ENG 343: The American Novel

Introduction

In this course, we will trace the history of the American novel from its beginnings to the present. In addition to examining the structure of the novel as well as its many variations, we will explore a variety of historical periods and literary movements. You are at the center of this course. While I will guide class discussion, design assignments, and serve as a resource, your progress and pleasure in this course depend on your active participation.

Objectives

Deeper appreciation of language and literature: Our primary objective is to expand our understanding of how words in print make meaning. You will become conversant with scores of linguistic and bibliographic terms (diction, dialect, quarto, edition), formal features (character foil, exposition, motif), and genres (sentimental novel, roman a clef, nonfiction novel), always examining the ways that form shapes meaning.

Broader understanding of the humanities: To study literature is to study life. As we immerse ourselves in these novels and the historical periods in which they were written, we will become more adept at analyzing human thought (perception, motivation, relation), philosophy (free will, determinism, good, evil), and social issues (racism, feminism, economics).

Expanded cultural literacy: Because of the allusive nature of all language, particularly literature, names constitute a crucial part of a person's vocabulary. As we study these novels and their context, you will expand your cultural vocabulary to include the names of many people and characters (Rebecca Harding Davis, Uncle Tom), places (Brook Farm, Salem), events (westward expansion, Spanish Civil War), and movements (realism, Harlem Renaissance).

Reading: As we read these challenging novels, you not only will expand your vocabulary and your ability to extract meaning from sophisticaed syntax, but also will learn to infer information about audience and purpose, thus preparing yourself to interpret the complex, often veiled messages you encounter in law, business, and the media.

Research: You will learn to complement the knowledge you glean in class with knowledge you gather on your own through research. In addition to becoming familiar with several standard literary reference materials (The Dictionary of Literary Biography, The MLA Bibliography), you will polish several general research skills (paraphrasing, quoting, documenting).

Communication: In a variety of assignments and other activities, you will develop essential skills in both writing (argumentation, organization, editing) and speaking (pronunciation, intonation).

Technology: To complement these other skills, you will learn to make effective use of technology to find and share information. By the end of the course, you will be able to find material on the World Wide Web, communicate via a listserv and an online forum, and design a Web site.

Supplies

Stegner, Wallace. Angle of Repose.
Foster, Hannah Webster. The Coquette.
Stowe, Harriett Beecher, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance.
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick.
James, Henry. The American.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man.
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple.
Three-ring binder, 5 dividers, notebook paper
3 IBM-formatted diskettes and computer paper
An e-mail account
A curious, open, and active mind

Be Your Best

You can expect me to be the best teacher I can be. I will be on time to class, give you my full attention and energy during every class discussion, respond thoughtfully to your oral comments and written assignments, and work hard to make this course interesting and rewarding.

I expect you to be your best, as well. Although this course is no more difficult than most college courses, it demands regular attendance, a commitment to in-class discussion and writing, and a large amount of out-of-class preparation, including reading and writing assignments, library research, and study. I expect you to make these commitments, to show up to class on time and ready to work, to check your e-mail and the online forum regularly, and to turn in neatly typed, carefully edited assignments on time. Please note that I will not accept late assignments except in the case of personal incapacitation, a death in the family, or an advance arrangement with me.

For general tips on improving your study habits, see Be Your Best.

Fall 1999 · 149 Dial · 8-9:15 a.m. TR

Professor Mark Canada
118 Dial Building, 521-6431
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
canada@sassette.uncp.edu
www.uncp.edu/home/canada
Office Hours: 9:15-10:15 a.m. MTWRF

Schedule

Introduction

August 19: Be Your Best, history of the novel
August 24-31: Wallace Stegner,Angle of Repose

Antebellum America

September 2: The Coquette
September 7-9: Uncle Tom's Cabin
September 14-23: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
September 28-October 12: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

Postbellum America

October 19-21: Henry James, The American

Modern America

October 26-28: Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
November 2-11: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
November 16-23: In Cold Blood
November 30-December 7: The Color Purple

Read on!

