Course description: An in-depth examination of ideas and issues prevalent in twentieth-century American literature in its historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic contexts.

 Learning Outcomes:

• Students will demonstrate their ability to understand, analyze, and critique selections of twentieth-century American literature.
• Students will recognize distinct aesthetic movements in the twentieth century in order to gain familiarity with the content and defining qualities of the literary period.
• Students will develop an understanding of different critical approaches to the interpretation of works of twentieth-century American literature.
• Students will demonstrate in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well supported analysis of course-related material.
• Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and of the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose.

Relation to Program Goals:
This course directly supports the learning outcomes for the B.A. in English, specifically outcomes A, C, E, F, and G as listed on page 195 of the 2002-2003 Undergraduate Catalog.

Requirements:
Two analytical papers, 3-4 typed pages (40%);  a mid-term (10%) and a final exam (20%); a research paper, 12-15 pages (30%)
    Assignments
 

First Paper Assignment	Research Paper Assignment
Second Paper Assignment	Final Exam

W Designation
A course designated as a W (Writing intensive) course meets certain established criteria for incorporating both "writing to learn" and "writing to communicate" processes.  This course meets those criteria through the following activities and assignments:

Writing to learn:
(1) One-minute papers at the end of class meetings.
(2) Short response papers on readings before or at the beginning of class meetings.

Writing to communicate:
(1) Two short analytical papers
(2) mid-term and final exams
(3) research paper
 

Some Policies, Expectations, and Other Important Information

Expectations

The professional relation between an instructor and a student is not that of vendor and consumer.  One does not buy learning the way one buys a car, a sound
system, or a hamburger.  Tuition buys thorough direction to your own study in the discipline provided by a professional with knowledge of and devotion to the
field.  It does not buy you the right to decide not to attend class, do assigned work, or practice a radical individualism that proves a distraction to the instructor and
classmates. By agreeing to teach the class, I agree to certain obligations.  By enrolling in the class, you have created obligations for yourself.  If you do not meet
them, you will not succeed.

My basic expectation is that students be adults seriously preparing to be professionals.  They should understand that the way they conduct business has a direct
influence on their success in the class and other tangible if longer-term results (For example, you are not only completing the requirements for the courses you are
currently taking, you are developing professional relationships with your instructors, who will in due course serve as your primary references as you seek admission
to graduate schools, employment, or other professional opportunities).

To be more specific, I expect students to come to each class meeting on time, prepared and ready to concentrate on the tasks at hand.  I further expect students to
prepare all assignments with scrupulous attention to detail and directions.  And I tolerate no unprofessional distractions such as gum chewing, sleeping in class,
using beepers or cell phones (either for incoming or outgoing calls).  Students who create such distractions will leave the class.

Deadline for Withdrawal:  The deadline for withdrawing from any class with a grade of W is February 27.  Students may withdraw from a class after that date
only in the case of hardship.  Hardship withdrawals are determined in the office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, not by instructors or department
chairs.  Students who are granted hardship withdrawals must withdraw from all their classes.

Department of English and Philosophy Plagiarism Policy
The Department of English and Philosophy defines plagiarism as taking personal credit for the words and ideas of others as they are presented in electronic, print,
and verbal sources.  The Department expects that students will accurately credit sources in all assignments.  Plagiarism is grounds for failing the course.

Schedule
Jan   10    Introductions
        12    Modernism and America (Lecture)
        14    Stein, Three Lives, Introduction and "The Good Anna"
        17    No Class
        19    Stein, Three Lives, "Melanctha" and "The Gentle Lena"
        21    Frost:  "Mending Wall,"    "Design"   click here
        24    Frost: "Birches"  click here
        26    Eliot:  "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Gerontion"
        28    Eliot: The Waste Land
        31    Eliot: The Waste Land
Feb    2    Eliot: The Waste Land
          4    McKay:  "Africa," "America" (handout)    McKay Assignment
          7    Hughes:  "The Negro Speaks of Rivers,"  "The Weary Blues," click here First short essay due
          9    Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, Chapters I-VI
        11    Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, Chapter VII-XIII
        14    Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, Chapters XIV-XIX  Midterm Prep. Sheet
        16    Midterm exam (Part I)
        18    Midterm exam (Part II)
        21    Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, The Benjy Section
        23    Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, The Quentin Section
        25    Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, The Jason Section
        28    Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, the Dilsey Section
Mar   2    Marianne Moore, "Poetry," click here
         4    Robinson Jeffers, "Rock and Hawk,"  click here "Shine, Perishing Republic" (handout)
         7    Wallace Stevens,  "The Emporer of Ice Cream"  click here;  "The Snow Man"   click here
         9    William Carlos Williams, "Tract"  click here ; John Crowe Ransom, "Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter" (handout)
        11   E. E.Cummings, "My Father Moved through Dooms of Love,"  click here ; Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Spring" (handout)
        14    Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
        16    Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
        18    Elizabeth Bishop, "The Fish"  click here;
        21    Spring Break
        23    Spring Break
        25    Spring Break
        28    Theodore Roethke, "I Knew a Woman" (handout); Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool" click here
        30    No Class:  Honors Convocation
Apr.   1    Robert Lowell, "For the Union Dead"  click here
          4    Warren, "Dragon Country" (handout)
          6    Knight, "Hardrock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane"  click here
          8 Ginsberg, "Howl"  click here
        11    Williams, The Glass Menagerie
        13    Williams, The Glass Menagerie;  Second short essay due
        15  Williams, The Glass Menagerie
        18    Miller, Death of a Salesman (video)
        20    Miller, Death of a Salesman (video)
        22    No Class
        25    Miller, Death of a Salesman (video)
        27    Miller, Death of a Salesman (video)
        29    Summing up.
May   2    Research Papers Due
          4 11:00-1:00 Final Exam