ENGLISH 340 - The Literary Sources
of the American Character: 1600-1865
| Fall 2007
Dr. Battenburg
Course Description: English 340 focuses on major Colonial and Early American writers. This course exposes students to American prose, poetry, and fiction. Throughout the quarter a number of common and recurring themes will be explored: nature versus civilization, innocence versus experience, new world versus old world, heart versus head, individual versus society, and good versus evil. While becoming acquainted with various literary works, students will also be encouraged to develop critical methods of reading and writing. Students are expected to initiate and participate in class discussion, take unannounced quizzes, complete two essay examinations, and write a four-six page critical paper. In-class activities and reading assignments will be supplemented by accessing websites. Student will be required to use the computer to participate in these online activities. The address for the American Literature site is as follows: cla.calpoly.edu/~jbattenb/amlit Texts: Baym, Nina, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. Vol. A and B. New York: Norton, 2007. Class Requirements and Grading Procedure: 1) Attendance is required.
More than three absences will significantly lower your final grade.
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Schedule: MON 17 SEP.
WED 19
Graduate Writing Exam (Two
other opportunities to take the GWR
MON 24 Rowlandson
WED 26
Knight
Byrd
William Byrd's Westover Plantation MON 1 OCT.
Online Literature Assignment Due WED 3
Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer MON 8
Benjamin Franklin: Glimpses of the Man WED 10
MON 15
WED 17
Freneau
MON 22
WED 24 MON 29
WED 31
MON 5 NOV.
WED 7 MON 12 WED 14 Life and Works of Herman Melville CRITICAL PAPER DUE MON 19
Thoreau
WED 21 Vacation MON 26 WED 28 Thoreau Walden (1988-2046)
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FINAL EXAM as stated in the Fall Schedule (Bring 1 or 2 large exam books)
Directions for Critical Essay
Your assignment is to write a short essay (about five to seven double-spaced, typed pages) on a significant literary issue or theme. Remember that this is to be a critical analysis--not a summary. Because this is an essay, make sure to include the essential parts, such as an introduction, thesis statement, major arguments, and conclusion. Your assertions should be supported by examples from the text. When you quote or refer to passages, indicate the page number from The Norton Anthology of American Literature, fifth edition. This paper should be based on your experience with one or more works. No secondary criticism is requested or allowed. However, you may use material from the other works we have read in class if this is helpful. Your paper will look something like this:
Ishmael's Education and Isolation at Sea
Although early in Moby-Dick Melville says that such and such is operating (135), he seems to take a somewhat different view later in the novel. For instance, he has Ishmael indicate by his actions that something or other is true--as is shown when he does whatever he does (272). This, of course, is in keeping with what Melville suggests in his discussion of what the whale means to Ishmael. In "The Whiteness of the Whale," Ishmael reveals whatever it is he reveals (166). This suggests whatever it suggests. All of this needs to be measured against what Melville says in his essay on Hawthorne written while he was thinking about and writing Moby-Dick. In "Hawthorne and His Mosses" he declares, "For in this world, Truth is forced to fly like a sacred white doe in the woodlands . . . ." (542). His treatment of Pip must also be considered in connection to this. Melville has Pip do what it is he does (347). This seems to be a case of whatever it seems to be. Melville's insistence on treating this like that makes one interpret something in a particular way. Further more, blah and blah and blah, and these suggest blah and blah . . . .
Since your citations will appear in the body of your paper,
no footnotes are needed.