Assignments

Format

During class on the day an assignment is due, you must turn in a 9x12 envelope containing the following items in the order listed:

The first item must be a hard copy of your final draft. This draft must be typed in an appropriate font, such as 12-point Times, and must be bound with a paper clip.
Behind this final draft must be all of the material you used or created in preparing this assignment, including rough drafts, notes, and photocopies of all sources you quoted or paraphrased.
The final item must be an IBM-formatted diskette containing all of your work on the assignment, including your outline, rough drafts, and final draft. This diskette should have a label with your name, e-mail address, and telephone number on it.

Write your name, e-mail address, and telephone number on the outside of this envelope and turn it into me when I request it in class. If you cannot be in class when I collect the assignment, you must notify me in advance. Failure to follow these guidelines may result in an F for the assignment.

Each project must be your own work. That is, except for properly cited quotations, every sentence and phrase must be in your own words. All interpretations, except for those properly cited, also must be your own. If you turn in someone else's work, use a source's exact words without placing these words in quotation marks, or use an interpretation you found in a source without giving credit to the source, you may fail this course. You must be prepared to prove that you have done all your own work by showing me your sources and discussing the details of your project with me in conference.

Criteria

Before you submit a final draft of any assignment, please review the following criteria, which I will use in grading each assignment:

Content: The project should thoroughly address its subject with accurate, credible, timely, and relevant information. If the project is supposed to be argumentative, it should state a clear, substantive, contestable, and precise claim early and support this claim with appropriate evidence.
Clarity: The project should present information in a clear, logical fashion. In particular, paragraphs generally should begin with precise topic sentences, followed by clear, well-organized sentences that support the topic sentence. The writer should use transitional words and phrases effectively to guide the reader through the information.
Readability: The project should engage the reader with lively, concise writing and should generally lack typographical errors, as well as lapses in tone, register, punctuation, spelling, word choice, and grammar. The project should effectively incorporate source material with proper use of attribution, paraphrases, and quotations. Longer projects should begin with an engaging introduction and include a satisfying conclusion.
Format: Parenthetical citations and the bibliography or list of works cited should conform to MLA style. The project also should have a neat, professional appearance and conform to any particular format requirements set by the instructor.

Using a point system, I will assign grades as follows:

A (90-100 percent): This project clearly meets all of these criteria, although it may contain one or two very minor lapses.
B (80-89 percent): This project contains a few minor lapses, but otherwise generally meets the criteria for an A.
C (70-79 percent): This project may contain more than a few minor lapses or one major lapse. Nevertheless, it adequately meets the requirements of the assignment.
D (60-69 percent): This project may be strong in one area, but it contains many minor or major lapses and, as a result, does not adequately meet the requirements of the assignment.
F (below 60 percent): This project contains plagiarism or an overwhelming number of lapses that make it an inadequate response to the assignment.

Quizzes (25 points)

Throughout the semester you will have several opportunities to apply your literary, historical, and cultural knowledge in quizzes. These quizzes will cover literary terms and concepts, themes and major details from the works we are studying, and background information, such as important people, places, and events from each era. In some cases, I will post questions on the course's online forum and ask you to respond in this same forum. In other cases, I will give quizzes during class. Because I often will allow you to refer to your portfolios to write this essay, you will want to take extensive notes on your reading and on class activities, including group and class discussions. Furthermore, because some quizzes will call on you to synthesize both new and old information, you should review these notes each week. To earn credit for these quizzes, you must respond to questions on the discussion forum before class begins and be present when I assign in-class essays.

