English 521: American Modernism

Dr. Karen Roggenkamp

Spring 2004, Wednesdays, 4:30-7:10

Office:                             HL 229

Phone:                             903-886-5251

Email:                              Karen_Roggenkamp@tamu-commerce.edu

Office Hours:                 Monday 1:00-2:00, Wednesday 2:00-3:00, and by appointment

I.             Course Description

Why does art matter?  What is “the real thing” in life and in expression?  How does one convey “authentic experience” to reading audiences—particularly one jaded by a seemingly fragmented society?  And how does one achieve artistry within a literary culture increasingly dominated by commercialism and the privileging of appearance over “reality?”

Here are but a sampling of the loaded questions American writers posed in the “Modernist Period” (roughly defined as 1910-1945).  Spinning out of the contexts of World War I and working through decades of decadence and depression toward the next World War, this period witnessed an incredibly rich and diverse flourishing of literary expression.  In this graduate seminar, we’ll focus on novels, literary nonfiction, and poetry to investigate how a range of authors created—sometimes quite self-consciously—a culture of modernity.  As a thematic touchstone for the course, we’ll return again and again to one of the most pressing questions the modernists asked: what is reality, and can one convey reality in art?

II.           Course Goals

My goals for this course include helping class participants to:

▫ Understand the central complexities, contradictions, and conventions of the American modernist period;

▫ Heighten their awareness of the interdisciplinary links and cross-influences across modernist expressive forms, and through the politics of race, class, gender, and ethnicity;

▫ View modern American literature in relation to its cultural, intellectual, and political contexts;

▫ Discuss canon formation, narrative strategies, and the rise of “social” fiction; and

▫ Produce a high-quality, research-based seminar paper of student’s own design.

III.         Required Texts

The following works are available at University bookstores.  You may also obtain them from other sources or use editions other than the ones I have ordered.

▫ Agee, James and Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1939)

▫ Anderson, Sherwood, Winesburg, Ohio (1919)

▫ Dos Passos, John, The Big Money (1936)

▫ Eliot, T. S., The Waste Land (1922)

▫ Larsen, Nella, Passing (1929)

▫ Lewis, Sinclair, Main Street (1920)

▫ Locke, Alain, The New Negro (1925)

▫ Millay, Edna St. Vincent, Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay (2002)

▫ Steinbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

▫ Wharton, Edith, The House of Mirth (1905)

▫ If you do not already own a copy of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, you should purchase one for this class.

IV.         Course Evaluation

Course grades will be based on a short paper, a longer research paper, leading class discussion, submission of weekly class discussion questions, and class participation.

Research paper (15-20 pgs.)   30%

Discussion Questions            25%

Participation                           15%

Short Paper (2-3 pages)          15%

Class Leadership                    15%

Grading scale: 98-100 A+; 93-97 A; 90-92 A; 87-89 B+; 83-86 B; 80-82 B; 77-79 C+; 73-76 C; 70-72 C-; 67-69 D+; 63-66 D; 60-62 D-; 59-0 F

V.           Discussion Questions

Beginning with our next session, I will ask you to submit to the entire group, via email, two questions or topics for discussion based on the reading assignment.  These will need to be submitted no later than 10:00 p.m. on the Tuesday before each class so that all members will have time to print them out, look them over, and think about them.  To facilitate this process, I will need each class member to send me a “test message” as soon as possible so that I can verify correct email addresses.  From there I will send all the correct email addresses on to you so that you can be ready to submit your first questions by next Tuesday.  Note that submission of these questions constitutes a significant portion of your grade!

VI.         Leading Class

I will ask each student to take responsibility for leading discussion for about 30 minutes of one class session.  Within the next week I will send out a list of possible days and topics up for grabs and ask you to claim one as your own.  Send your choice back as soon as possible—first come, first served.

VII.       Late Work

I will not grant extensions on papers or on the discussion questions unless merited by truly exceptional circumstances.  Late work will only be accepted by prior arrangement between us and with documented proof of the inability to complete the assignment on time due to extenuating circumstances (scheduled school activity, significant illness, death in the family, etc.).  The work may also be subject to a reduction in grade by 1/3 of a mark per day late. 

VIII.     Attendance

Your attendance in class is crucial, and a significant portion of your grade for this course will be based not only on attending class but on participating as well.  According to the TAMU-Commerce student handbook, “students are expected to be present for all class meetings of any course for which they are enrolled.”  I will keep attendance, and you can expect your grade to be docked for more than one unexcused absence.  By departmental policy, students are permitted to make up work for excused absences—examples of excusable absences may include participation in a required or authorized university activity or a death in the immediate family.  If you know you are going to be absent for any reason (e.g. university activity), please make arrangements with me in advance.

