Palo Alto College
Department of English
English 2327 All Sections
American Literature I
Fall, 2009 WWW and On-Campus Sections
For Both the WWW, Distance Education Section and the Lecture-Discussion On Campus Sections
Readings and WWW Assignments with Links
Michael S. Seiferth
Faculty Office Building, 131
Telephone: 486-3252 (Office)
Telephone: 824-4136 (Home)
Telephone: 824-1564 (FAX)
Internet Addresses
If you have access to an online service (AOL, TexasNet, etc.) or if you are a registered user of the District's online service, you can use your e-mail account to write to me concerning your inquiries and concerns. I shall respond as quickly as possible. PALO ALTO COLLEGE ON ITS PALS WEBSITE PROVIDES YOU WITH OUR ACADEMIC E-MAIL ACCOUNT.
http://lonestar.texas.net/~mseifert/
mseifert@texas.net USE THIS ADDRESS FOR ALL COURSE WORK AND INQUIRY
mseiferth@mail.accd.edu
OFFICE HOURS (INCLUDING OPEN COMPUTER LAB)
Schedule for Fall, 2009, Including Office Hours
The Palo Alto College Teaching Center, funded in part through Title III, has made it possible for me to develop cogent and centrally significant materials, which will help my students conceive of literature in terms of the historical, aesthetic, the historical, and philosophical dimensions which inform the periods and the works of the men and women writing in or about America beginning in the late fifteenth century through the American Civil War. I am grateful for the opportunity not only to expand central texts and, thus, understanding, but also to study the use of electronic media in developing a WWW Home Page for my courses. Further, my participation in the History Forums held in 1995, 1996, and 1997, underwritten by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, challenged my understanding of the problems of the new immigrants to Colonial America in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, interrogated the implications of the First Amendment to the Constitution in Colonial and Revolutionary and Federal times, and teased out the "American Family that Never Was." I am able to include this wealth of information in this course. During the Summer of 1996 I had the opportunity to study Carl Jung and archetypes of dream at the Pacifica Graduate Institute. My reading of the major texts written in America has been profoundly affected by this experience. Finally, I am grateful to the NEH for its grant given to me during the summer of 1994, where I spent a delightful semester at LSU, Baton Rouge. It is here that I learned the nature of tragedy and comedy, both ideas, of course, which inform and generate the power of The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick! Many thanks to Susan Hammond of the Teaching Center for her making it possible for these significant release-time grants.
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION:
This course is a survey of American literature from the Colonial period to the beginning of Realism. A research paper or term project required. (PREREQUISITE: ENGLISH 1301 AND 1302)
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1. To present the chronological study of American literature from its European and early colonial beginnings through the the writings of Walt Whitman. Specifically, we shall study the literature of the colonial periods before 1700 and from 1700-1800, and early Nineteenth Century, 1800-1865.
2. To introduce the student to the various movements and styles found within the general periods of literary history.
3. To acquaint the student with the historical, religious, social, intellectual, and economic influences affecting American literature and American English. We will begin with writings of Native Americans, the Spanish explorers and settlers, and the European (essentially British settlers). Then we will move to the visionary and enlightened voices of the colonists who became the revolutionaries and early citizens of the United States. The culmination of the course resides in the study of the American Romantics and the democratic impulse. Cultural diverse voices shall be heard.
4. To develop the rhetorical skills taught in freshman English especially as they apply to critical analyses papers and an informative or argumentative research paper or term project.
5. To help students recognize form and pattern in literary works as a means of understanding their meanings.
6. To demonstrate to students the richness and diversity of American literature by studying texts that emerge from and illustrate that diversity in order to understand how a text engages concerns central to the period in which it was written as well as to the overall developments of American culture.
7. To have students examine the cultural implications of gender, race, class for our understanding and appreciation of literature and the society which created it.
8. To have students explore extensively and intensively a major topic in the history, culture, philosophy, and art which informed the first three hundred years of literature written in America.
9. To build on students' technical understanding of the WWW so that they will be able to negotiate the resources, to communicate with eachother and the professor, and to develop a WWW page as a class project.