Annotation Project (15 points)

This project will give you the opportunity to develop your research and writing skills, learn a great deal about the historical background of the literature we will study, and contribute to a publication on the World Wide Web. Choose three allusions in Wallace Stegner's novel Angle of Repose--one from parts 1-3, one from parts 4-6, and one from parts 7-9--and do some research on their sources. For each allusion, write a brief essay annotating it and explaining its relevance to the novel. In writing this annotation, which should be about 200 words in length, you should try to answer these questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? You also should identify the place where the allusion occurs in the novel by part, chapter, and paragraph and include a bibliography of at least two credible sources where readers can find more information. Assemble all of this information in the format I have used in the example, edit it carefully, save it on diskette, print it, and turn it into me according to the guidelines above by the following dates:

August 24: Annotation of allusion from parts 1-3
August 26: Annotation of allusion from parts 4-6
August 31: Annotation of allusion from parts 7-9

World Wide Web Page (20 points)

Please visit All American: Literature, History, and Culture, a World Wide Web site that I have created with the help of my students, and become familiar with this site's content and format. In this assignment, your group will create an individual Web page for possible publication on All American. This page, which you should aim at readers with little or no knowledge of American literature, will provide a thorough introduction to an American novelist whom we are studying in this course and who is not already represented on All American. Your group's page should include the following elements:

a title bar indicating the period in which this novelist composed his or her major works (Colonial America, 1607-1783; Antebellum America, 1784-1865; Postbellum America, 1866-1913; or Modern America, 1914-present);
the novelist's name and the years he or she lived;
a byline featuring your names, followed by a line saying, "Students, University of North Carolina at Pembroke";
a 600-word essay that describes one or two key aspects of the novelist's life, analyzes at least two themes in his or her work, describes at least one technique the novelist used, and supports these points by referring to at least one of the author's works and at least two articles or books by literary scholars;
an annotated bibliography that analyzes the content, timeliness, and credibility of at least two relevant sources;
a sidebar featuring lists of the novelist's major works, careers, home, family members, and perhaps other information, along with a chronology of major events in the novelist's life;
links to at least two relevant Internet sites, such as sites with more information about the novelist's life, pictures of his or her home, or details about the novelist's historical context;
at least five study questions on one of the novelist's major works that we are studying in this course.

On an assigned day, your group will introduce this concept to the rest of the class through an oral presentation lasting 20-30 minutes and featuring the following elements:

a demonstration of the group's Web page;
an interactive class discussion;
an oral interpretation of at least one passage from the novelist's work.

When the semester is complete, every thorough, clear, well-organized, accurate, and insightful site will be considered for publication on All American. Thus, by working hard on this project, you not only will learn a great deal about an American novelist, improve your writing and research skills, and practice using new computer technology, but may have an electronic publication that you can cite in resumes and portfolios.

Article (20 points)

Choose an issue, theme, or technique in the work of your group's author. In an article of about 1,000 words, analyze this element in depth. Your article should appear in the form of a World Wide Web page and should contain the following components:

an introduction that engages the reader and states a claim;
one or two paragraphs providing background information, such as relevant people, places, events, and definitions;
several paragraphs that support the claim with specific details from the author's work, properly cited material from at least one critical study, and perhaps other evidence, such as information about the writer's life or historical context;
a conclusion that leaves the reader feeling enlightened and satisfied;
a list of works cited conforming to MLA format;
links to other relevant, credible World Wide Web sites if any are available.

Portfolio (20 points)

When you invest a large portion of your time and energy in a class for several weeks, you should expect something more than a grade in return. If you work hard in this course, you can receive a good grade, but you also can receive several other, more lasting and important benefits, including a foundation of knowledge and skills. To strengthen this foundation, you will prepare a literature portfolio with the following components:

a 250-word introductory essay highlighting the most important material you learned in the course and explaining the relevance of this material to your life, studies, or career;
all of your notes, exercises, quizzes, bibliographies, and printouts, separated by dividers into the categories of Colonial America, Antebellum America, Postbellum America, and Modern America;
printouts of your group's World Wide Web page and your article;
concise captions in which you reflect on what you learned from studying each author and from creating the World Wide Web page and article.

I hope that this portfolio's value to you will outlast this semester and that you will continue to consult it and add to it as you encounter language in the years to come. You may even want to show it to friends, parents, prospective employers, and--someday--grandchildren to demonstrate all that you have learned this semester about literature and life. Updated August 18, 1999 | University of North Carolina at Pembroke © Mark Canada, 1999 | canada@sassette.uncp.edu