• Individual instructors may assemble a group of texts that will allow students to meet the objectives and specifications of the course. No specific texts are required.

• An examination of the American literary arts based in an aesthetic of accurate, unromanticized observation/representation of life and nature that flourished in the post-Civil War era.
• A further specific description pertaining to this section of the course may be added.

Graduate Course Goals

• Students will be able to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of American literary realism and naturalism and writers whose works characterize and define this aesthetic.
• Students will demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the nineteenth-century cultural context that gave rise to the practice of realism and naturalism in the United States.
• Students will show comprehension and an application of theoretical and critical foundations for the interpretation of literature of the period through an annotated bibliography and/or oral presentation of 10-12 secondary sources.
• Students will reveal in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well-supported analysis of course-related material.
• Students will display their command of academic English and of the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose, including at least 12-15 pages of research-based writing.
• Students will be capable of conducting independent and meaningful course-related research and of synthesizing it in the form of a correctly documented research paper prepared according to current professional standards.

• Students will be able to synthesize from the study of representative writers and their works the defining characteristics of literary realism and naturalism as well as distinguish the uniqueness of these writers and their works.
• Students will demonstrate an awareness of the nineteenth-century cultural context that gave rise to the practice of realism and naturalism in the United States.
• Students will demonstrate in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well-supported analysis of related material.
• Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose.
• Students will learn to use discipline-specific computer technologies related to the study of language such as listservs, word processing, and internet research.

Graduate Program Goals

• This course prepares students to complete successfully the comprehensive oral examination that is required for all M.A. degree candidates.
• This course provides students with literary, historical, and critical contexts related to texts on the department's required reading list.
• Oral presentations in the course strengthen students' presentation skills and prepare them further for the oral comprehensive examination which is required for the M.A. degree.
• Gaining further knowledge of texts in this area strengthens students' content area knowledge, prepares them for taking nationally recognized standardized examinations (such as the advanced GRE subject examination in English), and further prepares them for careers in teaching, writing, and business or advanced graduate-level study.
• This course fulfills one of the departmental requirements for the completion of the English major.
• Students will develop the analytical, oral and written skills to pursue graduate study or careers in teaching, writing, business and a variety of other fields.
• Students will be able to define and pursue independent research agendas.
• This course contributes to the program goal of equipping students with a foundation in literary history and the issues surrounding literary study in contemporary culture.
• This course broadens students' desire and ability to take pleasure in their encounter with literature.

• To be determined by instructor.

• To be determined by instructor.

• Departmental plagiarism policies
• Other policy statements specific to this class should be included on the syllabus.
• A detailed calendar of readings and assignments should be made available to the class at the first class meeting. A copy should be posted electronically and kept on file in the English department office.
• Students should be expected to come to class, prepared and able to participate.
• MLA style should be emphasized and required on out-of-class essays.