STUDENT COMPETENCIES
1. To know the chronology of period covered by the course in terms of the historical, political, literary, religious, and economic FACTS presented in the text, class notes, and study aids.
2. To apply the characteristics of a specific movement or style or genre to specific works of literature and vice versa.
3. To comprehend basic historical, religious, social, intellectual, and economic influences on American literature and American English.
4. To demonstrate rhetorical skills taught in freshman composition especially as they apply to critical analyses and an informative or argumentative research paper or term project.
5. To recognize and evaluate form and pattern in literary works as a means of understanding their meaning.
6. To appreciate the cultural diversity from which we might be able to derive a definition in light of the changing cultures of the United States
7. To connect literature and its study with the society and culture of which it is fundamentally a part.
8. To bring through the research process producing a significant paper which will contribute to the student's understanding of the central, informing ideas and assumptions of literature written in America during its first three-hundred years. Further, the student will continue the process of independent study and the development of self-reliance in the pursuit of knowledge in terms of a study of the current theories of literature--psychological, feminist, deconstruction, reader-response, and the new historicism--as applied to a reading of The Scarlet Letter. Finally, writing concerning Moby Dick shall be centered upon the ideas of epic and tragedy, and will form the central, critical focus of the semester.
9. To perform research using the resources of the World Wide Web and to develop World Wide Web Pages which reflect the content and scope of the course.
METHODS OF ASSESSMENT
INSTRUMENTS STUDENT COMPETENCIES
ASSESSED
__________________________________________________________
1. Objective quizzes #1, #3, #9
2. WWW Assignments
and Critical thinking
Exercises #2, #3, #4, #5, #9
3. Major critical
papers #2, #3, #4, #5
#6, #7, #9
4. Major term
WWW
project #2, #4, #6, #7, #8, #9
5. Final examination
[comprehensive] #3, #4, #5. #6, #7, #8, #9
EVALUATION
1. Quizzes (On Background Notes)..... 5%
2. WWW Assignments and Critical Thinking Exercises ....................................30%
3. Analyses of Longer Critical Studies (Class WWW Presentations)..........25%
4. WWW Term Project ....................................................................................25%
5. Final Examination [Comprehensive]...................................................15%
GRADING SCALE
Quizzes and objective sections of examinations: Scale 1-100 with 70% minimum competency. The grading scale is as follows: "A" = 100-90;
"B" = 89-80; "C" = 79-70; "D" 69-60; "F"= Below 60%. Essay examinations, critical papers, and term research papers or projects evaluated in terms of the quality of content and the quality of the structure, style, and language.
Attendance is expected and required; refer to the Bulletin for a statement of the regulations concerning attendance. Acquaint yourself, in addition, with the academic calendar. You will find important dates concerning deadlines in terms of non-performance and performance grades, i.e., drop dates.
A word concerning plagiarism...
The standard definition of the verb "to plagiarize" includes the following: "(1) To steal and use the ideas or writings of another as one's own. (2) To appropriate passages and ideas from and use them as one's own." Curiously enough, the Latin plagiarius (plunderer) forms the base of this word [American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition]. The consequences of plagiarism are serious. You may fail the assignment, the course, or even be dismissed from college. When in doubt, always give credit to your source. It is wise to err in the direction of excessive documentation. You will be informed about the nature of plagiarism as it applies to critical papers, research papers, and term projects. Finally, Palo Alto College has published a student Handbook which contains an official statement concerning plagiarism; please read this at your earliest convenience.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter, Ed. Ross C. Murfin,
Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press.
Highwater, Jamake. Anpao, An American Indian Odyssey.
Lauter, Paul, General Editor. The Heath Anthology of American Literature,
Volumes A and B. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, Fifth Edition.
Mancall, Peter C., Ed. Envisioning America: English Plans for the
Colonization of North America, 1580-1640. St. Martins, 1995.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Harrison Hayford and Herschel Parker, Eds.
New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1967.
Sewall, Richard. The Vision of Tragedy. New York: Paragon Press, 1990.
