identity Introduction and Time-line (151-161) Religious Voices o Jonathan Edwards: Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God (168-170, 194-205) o John Woolman: Journal (292-300) Week 4 February 9 th and 11 th [B week] Early American Literature 1700-1820: An Expanding World leads to an Enlightenment, a Great Awakening, and a National Identity Political Voices o Benjamin Franklin: The Way of Wealth (218-226) o John and Abigail Adams: Letters (300-309) o Thomas Paine: from Common Sense and The Crisis (324-338) Week 5 February 18 th and 20 th [no school on Monday, February 16 th, Presidents' Day holiday] Early American Literature 1700-1820: An Expanding World leads to an Enlightenment, a Great Awakening, and a National Identity Political Voices o Thomas Jefferson: from The Autobiography (338-346) Black Voices o Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (355-390) 4

o Phyllis Wheatley: poetry (419-421) Week 6 February 23 rd and 25 th [B week] Early American Literature 1700-1820: An Expanding World leads to an Enlightenment, a Great Awakening, and a National Identity Women s Voices (391-392) o Sara Kemble Knight: A Journey from Boston to New York (162-168) o Sara Wentworth Morton (396-399) o Mercy Otis Warren (399-401) Writing Assignment 1: Choose one of the following questions and write a 500-750 word essay answering the question, using specific evidence from the readings. Don t forget to use in-text citations based on MLA conventions! Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, in a 12 point standard font [Ariel, Comic Sans, Courier, Tahoma, Times New Roman, etc.] 1. Red Jacket and Tecumseh make frequent references in their speeches to brothers and brotherhood. Why do you think they emphasized unity and a familial relationship at that historic moment? 2. In the letters of John and Abigail Adams, we see the intersection of public and personal life in Colonial America and evidence of an intimate relationship between two people. Explain how their characters and relationship are revealed through the concerns and conflicts they write about in their letters. 3. What does John Woolman mean when he writes that true religion consisted of an inward life and how is this different from the theology of Jonathan Edwards? 4. Consider Olaudah Equiano s The Interesting Narrative Life. What makes this interesting as American literature? 5. Which of the poets in this unit (Wheatley, Morton, or Warren) strikes you as achieving the most original style or sound, and why? Your essay is due on Wednesday, March 18 th Week 7 March 2 nd, 4 th, and 6 th [A week] American Literature 1820-1865: An American Renaissance Nationalism, Transcendentalism, and Romanticism Introduction and Time-line (431-452) The Last of the Mohicans [DVD] Washington Irving: Rip Van Winkle (453-466) 5

Spring Break March 7 th - 15 th Week 8 March 16 th and 18 th [B week] Writing Assignment 1 is due Wednesday the 18 th American Literature 1820-1865: An American Renaissance Nationalism, Transcendentalism, and Romanticism William Cullen Bryant: Thanatopsis and To a Waterfowl (475-479) Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature and Self-Reliance (489-519 and 533-550) Week 9 March 23 rd, 25 th, and 27 th [A week] American Literature 1820-1865: An American Renaissance Nationalism, Transcendentalism, and Romanticism Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown, The Birth- Mark (589-92, 605-614, 631-643); Rappaccini s Daughter [DVD] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: A Psalm of Life, The Slave s Dream, The Jewish Cemetery at Newport, and My Lost Youth (643-652) Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven, Annabel Lee, and The Fall of the House of Usher (671-679, 689-701) Week 10 March 30 th and April 1 st [no classes on Thursday, April 2 nd, Faculty Professional Day; no school on Friday, April 3 rd, Good Friday holiday] American Literature 1820-1865: An American Renaissance Nationalism, Transcendentalism, and Romanticism Abraham Lincoln: Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg (732-735) Henry David Thoreau: Walden (825-829, 844-920) Walt Whitman: Preface to Leaves of Grass, One s-self I Sing, Shut Not Your Doors, When I Heard the Learn d Astronomer, and Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, (991-1011, 1067, 1077-1084) Week 11 April 8 th and 10 th [A week; no school Monday, April 6 th, Easter Monday holiday] American Literature 1820-1865: An American Renaissance Nationalism, Transcendentalism, and Romanticism Emily Dickinson: poetry selections (1197-1225) Herman Melville: (1089-1092) Moby Dick [DVD] 6

