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Syllabus 2
English 454
Professor Robert Hogge
Introduction: Welcome to this class: American Literature--The Modern Period! During this quarter, we'll look at a wide range of authors: the "established" major writers (Frost, O'Neill, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Penn Warren), a group of often undervalued white women writers (Glasgow, Wharton, Cather, and Glaspell), and non-canonical figures representing America's varied cultures and ethnic traditions (Toomer, Odets, Di Donato, Mourning Dove, and Younghill Kang). Our goal will be to expand our awareness of the period's literary diversity and richness.
Required Textbook: Lauter, Paul, et al., eds. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 2 (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1990), 2615 p.
Course Outline
Directions: Read the author biographies and selections indicated, paying particular attention to the due dates for your writing assignments. If we need to, we'll adjust this syllabus.
Week 1: 27 March 1990 * Discuss historical and literary perspective, 1910-1945. * Read and analyze a short story. * View Dr. Clerc's "Anatomy of a Story."
Week 2: 3 April 1990 * Read Edwin Arlington Robinson (962-71), Edgar Lee Masters (1033- 38), and Robinson Jeffers (1088-98). * Read Robert Frost (1099-1117). Turn in a one-page analysis/explication of a poem by Frost. * Read Ellen Glasgow (972-84) and Edith Wharton (985, 1024-32).
Week 3: 10 April 1990 * Read Willa Cather (1039-75). Turn in a one-page explanation of the value of woman in "Old Mrs. Harris." * Read Susan Glaspell (1076-87) and Sherwood Anderson (1118-26). * Read Theodore Dreiser (1127-53).
Week 4: 17 April 1990 * Read Ezra Pound (1164-89). * Read T. S. Eliot (1298-1332). * Read H. D. (1278-85) and e. e. cummings (1286-98).
Week 5: 24 April 1990 * Read William Carlos Williams (1205- 24) * Read Eugene O'Neill (1225-57). * Take Midterm examination.
Week 6: 1 May 1990 * Read Gertrude Stein (1189-1204) and Ernest Hemingway (1387-92). * Read F. Scott Fitzgerald (1333-48). * Read William Faulkner (1406-22)
Week 7: 8 May 1990 * Read Katherine Anne Porter (1349, 1358-66), Marianne Moore (1370- 80), and Djuna Barnes (1258-64). Turn in a one-page critical evalu- ation of "Smoke," assessing its social, moral, or cultural values. * Read Wallace Stevens (1393-1405) and Hart Crane (1433-45). * Read Alain Locke (1460-67), Jean Toomer (1468-86), Langston Hughes (1487-1509), and Countee Cullen (1510-14).
Week 8: 15 May 1990 * Read Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1515- 18), Arna Bontemps (1518-19), Sterling A. Brown (1519-34), and Zora Neale Hurston (1535-45). * Read James Weldon Johnson (1553- 56), Claude McKay (1557-62), Anne Spencer (1563-65), and Nella Larsen (1566-69). Turn in a one-page reaction paper to any story or poem written by a member of the Harlem Renaissance. * Read Clifford Odets (1629-47).
Week 9: 22 May 1990 * Read John Dos Passos (1588-98) and John Steinbeck (1697-1710). * Read Robert Penn Warren (1669-80) and John Crowe Ransom (1681-87). * Read Tom Whitecloud (1662-67), Saunders Redding (1711-18), and Pietro Di Donato (1719-27).
Week 10: 29 May 1990 * Read Mourning Dove (1728-34), John Joseph Matthews (1735-46), and Anna Yezierska (1688- 96). * Read Younghill Kang (1747-54), Lillian Hellman (1624-28), and Meridel LeSueur (1648-55). * Turn in term paper.
Take Final Examination: Tuesday, 5 June 1990, 5-8 p.m. |