SEVERAL OF THESE BOOKS WILL BE REPLACED BY INEXPENSIVE SOFTWARE FOR WWW STUDENTS.
ADDITIONAL REQUIRED READING
In this course you will be asked to read essays and illustrative material, some of which shall be distributed to you in class. THE OPEN COMPUTER LAB IS AVAILABLE FOR WWW REFERENCE, BUT, PLEASE NOTE:
You may read the essays on the screen, but you will be unable to run off copies of them; you may copy the disk, however, and use it on your home computer..
The best way, however, to read the documents, download them, or print them, is to find them on the WWW at the following URL:
Finally, one of the earliest assignments in the course will be centered on comparative readings of Native American cultures and beliefs with those Western, Euro-Christian beliefs and cultures. We shall investigate, for example, The Wolf and Raven: Totem Poles of Southeastern Alaska and Shamans and Kushtakas: North Coast Tales of the Supernatural along with the Zuni texts in Lauter. Understanding the mythological implications of all three cultures will take us a long way towards answering the questions, "Why did these cultures fail to see the connections between them?" "Is the American Dream essentially European in origin?" and, "What is an American?"
You will be asked to view the following video films, some of which shall be part of the class activities. . In addition, arrangements have been made with the LRC, Media Services, for you to view the films in the LRC. Thus, the LRC will have the materials you will need for the supplemental, required reading and viewing in this course.
1. The Story of English Three episodes, "Muse of Fire," "Black on White," and "O! Pioneers! O! Pioneers!"
2. Voices and Visions. "Walt Whitman" and "Emily Dickinson"
3. Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World (Video and Text)
4. Columbus and the Age of Discovery (Video and Text)
5. Cabeza de Vaca (1993 film based on the journals of Alvar Nunez
Gabeza de Vaca. Revisionist history and reinterpretation of Empire
in terms of Universal vs. Particular)
6. Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moiyers. "The First Story Tellers"
TOPICAL OUTLINE
The dates for examinations, papers, and term projects are announced on the written copies of test reviews and paper assignments. Classroom activities, the order of material, and dates due are subject to change. Material followed by an asterisk (*) is scheduled to be covered more or less in the order presented. You will receive a specific list of readings shortly after the initial class meeting in the form of daily assignments..
I. Colonial Literature and the Literature of Discovery and Exploration
(to 1700)
A. Native American
B. Christopher Columbus*
C. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca*
D. Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere
E. Pedro Menedez de Aviles
F. Gaspar Perez de Villagra*
II. The Literature of Colonial America, The Seventeenth Century
(Echoes of the Renaissance and Reformation)
A. Captain John Smith*
B. William Bradford*
C. Thomas Morton
D. John Winthrop*
E. Roger Williams *
F. Increase Mather*
G. Anne Bradstreet*
H. Michael Wigglesworth*
I. Edward Taylor*
J. Cotton Mather*
K. Samuel Sewall
L. Mary Rowlandson
M. William Byrd II
N. John Woolman
O. Jonathan Edwards*
P. Don Antonio de Otermin*
Q. Don Diego de Vargas*
R. Elizabeth Ashbridge
S. Mercy Otis Warren
T. Martha Brewster
U. Jupiter Hammon*
V. Fray Carlos Jose Delgado*
III. The Literature of Reason and Revolution, The Eighteenth Century
(The Shaping of the National Ideals)
A. Benjamin Franklin*
B. Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crevecoeur*
C. Thomas Paine*
D. Thomas Jefferson*
E. Hamilton, Madison The Federalist*
F. Royall Tyler*
G. Phillis Wheatley*
H. Philip Freneau
I. Joel Barlow
J. Hannah Webster Foster*
K. Hugh Henry Brackenridge
L. William Bartram
M. Judith Sargent Murray
IV. The Age of Romanticism, The Ninteenth Century
(Romantic Art in an Agrarian Republic)
A. Washington Irving*
B. Augustus Baldwin Longstreet
C. Thomas Bangs Thorpe
D. George Washington Harris
E. James Fenimore Cooper*
F. William Cullen Bryant
G. Edgar Allan Poe*
H. Ralph Waldo Emerson*
I. Nathaniel Hawthorne*
J. Herman Melville*
K. Henry David Thoreau*
L. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
M. John Greenleaf Whittier
N. Oliver Wendell Holmes*
O. James Russell Lowell
P. Harriet Beecher Stowe
Q. Frederick Douglass*
R. Abrahamn Lincoln*
S. Louisa May Alcott