Week 12 April 13 th and 15 th [B week] American Literature 1865-1914: The Transformation of a Nation American Realism Introduction and Time-line (1255-1269) Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens): Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [DVD] Writing Assignment 2: Read one of the short works below and, when finished, select 20 words that you think are essential to the understanding of the work. Using a WRITTEN presentation format of your choice [trading cards, brochure, song, poem, Glogster, etc.], explain why you selected these words and how they are integral to the story. This assignment is due on Friday, May 8 th Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom s Cabin (764-799) Herman Melville: Bartleby, the Scrivener (1093-1118) Henry James: Daisy Miller A Study (1491-1532) Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper (1682-1693) Willa Cather: The Sculptor s Funeral (1901-1903 and 1923-1932) Katherine Anne Porter: Flowering Judas (2147-2157) John Cheever: The Swimmer (2408-2417) James Baldwin: Going to Meet the Man (2556-2568) Flannery O Connor: Good Country People (2568-2583) Thomas Pynchon: Entropy (2717-2728) Toni Morrison: Recitatif (2647-2631) John Updike: Separating (2659-2669) Philip Roth: Defender of the Faith (2669-2691) Raymond Carver: Cathedral (2732-2743) 7

Maxine Hong Kingston: No Name Woman (2743-2753) Alice Walker: Everyday Use (2772-2778) Sandra Cisneros: Woman Hollering Creek (2819-2817) Louise Erdrich: Fleur (2828-2829, 2831-2840) Jhumpa Lahiri: Sexy (2857-2874) Week 13 April 20 th, 22 nd, and 24 th [A week] American Literature 1865-1914: The Transformation of a Nation American Realism Realism and Naturalism (1745-1746) Stephen Crane: The Open Boat (1777-1795) Jack London: To Build a Fire (1825-1836) Debates Over Americanization (1851-1852) Jane Addams: from Twenty Years at Hull House (1873-1880) Week 14 April 27 th and 29 th [B week] American Literature 1914-1945: American Modernism Introduction and Time-line (1881-1896) Zora Neale Hurston: How it Feels to Be Colored Me (2157-2161) F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams (2184-2201) Multi-Media Project 2 Assignment: Select one of the following poets and create a PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of 20 slides (not including the title slide, the ending slide, or the sources slide) or a 7-10 minute video to introduce the poet and include selections of his/her work. Create a focus for the poems presented based on an era, movement, or theme (as discussed during the semester), design a research strategy, collect visuals and information to support the focus, and present the project to the class in the role of a teacher. Edward Arlington Robinson (1897-1901) Robert Frost: selections (1951-1966) Carl Sandburg: selections (1987-1990) Wallace Stevens: (1990-2001) 8

Mina Loy (2001-2007) William Carlos Williams (2007-2017) Ezra Pound (2018-2024) H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (2025-2030) Marianne Moore (2030-2037) T.S. Eliot (2037-2065) Claude McKay (2144-2147) Edna St. Vincent Millay (2169-2172) e.e. cummings (2172-2179) Hart Crane (2236-2240) Langston Hughes (2263-2271) Countee Cullen (2283-2287) This project will be presented in lieu of a final exam for the course. Technical difficulties are not an excuse for not being ready or for stalling in presentation, so test your delivery feasibility ahead of time! Week 15 May 4 th, 6 th, and 8 th [A week] Writing Assignment 2 is due Friday the 8 th American Literature 1914-1945: American Modernism William Faulkner: A Rose for Emily (2216-2224) Ernest Hemingway: The Snows of Kilimanjaro (2241-2259) John Steinbeck: The Leader of the People (2272-2283) Poetry Island Survivor Assignment: Select a poet to represent during our Poetry Island Survivor Contest to be held May 29 th, June 1 st, and June 3 rd. Theodore Roethke (2319-2323) Elizabeth Bishop (2398-2407) Robert Hayden (2417-2424) Randall Jarrell (2424-2429) Robert Lowell (2526-2537) 9

