ENGL 222                Survey of American Literature II                         3 Credit Hours

 

SEMESTER                Fall 2001

INSTRUCTOR                Dr. Daniel DeBord

OFFICE                  137 Avery Hall 

OFFICE HOURS   Mon.  11-12; 6:30-7    Wed.  11-12; 6-6:30     Fri.  9-10;  11-12

TELEPHONE                (423) 869-6215

EMAIL                   ddebord@lmunet.edu

 

 

PREREQUISITE                  ENGL 112 or ENGL 122

 

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION/ COURSE GOALS

 

ENGLISH 222 is a chronological survey of the most important American literature since the Civil War.  These writers will be placed in social, historical, and literary contexts, with special emphasis on major literary movements and innovations.

 

 

TEXT     Baym, Nina, and others. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume II, Fifth Edition.

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

·         To introduce students to the work of thirty-five to forty American writers since the Civil War

·         To place these writers and their works in a meaningful cultural and historical context

·         To reinforce students’ understanding of the primary literary genres and their elements

·         To improve critical reading and writing skills

 

 

UNITS OF INSTRUCTION/ READING LIST

 

1.                    Realism in American Fiction

Mark Twain                 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (excerpts); “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences”               

Henry James                                 Daisy Miller                                                               

 

2.                    Naturalism in American Literature

Hamlin Garland                                “Under the Lion’s Paw”

Stephen Crane                                “The Open Boat”

Jack London                                “The Law of Life”

 

3.                    Turn of the Century Fiction by American Women

Sarah Orne Jewett                “The White Heron”

Kate Chopin                                “At the ‘Cadian Ball”;  “The Storm”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman                “The Yellow Wall-paper”

 

4.                    African American Literature before World War II

Booker T. Washington                Up From Slavery  Chapters 1-3

W.E.B. Du Bois                                The Souls of Black Folk  The Forethought, Chapters 1 and 3

Zora Neale Hurston                “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”;  “The Gilded Six-Bits”

Claude McKay                                Selected poems

Langston Hughes                                Selected poems

 

 

                                                                                                                                                       2

 

5.                    Modernist Poetry

Robert Frost                                Selected poems

Wallace Stevens                                Selected poems

T.S. Eliot                                Selected poems

 

6.                    Modernist Fiction

                                Katherine Anne Porter”                “Flowering Judas”

F. Scott Fitzgerald                “Babylon Revisited”

William Faulkner                 As I Lay Dying

Ernest Hemingway                “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”

Thomas Wolfe                     “The Lost Boy”

 

7.                    Modern Drama

Eugene O’Neill                                  Long Day’s Journey into Night

Arthur Miller                                Death of a Salesman

 

8.                    Poetry since World War II

Selected poems by Theodore Roethke, Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Levine,

Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, Gary Snyder, Sylvia Plath, and Audre Lorde

 

9.                    Fiction since World War II

Flannery O’Connor                “Good Country People”

Raymond Carver                                “Cathedral”

Alice Walker                                “Everyday Use”

                                Barry Hannah                  “Midnight and I’m Not Famous Yet”

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

 

Two 750-word critical essays on literary works from different

 periods and literary genres (For example, if paper 1 is on realistic

fiction, paper 2 must  not  be about realism or fiction.)  The best of the

two papers will be used to meet the sophomore  SEWS requirement.

The instructor may require several revisions if necessary.                                          15 % each

                                                                                                               

 

Three 60-minute tests                                                                                                     15 % each

 

                Final Exam (Monday, Dec. 10,,  4-6 p.m.)                                                                                25 %

                (Students should make travel plans accordingly)

 

October 26, 2001 is the last day to withdraw from class and avoid an “F” on the student’s transcript.  A student must complete all steps in the withdrawal process to avoid receiving a final grade of “F” for the course.

 

The instructor reserves the right to refuse to accept late work.

 

The instructor reserves the right to lower the final grade of any student who misses more than three weeks of class.

 

 

Syllabus Revised August 2001