Syllabus #3

English 312
American Literary Traditions
Spring 1990

Professor Stephen Fredman
University of Notre Dame

Texts

Henry James, The Turn of the Screw

LeRoi Jones, Blues People

Paul Lauter, et al., The Heath Anthology of American Literature, vols. I & II

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Requirements

Class Attendance & Study Questions (30%)

Take Home Midterm (30%)

Final Exam (40%)

Course Objective

To introduce English majors to the study of American literature(s)

Course Schedule

Part I: Allegorical Fiction

Jan. 23 Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher" (Heath 1, 1322-25, 1344-57)

Jan. 25 Poe, "The Purloined Letter" (1372-85)

Jan. 30-Feb. 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Heath 1, 2132-2272)

Feb. 6 Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener" (Heath 1, 2400-2431)

Feb. 8-13 Henry James, The Turn of the Screw +[Introduction} (Heath 2, 548-50)

Feb. 15 William Faulkner, "Barn Burning" (Heath 2, 1406-22)

Part II: Slavery and Culture

Feb. 20 Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography (Heath 1, 774-80, 823-67, 871-81); Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence" (Heath 1, 957-64)

Feb. 22 Henry David Thoreau, (Heath 1, 964-66); Walden, "Economy"

Feb. 27 Thoreau, "Where I Lived," "Solitude," "The Ponds," "Conclusion"

March 1 Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave (Heath 1, 1637-39, 1647-99)

March 6 LeRoi Jones, Blues People (ix-xii, 1-49); Amiri Baraka (Heath 2, 2448-54); Sonia Sanchez (2440-48); Blues Lyrics (1581-86)

March 8 Blues People (60-80, 122-74)

March 8 Midterm due

March 13-15: BREAK

Part III: The American Language

March 20 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, "The Poet" (Heath 1, 1467-82, 1536-51)

March 22 Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (2709-13, 2727-78)

March 27 Whitman (2788-98, 2804- 17)

Mar 29-Apr 3 Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Heath 2, 214-17, 243-429)

April 5 William Carlos Williams (Heath 2, 1205-24)

April 10 Denise Levertov, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg (Heath 2, 2363-87)

Part IV: Women Awaken

April 12 Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Heath 1, 1580-82, 1604-26)

April 17-19 Emily Dickinson (Heath 1, 2838-2914)

April 24 Kate Chopin (Heath 2, 626- 28, 637-52)

April 26 Gertrude Stein (Heath 2, 1189-1204)

May 1 Laurie Anderson, Home of the Brave (video)

May 3: Conclusion