Gwendolyn Brooks (2537-2541) Denise Levertov (2551-2556) Galway Kinnell (2602-2606) John Ashbery (2606-2611) James Wright (2611-2614) Anne Sexton (2614-2619) Adrienne Rich (2619-2633) Sylvia Plath (2651-2659) Lucille Clifton (2713-2717) Michael S. Harper (2729-2732) Billy Collins (2753-2756) Simon Ortiz (2757-2761) Yusef Komunyakaa (2778-2784) Jorie Graham (2800-2805) Joy Harjo (2805-2809) Rita Dove (2809-2815) Cathy Song (2840-2845) Li-Young Lee (2846-2850) Sherman Alexie (2852-2857) Poetry Island Survivor Contest: pick a poem by your poet that best fits the theme for the day. You will be performing in front of the class (and perhaps another class, so make sure it's a quality event!). You should have a copy of the day's poem for each student. Don't forget that even if you aren't invited to stay on the island, you must perform every day. There will be survivors chosen every day for best performance. Day One: Mood Music [Friday, May 29 th ] -- Perform your poem with lots of moody backgrounds. Remember all the senses, and use them to set the tone of the poem. Music, scents, sound effects, backgrounds (painted cardboard, etc.), balloons, food, tactile images (poems written on sandpaper or fabric and handed out), lighting effects like strobe or slide 10

projected backgrounds - all these can make your performance effective. Day Two: Artistic Interpretation [Monday, June 1 st ] -- You may present your poem in any art form. Read it to the class as a choral reading or in individual sections. Show us how you interpret the poem in an art form. You may use any media: dioramas, posters, kamishibai, sculpture, water color, scrapbook pages/collages, photo essays,etc. are all welcome. Day Three: Drama! [Wednesday, June 3 rd ] -- Your will act out your poem, using props and costumes as necessary. Make your poem come alive. Use sound effects, dramatic entrances and exits, and lots of color to give your poem some flair! The survivor(s) will be announced at the end of the presentations! Week 16 May 11 th and 13 th [B week] American Literature since 1945: Contemporary Literature Introduction and Time-line (2305-2318) Eudora Welty: Petrified Man (2323-2334) Tennessee Williams: (2334-2336) A Streetcar Named Desire [DVD] Week 17 May 18 th and 20 th [B week] American Literature since 1945: Contemporary Literature Saul Bellow: from The Adventures of Augie March (2449-2460) Jack Kerouac: from Big Sur (2542-2551) Week 18 May 27 th and 29 th [no school on Monday, May 25 h, Memorial Day holiday] American Literature since 1945: Contemporary Literature N. Scott Momaday: from The Way to Rainy Mountain (2702-2713) Poetry Island Survivor Day One! [Friday the 29 th ] Day One: Mood Music -- Perform your poem with lots of moody background music. Week 19 June 1 st and 3 rd [Final exams begin on Friday the 5 th!] 11

Poetry Island Survivor Days Two and Three! Day Two: Artistic Interpretation -- You may represent your poem in any art form. Day Three: Drama! -- Your will act out your poem, using props and costumes as necessary. The survivor(s) will be announced at the end of the presentations! Final Exam: Friday, June 5 th [9:00 11:30] Multi-Media Project 2 presented in lieu of a final exam Textbooks returned Evaluation: Students will begin each class day with 4 points. These points make up the daily participation grade. One point will be lost for each of the following: 1. arriving late to class; 2. not having the required materials for class (text, notebook, pen/pencil); 3. being unprepared for class (reading assignments not done and/or bodily needs not taken care of prior to class); and, 4. being unproductive or disruptive during class. Severe disruption may result in the assessment of negative points for the day. All writing assignments should be created in Word and formatted in Ariel, Comic Sans, Courier, or Times New Roman, using a 12-point font. Work that is late will be assessed a penalty of 5 points per class day, with weekends counting as two class days. Grades will be based on a percentage of points earned as follows: Component/Percentage Points: Daily Participation 10 Minor Assignments/Quizzes 10 Multi-Media Project 1 15 Writing Assignment 1 15 Writing Assignment 2 15 Poetry Island Survivor Contest 15 Multi-Media Project 2 20 100 Teacher Contact: Teacher Barb Office hours: tbarb@friends-school.org http://vbfsusteacherbarb.com Fridays, 4:00 5:00 PM, by PRIOR appointment 12