English 54 FALL 1997: "Studies in American Prose"
Peter Schmidt
class: TTh 2:40-3:55pm, LPAC 301
e-mail: pschmid1 Web: http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1
office hours: LPAC 206, TTh 11:15-12; 1pm-2pm

Course Readings and Overview
Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok (1824)
Herman Melville, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Frederick Douglass, The Heroic Slave (1853)
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady (1881)
Willa Cather, The Professor's House (1925)
Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden (c. 1940-63; published 1986)
Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)
Bharati Mukherjee, The Holder of the World (1993)

A study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American narratives (both fiction and non-fiction) exploring the causes and consequences of forbidden border crossingscultural, racial, sexual.

A Web Page filled with links relevant to authors on the syllabus

° Come to class having studied the materials assigned for that day
The course will be part lecture and part group discussion, using both small group and the whole class. Participation in class discussions and other class activities will be a crucial part of your grade. This includes both leading class discussion occasionally as part of a group of student discussion leaders and contributing to discussion on your own during group sessions.

° Completion of writing assignments on time. There will be two kinds of writing for the course: journal entries on the reading plus two 6-8pp. term papers. (For due dates, see syllabus below; journal and paper assignments will also be discussed ahead of time in class.) Late journals and papers will be penalized in their grade. Some students who need work with writing literary criticism may also be asked to revise some of their work either whole or in part; such revision assignments become part of the course requirements. Note: you are welcome to use the Writing Center for advice on drafts of assigned papers. You are also welcome to discuss your ideas about a paper ahead of time with me.

There is no final exam.

° Grading: Quality of class participation counts 25%; Papers 75% (the two 5-6pp. papers will count not quite equally here: I will weigh your later paper slightly more heavily as part of the grade. I will also factor in the journal entries, but the 2 papers are most important.) Poor attendance and class participation and late journal entries or papers will negatively affect your grade.

A note about honesty and coursework: All writing that you turn in for this course should be yours alone and done solely for this course. When you are borrowing ideas and language from others it is your responsibility to acknowledge these sources accuratelywhether your sources are your fellow students or published literary critics. Not acknowledging borrowings from others constitutes plagiarism and severe penalties may be involved regardless of whether you "intended" to plagiarize or not. (For more information, see the Swarthmore Student Handbook on Academic Honesty, pp. 23-26, and the English Department Home Page on the Web; the link is below).
Plagiarism issues do not mean you should be afraid of consulting with others (fellow students, me, a student at the Writing Center) or of using other people's ideas as a springboard for your own: it is very simple to acknowledge these with a "thank you" at the end of a paper, or through formal footnotes.

When you quote or borrow from published material, including books used in this course, you must acknowledge this with parenthetical citations or proper footnotes, plus a bibliography. See the links to the English Department's statements on our Home Page about plagiarism and how to cite sources for English papers. These links include examples of the most common kinds of footnotes and bibliographic citations used in Humanities classes.

ENGLISH 54 STUDIES IN AMERICAN PROSE

SYLLABUS FALL 1997

Sept. 2 course introduction. Handout: excerpts from Hawthorne's introduction to the Scarlet Letter
Sept. 4 Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, chapters I-VIII

9 Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, chapters IX-XVI
11 finish Scarlet Letter (XVII-XXIV)
in-class journal entry exchange on Hawthorne (1-2pp. single-spaced)

16 Melville, Typee, chapters 1-17. return Hawthorne journal entry with your signed comments to its author in class
18 finish Typee (chapters 18-34)
Melville journal entry exchange

23 conclusion of Melville discussion; return journal entries
25 introduction to Child, Hobomok; read chs. I-X
26 (Friday) first 6-8pp. paper due in LPAC 206, 5pm, on Hawthorne or Melville; also turn in one journal entry with signed comments. No extensions.

30 finish Hobomok, chs. XI-XX
Oct. 2 conclusion of Hobomok discussion; also read Douglass, Heroic Slave, Parts I and II

7 finish Douglass; journal entry exchange
9 James, Portrait of a Lady, chs. 1-12; return Douglass journal entries

14, 16 OCTOBER BREAK

21 James, chs. 13-26
23 James, chs. 27-46
James journal entry exchange

28 finish Portrait of a Lady. Turn in journal entry with student comments; I will add my own comments.
30 Cather, The Professor's House, Book I, chs. I-X

Nov. 4 Cather: finish Book I; read all of Book II ("Tom Outland's Story")
6 finish The Professor's House
Cather journal entry exchange

11 Hemingway, The Garden of Eden, chs. 1-10; return Cather journals
13 Hemingway, chs. 11-20

18 finish The Garden of Eden
20 Johnson, Middle Passage, chs. 1-3 (through p. 70)
journal entry exchange, on Hemingway or Johnson

25 Note: required attendance today. Johnson, "Entry the fourth" through "Entry the sixth." In class turn in a Cather, Hemingway, or Johnson journal entry with student comments; I will add my own comments.

27 Thanksgiving

Dec. 2 finish Middle Passage for concluding discussion on Johnson; introduction to Mukherjee's The Holder of the World
4 Mukherjee, pp. 1-145

9 Mukherjee, pp. 145-286; course conclusion

Dec. 20--- Final 6-8pp. paper due, LPAC 206, 5pm, on an author of your choice from the syllabus. No extensions. Please also turn in your two favorite journal entries from the course, with student comments.

These final course materials may be turned in earlier if you are leaving before the 20th.