American Literature

AMERICAN LITERATURE

Lit 320, Spring 2001
Office: 409 Cullimore Hall
Hours: By appointment
Mail: HSS Dep't, NJIT, Newark, NJ 07102

Professor Burt Kimmelman
Phone: 973.596.3376, 3266
Fax: 973.642.4689
E-Mail: kimmelman@njit.edu

Website: http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma

Greetings,

As the faculty mentor for this distance learning course, American Literature, I welcome you. There are several books assigned for this course (listed on the course syllabus below), which I hope will provide you with a fertile reading experience. Besides reading, we will also be doing a lot of writing—at least some of which will be in electronic format, and perhaps some in the old-fashioned medium of paper. You may need to get paper-based projects to me on time, so be sure to consider how long snail mail will take to reach me from where you are—avoid faxing whenever possible, since faxes are not always legible and may get lost on their way into my mailbox at NJIT. My snail mail address is: Dr. Burt Kimmelman, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102.

We will be conducting our group discussions on the WebCT conferencing system, so you will need to have a WebCT account and also to be enrolled in this class’s "conference." You MUST have a WebCT account, and must use it for class conferencing, in order to receive credit for this course. To get this account, go to http://webct.njit.edu/mywebct.html and follow the instructions you will find there; a general overview of setting up your account and other related matters can be found at the main WebCT site: http://webct.njit.edu. Or, if necessary, phone NJIT's Computing Help Desk at 973-596-2900. Or, as a last resort, you can also obtain directions from NJIT's Computing Services website: www.njit.edu/csd/. Once you have the account—or if you already have the account—please contact me at kimmelman@njit.edu and, when you do, be sure to use the subject header Lit 320 and to tell me what your account user name (last, first), user ID, and password are, so I can add you (i.e., so I can get you electronically "registered" in our virtual classroom) to the class list of conferees (or else you will not be able to send or receive comments or other texts via WebCT) and provide me with an e-mail address where, if necessary, you can be contacted other than via the WebCT environment. Once I have electronically added you to the course in the WebCT environment (please note that my adding you may take as much as a couple of hours if the system is being accessed widely), you must then go back into WebCT, on your own, in order to add this course (I know this is a bit complicated, but, if it is any consolation to you, registering in WebCT will be easier by next semester, with less steps, and I am asking you to be patient with this system for now). Please be mindful of the fact that eventually you must specifically registerfor this course at the WebCT site. When you add this course, you must use the same ID and password with which you provided me.

Once you are sure that you have specifically registered for this course at the WebCT site, and then you have sent me your user ID, password and contact information, please then log into the course, read through the course Syllabus, Calendar and "Welcome" message you will find at the course site, and finally send your own message to the class conference, as soon as possible, to introduce yourself; the message is to be sent only in the Bulletin Board section of the class conference, in the subsection there designated "Introducing Myself." During the term of this course, you will have to log on to the Web CT conferencing system; you should sign into our on-line conference discussions at least three times a week and respond to the comments and questions that I and/or your classmates have posed. It is STRONGLY recommended that you learn the WebCT system thoroughly right away; you may wish to begin your learning process by taking the WebCT guided tour you will find offered starting in the navigation bar at the course homepage (on the left at the WebCT course opening screen). There are also helpful guides of a tutorial nature at the NJIT WebCT homepage, as well as at the WebCT "e-learning hub" (on the navigation bar).

If you wish to succeed in this course, you will need to adhere strictly to the course schedule by getting your reading and writing assignments done before they are due. Indeed, you would be smart to start reading ahead of the scheduled class discussions, and, too, as soon as possible to start thinking about your research project that will be due at the end of the term (the first stage of the project, though, will be due sooner than you think). As for the midterm and final examinations—they will be proctored (again, please consult your course Syllabus or Calendar for their dates).

CAUTION: ALL ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS YOU INITIATE MUST BE VIRUS-FREE!!

You should have received an anti-virus program on the Distance Learning CD ROM: Use it if you have to.

I look forward to our exchanges, and to our sharing of some literary works that I think you will find enriching and enlightening.

Yours cordially,

Burt Kimmelman

COURSE AIM

The purpose of this course is to gain an understanding of the breadth and nature of American literature as a whole and thereby some insight into what it means to have lived in the United States of America and particularly how American identity is manifested artistically.

COURSE TEXTS

N. B.: To order/purchase these texts on-line from the NJIT Bookstore, click here: Order Books. And if this won't be fast enough, then try Amazon etc.

Abrams, Nina, et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Fifth Edition. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Ellison, Ralph. "Introduction" and "Prologue." Invisible Man.

Erdrich, Louise. Tracks. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.

      The Salon Interview
      Native American Authors Project
      Voices from the Gaps
      A Reader's Guide to the Novels
      About Louise Erdrich
      Gale's Celebrating Women's History Month
      Selected Research Sources
      Native American Authors - Teacher Resources

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Penguin, 1993.