T. Sidney Lanier
U. Walt Whitman*
V. Emily Dickinson*
W. Harriet Beecher Stowe*
X. Native American Voices*
Y. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Z. Juan Nepomuceno Seguin
NOTE
The essays and background notes listed below offer you the core readings for English 2327. A combination of history, philosophny, and aesthetics, this information focuses on basic insights which will aid you in interpreting the primary works of our writers. The Reformation and the Renaissance, for example, which inform the second reading, "American Literature, Part I," places an emphasis on history and philosophy which form the springboard of our understanding of the European experience in America. Octavio Paz's essay, furthe, permits us to explore our own reactions to the art of the Pre-Columbian civilizaztions and lets us share the initial shock and other reactions our Spanish explorers must have experienced when they entered the New World. In order to react to the works of Highwater (Anpao) and Chavaria (Gabeza de Vaca) [the film] , Paz's essay offers us insight and comfort and helps us to celebrate "the Other". Again, in order to understand the eighteenth century, you have to know about the ideas of Scientific Deism and the full implications of The Age of Reason. So very different from today's points of view, this background gives us the essential philosophic and theologic foundations which informed the thinking of the Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. You will, therefore, begin to appreciate their education and, thus, their assumptions which inform the central works of each writer.
Finally, the works of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthoirne, Melville, and Whitman move us into what is an American writer, and the specific attributes of a national literature emerge when we understand the theological and philosophical assumptions of the German Transcendentalists and the Romantic writers in England who heavily influenced Emerson among others. It is here that we can study the particular attributes of each writer and also, and as important, the universal ones. Thus, our study of comedy and tragedy and the epic will, bringing us back where began, so to speak, with an appreciation of the other in terms of our own experiences and reactions to the terrain of comedy, the soulscape of tragedy, and the vast panorama of the epic.
Required Readings (ONLINE REPRESENTED WITH AN ASTERISK --*-- WWW Section and Non WWW Sections
1. Octavio Paz. "The Other" Essays in Mexican Art
2. American Literature Part I, The Seventeenth Century*
3. American Literature Part II, The Eighteenth Century and the Enlightenment*
4. Unitarianism and Transcendentalism*
5. The Essays, "Tragic Form," "The Scarlet Letter,"and "Moby-Dick"Can Be Found by Clicking Here.*
Moby Dick as Epic" by Bainard Cowan.
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ORDER OF DISCUSSION
1. INTRODUCTION. Background in the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the climate of exploration. A reading of Anpao and a consideration of Octavio Paz's reflection on "the other" along with a viewing of the film Gabeza de Vaca will offer the opportunity to write a major critical paper. [Students may explore the WWW for resources and information which will supplement the information offered in class.]
2. THE AGE OF THE PURITAN AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN CULTURE. A reading of the early texts concerning the European values and attitudes towards the New World--the theology of colonialism, the Calvinistic roots of American Puritanism, the theocracy, and the gradual movement away from church membership as the basis for sufferage. Second major critical paper and exploration of WWW resources for possible class presentations.
3. THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL GOVERNMENT. DEISM and the Mind of the Framers of the Constitution. Slavery argued. Third major critical paper.
4. THE IDEALISM OF THE THE NEW COUNTRY found in the works of Emerson and Thoreau.
5. AMERICAN ROMANTICISM: THE POWER OF BLACKNESS explored in the writings of Hawthorne and Melville. The vision of tragedy, the Romantic journey, and the movement towards Civil War. Paper and Class Presentation--WWW Exploration.
6. THE LYRICAL CELEBRATION OF AMERICA: WALT WHITMAN.
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The Walt Whitman Project: Main Index
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