English 527: American Renaissance (American Antebellum Literature)

Dr. Karen Roggenkamp

Spring 2005, Wednesday 4:30-7:10

Office:                         HL 229

Phone:                         903-886-5251

Email:                          Karen_Roggenkamp@tamu-commerce.edu

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

I.             Course Description

This course will examine some of the most influential novels, short stories, essays, and poetry composed during the period commonly known as the “American Renaissance.”  Course readings span the 1830s through early 1860s, with special emphasis on the 1850s.  The antebellum period encompassed one of the richest, most fruitful periods of literary production in America—some of the most famous names in American literature rose during this era, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and countless others.

1830-1860 also saw intense change in American culture, demographics, technologies, economics, social mores, and, not coincidentally, publishing, readership, and authorship.  With explosions in population came, inevitably, competing ideas about what America meant, and authors and readers alike continually asked of themselves a number of provocative questions. Where, for instance, should America take its cultural identity, and what should constitute worthy reading material for a nation newly aware of its cultural independence from Great Britain?  What role should the mass marketplace play in determining what publishers produced and what people read?  What is the artist’s role in shaping a radically changing society, and should literature address “the real” or “the ideal?” 

We will let a similar series of questions guide us through this semester, starting by thinking about the name of this class: “The American Renaissance.”  What do those words signify, and how might they fail to capture a fuller picture of writing in antebellum America?  Why were some of the key figures of the “American Renaissance,” so canonized today, largely disregarded in their own time?  We will then turn to some of the “scribbling women” of the “feminine fifties” and, out of these authors, some of the most decisive anti-slavery works.  Why were these authors so popular in their day, and why have they been marginalized since that time?  How did the tensions between high-brow, male authors (like Hawthorne, Thoreau, Emerson, Melville) and middle-brow, female authors (like Stowe, Fern, and Warner) inform literary production and consumption—and shape its subsequent reputation in academia? How do antebellum America’s anxieties about race, class, and gender inform our reading of these works today, and what is the relationship between politics and art?  Finally, we will end the course by circling back to some of the key works of “Renaissance” and thinking about what it means—stylistically, aesthetically, and content-wise—to write an American epic.
 

Course Goals
Students in this course will:
▫ Read antebellum American literature in relation to its cultural, aesthetic, intellectual, philosophical, historical, and political contexts;
▫ Understand the central complexities, contradictions, and conventions of antebellum American literature;
▫ Interrogate the rhetoric behind such period labels as “American Renaissance” and such genre labels as “sentimental novel”;
▫ Introduce students to primary source materials useful in conducting context-based research;
▫ Produce a high-quality, research-based conference-length paper of student’s own design.
 

II.           Required Texts

The following works, listed in alphabetical order by author, are available at university bookstores.  You may also obtain them from other sources or use editions other than the ones I have ordered, but please regard the special notes I have included by some titles regarding the particular editions you should purchase.

▫ Emily Dickinson, Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.  A number of “complete poem” collections exist, but the authoritative text is edited by Thomas Johnson.  You will be asked to read through the bulk of Dickinson’s poems, so please find a complete edition, not one of the many abridged collections.

▫ Frederick Douglass.  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (1845)

▫ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poetry and Prose.  We will be reading only the essays “Nature,” “Divinity School Address,” and “The Poet.”  We will not be doing any of Emerson’s poetry, but some of it is quite nice—peruse in your “free time.”

▫ Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall (1855)

▫ Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tales.  A number of Hawthorne story collections exist—see schedule below to note which stories in particular we will be discussing.

▫ Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)

▫ Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)

▫ Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

▫ Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)

▫ Susan Warner, The Wide, Wide World (1850).  Not a widely available book, unlike the others items on our syllabus, and if you are really strapped for cash, you can obtain this book, complete with the illustrations, as an e-text at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/warner-susan/wide/wide.html (if you can stand to read e-texts).

▫ Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855).  Whitman revised and expanded Leaves of Grass many times over his lifetime.  The version we want is the original, 1855 edition, so please make sure you obtain that one, not one of the later editions.

III.         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 (10-12 pages)            30%

Short Paper (5-7 pages)                      20%    

Discussion Questions                        25%    

Class Participation                             10%

Class Leadership                                15%

                                                Total  100%

IV.         Discussion Questions

Beginning with our next session, I will ask you to submit to the entire group, via email, two extended discussion questions or topics, on the reading assignment.  These will need to be submitted no later than 10:00 p.m. on the Tuesday evening 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!

V.           Leading Class

I will ask each student to take responsibility for leading discussion for the first half of one class session.  Attached to this syllabus is the list of sessions and corresponding topics, and I ask you to let me know your first choice for leading class as soon as possible.  First come, first served.  In addition, the general topic for your first paper will correspond to the week you lead discussion.  I’ll explain this further in class.