      Anniina's Toni Morrison Page
      Toni Morrison (1931- )
      Voices from the Gaps
      The Toni Morrison Anchor
      Toni Morrison Links
      Biographical Information on Toni Morrison
      The Person and the Writer
      The Toni Morrison Page

Prof. Kimmelman's Literature Resources Links: http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/litsources.html

American Authors on the Web

American Verse Project

American Studies Crossroads Project: http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/

A Biography of America

Modern American Poetry

Modern and Contemporary American Poetry

Norton Websource to American Literature

On-line Literary Criticism Collection

Perspectives in American Literature

Prose and Verse Criticism of Poetry

See also:

A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices (http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/Harris/rhetform.html)

A Handbook for Discussing Poetry (http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Handbook/Handbook.html)

Literary Analysis (http://www.gpc.peachnet.edu/~lawiss/literaryanalysis.htm)

Pathfinder: Literary Criticism (http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/PF/litcrit.html#terms)

Writing a Research Paper (http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/PF/litcrit.html#paper)

Documentation Guides ( http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html )

Writing Guides ( http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/writing.html )

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Exams: Two major exams, a midterm and a final, comprehensive in nature, essay in format.

Weekly written assignments: These assignments will be based on the required readings. There are two kinds of weekly written assignment. One kind requires you to work in a team (within a WebCT conferencing environment) which will devise study questions, as regards at least one of the texts assigned to the class each week, study questions to be answered by the rest of the class. The other kind requires you also to work in a team to answer the study questions posed by other teams in the class; these answers need not be more than two or three sentences in length. Your answers, and all your submitted writing in this course, including your participation in class discussions, must be in complete sentences and must, to the best of your ability, contain correct spelling and grammar (as explained further below). These assignments must be submitted electronically. A more complete description of the protocols for these weekly assignments is to be found at the course WebCT site. All assignments implicitly demand that each member of a team read ALL of the assigned readings. Team members who try to make arrangements to share the reading load will be deemed to have cheated and will, if discovered, automatically receive a failing grade for the course.

Papers consist of three written assignments: 1) a Term Paper Announcement (see description below under "Written Assignments Guidelines"), 2) a Term Paper Prospectus (see description below under "Written Assignments Guidelines"), 3) and a Term Paper (see description below under "Written Assignments Guidelines"); all three assigments are a part of an overall research project and must be fully documented (as described below). The Term Paper must consist of at least two thousand words. The entire Term Paper Project will go forth based on a topic of your choice but also to be determined in conference with me; the topic must be approved by me. It is STRONGLY recommended that research begin with your consulation of the MLA Bibliography (locally to be found at the Rutgers-Newark library); following up from there with certain on-line data bases available through NJIT's Van Houten Library, such as Uncover and VALE, will also be of help. Another place to start, especially for assistance in forming an argument for your paper, is at my website (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/) where you can click on "Humanities Resources" (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/humanities.htm ) and then on "Literary Resources" (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/litsources.html)—scroll down to the latter half of the page.

Late Papers

Papers that are submitted after their assigned deadlines will not receive credit. All the same, later paper assignments may not be submitted for a grade unless earlier assignments that lead to the later ones have been submitted first; thus, for example, your end-of-term paper cannot receive a grade and/or credit unless it has: 1) been submitted on time, and, 2) been preceded by submissions of both a term paper announcement and a term paper prospectus.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS GUIDELINES

It is STRONGLY recommended that research begin with the MLA Bibliography

(locally to be found at the Rutgers-Newark library).

Term Paper Announcement:
Consists of 1) a descriptive paper title, 2) a one-sentence thesis statement that includes the point of your argument, the breadth of that argument, and the argument’s significant concepts and details, 3) a one-paragraph description of the writing strategy to be employed in your paper, 4) a bibliography in MLA format and alphabetized. For the purposes of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary research sources (including at least one non-Internet source) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries. An example of a primary source is the short story "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane; an example of a secondary source is a book of essays about Crane's work.

Term Paper Prospectus:
Consists of 1) a descriptive paper title, 2) a one-sentence thesis statement that includes the point of your argument, the breadth of that argument, and the argument’s significant concepts and details, 3) an abstract—that is, a one-paragraph summary of your term paper as you think it will turn out to be, 4) a précis—that is, a small version of the essay you are projecting for your term paper, about one fourth of the final length, and fully documented, 5) paragraph-length descriptions of the writing strategy (i.e., a description of how you will prove your argument) involved in each section of the essay you are projecting for your term paper, 6) a bibliography in MLA format and alphabetized. For the purposes of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary research sources (including at least one non-Internet source) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries. An example of a primary source is the short story "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane; an example of a secondary source is a book of essays about Crane's work.

Term Paper:
Consists of: 1) a descriptive paper title, 2) a full-length, fully documented essay, 3) a bibliography in MLA format and
alphabetized. For the purposes of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary research sources (including at least one non-Internet source) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries. An example of a primary source is the short story "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane; an example of a secondary source is a book of essays about Crane's work.