IX.         Additional Statements of Policy

a.     Instructors in the Department of Literature and Languages do not tolerate plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, and acts of plagiarism can lead to immediate failure of the course.  Instructors uphold and support the highest academic standards, and students are expected to do likewise.  Penalties for students guilty of academic dishonesty include disciplinary probation, suspension, and expulsion.  (Texas A&M University—Commerce Code of Student Conduct 5.b[1,2,3]).  Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to cutting and pasting information directly from online sources, copying material from books without providing source documentation, taking essays wholesale from online sources, having someone else write a paper for you, and turning in work that you have already submitted for another class.

b.      Students requesting accommodations for disabilities must go through the Academic Support Committee.  For more information, please contact the Director of Disability Resources and Services, Halladay Student Services Building, Room 303D, 903-886-5835.

c.       “All students enrolled at the University shall follow the tenets of common decency and acceptable behavior conducive to a positive learning environment.”  It should go without saying.  Standards of decency and acceptable behavior extend to the use of cell phones—please turn them off in the classroom unless you are awaiting a real emergency call for some reason.  Likewise instant messaging.

X.           Assignment Schedule

See the following pages for a complete schedule of assignments.  Please have each reading completed in time for class.  Some slight changes may occur during the course of the semester.  Please note that while I have tried to be reasonable in the amount of reading assigned each week, this is not the kind of course that allows you to prepare only on the night before the weekly meeting.  Expect to budget time on a daily basis to complete the assignments with care and precision.

Tips for Participating in a Compressed-Video Class

For any graduate class, participation from all members in the class is essentially.  But it is especially vital for a class in which we must collectively overcome the barriers of space and time.  Our first big goal as a class: we must somehow come together as a class, even though we are located in three different sites.  The following are some tips to help us achieve this goal as effectively and efficiently as possible.

1.      All students must sit so that they are visible on the classroom monitors. Students should also remember that classes are sometimes videotaped—don’t be nervous about it, but don’t do anything you wouldn’t want your mother to see, either.  ☺

2.      Participation in a compressed-video class often demands disregarding some of the usual ideas about polite conduct. Compressed video involves running the picture and sound through a computer that supposedly selects the most important things to send to distant sites. Since it uses regular telephone lines, video is delayed and audio is delayed even more. Since it is compressed, any relatively quick motion appears as a series of jerks. Many viewers find these jerking motions disturbing.  Even turning pages quickly when using the document viewer can sometimes cause problems to people in distant sites, so please keep quick motions to an absolute minimum.  (This may be a bigger problem for me than for others, as I tend to gesture pointlessly.)

3.      In a compressed-video class, it is absolutely necessary to interrupt whatever is happening the moment a problem with sight or sound develops. Do not be concerned about waiting until someone is finished talking; speak up right away. Otherwise, the person speaking won’t be heard or the things happening won’t be seen in the distant site, and we’ll be wasting both the speaker’s and the rest of the class’s time.  DON’T BE SHY!!!

4.      It is also important to let the rest of the class know when you have something to say. Do not wait until a person at another site is finished talking. When you have something to say, immediately indicate that you do. Then, when a pause occurs, we can give you a chance to talk. Since the sound and video are delayed, if you wait for a pause, you very well may talk out when someone else is already talking anyway. So waiting for a pause makes no sense.

5.      It is necessary for people at distant sites to remember that they are important members of the class. They must contribute; they must enter discussions. Otherwise, the class does not become the kind of learning experience it should be for all of us. And often participating really means doing what seems to be interrupting people, shouting out (sometimes when we have sound problems, we may literally have to shout), and interrupting the whole class when things go wrong with the system.

6.      When system problems make discussion temporarily impossible, we'll use that time to take breaks. If the problems persist for a while, we'll use the time after the breaks for site-specific discussion of the assigned texts. If a site is for some reason unable to communicate with the other sites at all, we'll tape the class and get copies to people at that site.

7.      When using a compressed-video system, one of the main things to remember is that we have to be flexible. If you get upset if things do not go on schedule or if interruptions occur, then you really don't belong in a compressed-video class.  People who have taught using this system assure me that people using a compressed-video system can learn as much as people in face-to-face classes and that these classes can be very rewarding for all people involved. But these classes cannot be successful if the people at all sites do not actively participate and are not willing to be flexible.

8.      Above all, let’s keep a good sense of humor about the whole shebang, shall we?