VI.         Papers

You will have two paper assignments of different lengths.  The first assignment will be based on some primary source material that is related, either directly or indirectly, to the reading you sign up to lead in class.  The general substance of the paper will be a sort of overview and analytical summary of that primary source material, which will be available either at Gee Library or online.  For instance, for some of the more canonical authors, I ask you to peruse published journals or letters for a span of several years and then write a short paper discussing what is included in those journals, what kind of insight we get into the author, what kinds of context and authorial concerns we see, etc.  Other students will be asked to look at newspapers and magazines of the antebellum period, available online.  These students will, likewise, be looking at what these primary sources are presenting to readers of the time, and think about how they might enrich our readings.  While of course this paper needs to be well-written, thoughtful, and smoothly composed, you shouldn’t think of it as a typical analysis paper.  It is, rather, more of a summary and thoughtful response to the primary source material that has been assigned with a particular reading.  This paper will be due within two weeks of the day you lead class.

The second paper, on the other hand, will be a much more formal affair.  I will ask you to produce a conference-length research paper on any topic of your choosing.  You will need to develop a research question based on any aspect of any of the readings or on a combination of the readings, conduct appropriate research with primary and secondary source materials, and compose a 10-12 page paper based on that research.  Your research paper certainly does not have to be related to the class session you sign up to lead or to the work you do for your short paper, but obviously it can be.  We’ll talk more about both papers as we get further into class.

I will not grant extensions on papers or discussion questions unless merited by truly exceptional circumstances.  Late work will only be accepted by prior arrangement between us and with documented proof of your 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. 

VII.       Attendance

Your attendance in class—and your arrival on time—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 unexcused absences.  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 an authorized reason, please make arrangements with me in advance.

VIII.     Additional Statements of Policy

a.     Instructors in the Department of Literature and Languages do not tolerate plagiarism or 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 make arrangements 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 must follow the tenets of common decency and acceptable behavior conducive to a positive learning environment.  Standards of decency and acceptable behavior extend to the use of cell phones and instant messaging—please turn them off in the classroom unless you are awaiting a real emergency call for some reason.  Additionally, please note that I enforce standards of inclusiveness in my classes.  What that means is that I do not tolerate discrimination and disrespect in regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.

d.      You are responsible for reading and understanding all the information on this syllabus, as well as on any additional materials I distribute during the course.
 

IX.         Assignment Schedule

See the following table 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, English-department graduate-level courses have a demanding reading load, by nature.  I would advise you to budget time for your class work every day and to read ahead whenever you have time.  Note especially that the specter of the Great White Whale looms ever on the horizon of the semester. 

Tips for Participating in a Compressed-Video Class

For any graduate-level seminar, participation from all members in the class is essential.  But it is especially vital for a class in which we must collectively overcome the barriers of space and time.  Our first big goal: we must cohere as a class, even though we are located at three different sites.  I provide here some tips to help us achieve this goal effectively and efficiently.

1.      All students should sit so that they are visible on the classroom monitors.  What fun—we can all pretend we’re potential movie actors!  (“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. De-Mille!”)

2.      Participation in a compressed-video class demands disregarding, to some degree, 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. So be warned, any relatively quick motion can appear as a series of jerks (this may be more of a problem for me than for other folks, as I tend to gesture rather 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.  Classes using a compressed-video system can be as effective as face-to-face classes, but only if we all loosen up, discard any shyness, and participate freely. 

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

Sign Up Sheet for Leading Class and Short Paper

English 527, Spring 2005

Dr. Roggenkamp

You will be responsible for leading roughly the first hour of class on the date specified.  Your short review paper will cover the primary source(s) attached to each discussion topic.  This paper, 5-7 pages in length, will essentially be a review of some primary source material, such as author letters, journals, or contemporary periodicals.  It will be due within two weeks of the date listed (e.g. if you sign up to lead discussion of Hawthorne’s tales on 1/26, your short paper reviewing either his letters or journals (American Notebooks) will be due on or before 2/9).  Please note that students in Navarro should have first pick in selecting topics that involve online resources, as it may be more difficult

Guiding Questions for Short Review Papers

Letters and Journals:  How would you characterize the letters and the “voice” of the letter / journal writer over all?  What kind of picture do you get of the author in question?  What kinds of topics, themes, and concerns does the writer bring up?  To whom does he or she write—what kinds of relationships are revealed?  Based on the letters / journal entries sampled, do you get an impression of the author’s personal life?  Of life outside the home, of the general drift of larger culture?  Does anything surprise you about the letters / journal entries—either by what’s included or by what’s not included?  How do the letters / journal entries correspond—or seem not to correspond—to the literary selections we read from this particular author?

Magazines/Newspapers:  Browse through a number of issues of your selected magazine / newspaper, stopping to read some of the articles, poems, stories, advertisements, or whatever catches your attention.  What kind of topics does the magazine / newspaper present?  How does it present it (text heavy, illustrated, eclectic, etc.)?  Does the magazine / newspaper deal with current events, and if so, what types of current events (local news, social stuff, international concerns, national issues, etc.)?  What kind of audience did your magazine / newspaper seem geared toward?  How often was it published?  Where was it published?  How do the contents correspond—or seem not to correspond—to the literary selections we’ve been reading?