The three principle papers are to be submitted before their respective deadlines as attachments to e-mails to the instructor's WebCT e-mail address only. The papers are to be in Word for Windows (this is necessary so that the instructor can use the available Word function for making editorial and other comments within a submitted paper). Papers not meeting their minimal requirements will not be read and will not receive credit (see above and below). If a paper is read, graded and returned to you (via e-mail to your WebCT e-mail address), and if the grade for the paper is less than "A," then you will have the opportunity to revise your paper and in so doing possibly to raise the paper's grade; however, no revision will be considered unless it is accompanied by the prior draft that includes the instructor's comments (thus you would send, in one attachment: the revised paper followed by the edited earlier draft), and any subsequent revisions must contain all prior graded drafts, arranged in descending chronological order.

All submitted work (with the exception of on-site exams) must be word processed, double spaced with one inch margins, spell checked, and to the best of one's ability grammar checked. If on occasion use is made of the ideas or words of someone else in one's writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited; that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented (you must cite sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation, which include specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in one's text, and complete bibliographical information). (If you are not sure about documentation principles and/or procedures, you should consult a freshman English textbook such as The Beacon Handbook or better yet The MLA Handbook. PAPERS NOT MEETING ALL OF THESE REQUIREMENTS WILL NOT BE READ AND WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT. Both Writing and Documentation help can also be found at my website (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/) by clicking on "Writing Guide" (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/writing.html ) and "Documentation Guide" (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html ).

More complete discussions of the above are to be found at the course WebCT site by clicking on "Descriptions and Helpful Links for Writing Assignments."

COURSE GRADE

Term Paper Announcement	-	5%
Term Paper Prospectus	-	10%
End of Term Paper	-	15%
Final Examination	-	30%
Midterm Examination	-	10%
Group Assignments; Study Questions	-	20%
Participation in on-line Class Discussions	-	10%

N.B.: In order to pass this course, at least one exam must earn a grade of "D" or better. Satisfying this criterion alone,
however, does not ensure even minimal success in this course (i.e., merely passing the course exams does not ensure a
passing grade in the course).

N.B.: Students who do not participate in weekly class activities risk having their papers and exams be disqualified.

COURSE SCHEDULE

I: Introduction to the course.
II: Bradstreet, "Before the Birth of One of Her Children"; Rowlandson, "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson"("First Remove" etc.); Taylor, "Huswifery"; Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Paine, from Common Sense; Equiano, "The Interesting Narrative [etc.]"; Freneau, "On the Emigration [etc.]," "On Mr. Paine's Rights of Man"; Wheatley, "On Being Brought [etc.]," "To the University [etc.]," "On the Death [etc.]," "To S. M. [etc.]," "To His Excellency General Washington." Also: "Early American Literature." Also, read all introductions to authors and their works.
III: Emerson, "Self-Reliance"; Thoreau, "The Ponds"; Whitman, "Song of Myself" (sections 1-3, 5, 7-17, 24, 27-31, 50-52), Dickinson, "214, 258, 303, 465, 632, 986, 1129). Also, read all introductions to authors and their works. TERM PAPER ANNOUNCEMENT DUE.
IV: Stowe, from Uncle Tom's Cabin; Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Chapters 1- 16, 31-"Chapter the Last"). Also: "American Literature 1820-1865," and "American Literature 1865-1914."
V: MIDTERM EXAMINATION..
VI: Wharton, "The Other Two"; S. Crane, "The Open Boat." Also, read all introductions to authors and their works
VII: W. C. Williams, "Portrait of a Lady," "Spring and All," "To Elsie," "The Red Wheelbarrow"; Pound "Portrait d'une Femme," "In a Station of the Metro"; H.D. "Mid-day," "Oread," "Helen"; Moore, "Poetry," "The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing"; Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Also: "American Literature between the Wars, 1914-1945." Also, read all introductions to authors and their works.
VIII: Frost, "Death of the Hired Man," "Birches," "Stopping by Woods," "Once by the Pacific," "Design"; Stevens, "The Snow Man," "The Emperor of Ice Cream," "Sunday Morning"; H. Crane, "At Melville's Tomb," "Voyages," "To Brooklyn Bridge." Also: "American Poetry since 1945." Also, read all introductions to authors and their works.
IX: T. Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire. Also: "American Prose since 1945." Also, read introduction to Williams and his work. TERM PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE.
X: Ellison, from Invisible Man (Introduction and Prologue [Click Here], Chapter 1 [in Abrams]); Kingston, "No Name Woman." Also, read introductions to the authors and their works.
XI: Morrison, The Bluest Eye. Also, peruse links for Morrison above in Course Texts.
XII: Erdrich, Tracks. Also, peruse links for Erdrich above in Course Texts.
XIII: Course Review and Progress Reports on Research Projects.
XIV: FINAL EXAMINATION. TERM RESEARCH PAPER DUE.

Compendium of useful links

Writing Assignments (descriptions and helpful links)

How-To Guide for Student Presentations