English 293:
American Literary History
Summer 2013*Section 001*TTh*3:00-5:30pm*B150 JFSB
Instructor Information
Makayla C. Steiner
makayla.steiner@gmail.com
Box: Composition Office 4110 JFSB, 8-4 M-F
Office Location: 3004 JKB
Office Hours: TTh 5:30-6:30pm
or by appointment
Texts, Supplies, and Important Resources
Required:
*Nina Baym, et al. eds The Norton Anthology of American
Literature Shorter Edition (8th ed.) (N—volumees I and II
designed as such in the course reading outline, e.g. I.24-26 for
Volume 1, pages 24-26)
*A notebook and a pen or pencil
Recommended: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers,
Seventh Edition
Learning Suite: learningsuite.byu.edu
Writing Center: 4026 JKB
english.byu.edu/writingcenter
Library Research Lab: 2224 HBLL Mon-Fri 8am-5pm;
2232 HBLL Tues/Thurs 6-9pm
http://lib.byu.edu/sites/instruction/first-year-writing/
Course Objectives
Course Focus
English 293 is a course designed to survey over four hundred years of American literary history, charting its emergence from the nexus of other literary
traditions into a literary tradition of its own. As such, the course will focus primarily on the development, revision, change, and expansion of major literary
forms, genres, artistic, and cultural thought in American literature, turning to representative readings of American writers of many types as case studies of
these cultural phenomena. This means that English 293 is an intensive course designed to provide a foundation in history and literature for English
majors that will enable more advanced study of American literature in 300- and 400-level classes and beyond; I take it for granted that you’ve already
passed (or are concurrently enrolled in) the prerequisite course, English 251 (Fundamentals of Literary Interpretation and Criticism). If you are not an
English major and merely desire a “great works” sampler course in American literature, then I would recommend that you take English 235, “Masterpieces
of American Literature,” which would be a course much better tailored to the non-specialist.
Learning Outcomes



Representative Authors, Works, and Movements
Identify, contextualize, and explain representative authors, works, and movements.
Historical Development
Demonstrate an understanding of the historical development of American literature.
Digital Research Sources
Locate and evaluate appropriate print and digital research sources.

Academic Paper
Incorporate these sources into a well-documented formal academic paper that includes critical arguments based on those sources.
Preparing to Read and Study American Literature
As you might imagine, our course will track a wide range of writing from a variety of different ideologies and vantage points. Many of these authors will
write from perspectives will feel comfortable to you, since they will accord with many elements of your own belief and world view. Other authors will
write from points of view that might occasionally be disturbing, bleak in their outlooks, ironic, profane, and even subversive toward the mores you esteem
as a LDS literary scholar. While acknowledging the fact that you read and study literature as a mature audience, I want you to understand from the outset
of our time together that the purpose of our course is neither to celebrate nor identify with the many perspectives we’ll encounter this semester. Rather,
our purpose is to review, as objectively and critically as we can, the development of American literature and to gain understanding, perspective, and
wisdom—even discernment—while tracking these developments. Put differently, the value of the materials we will read and study in class might lie less in
their “messages” and more in what they reveal about the varied cultural landscapes of the United States and the development of its literary life. I never
want any student to feel obligated to accept a particular writer’s worldview; rather, I only expect my students to be able to understand and articulate the
different viewpoints they will encounter. Please vocalize your responses to all of the literatures we study, drawing upon the perspectives and values you
bring to our community of scholars, so that we can all learn and profit together. Finally, always feel comfortable in speaking with me if, despite what I’ve
outlined here, you have concerns about ways this course may offend your sensibilities. In the end, though, I hope you’ll see how tackling these issues
together as active, temple-recommend holding LDS scholars will be an asset to you.
Course Requirements
Major Assignments:
1. Literary History Essay (300 points)
2. Rushwrites (100 points)
3. Exam 1 (100 points)
4. Exam 2 (200 points)
5. Exam 3 (300 points)
Attendance: I require regular, on-time attendance and attentive participation informed by advance careful reading and thought. If you are someone who
habitually arrives late, arrives unprepared to discuss the day’s reading, or doesn’t arrive at class at all, you might want to rethink taking this course (or
resolve to mend your ways). Unless you have a University-excused absence (and if you do, you should have a sheet to give me at the beginning of the
semester with the dates you’re cleared to miss), you won’t be able to “make up” work that you miss.
Reading: Make sure that you’ve completed the reading listed on the syllabus for a given day of class PRIOR to arriving at class. Our class discussions
will take for granted that you’re familiar with this material, and I am counting on each of you to contribute your knowledge and insights during class
(recognizing that you’ll still have questions and might not have mastered everything in the reading just yet). Please don’t be dishonest and mooch off of
others’ preparation by failing to read and prepare only to show up and reap the benefits of other students’ labor. If you do not do the reading, you will find
it extremely difficult to succeed on your essays and exams.
Exams: We will have three exams during the course. The first two will be taken at the testing center, and the final exam will be in the classroom. Each
exam will consist of spot quote identifications and several short answer questions. More details will be forthcoming in class.
Final Exam: The University schedules the final exam for Thursday, August 15th, from 11am – 1:00pm in B150 JFSB. Absolutely no exams will be
given early and you will fail the course if you miss the final. Please inform your family immediately and plan travel arrangements, weddings, etc.,
accordingly.
Literary History Essay: You will have one major essay that will be required of you during the course of the semester. This is not a full research paper,
but will ask you to read one of several selected pieces and highlight aspects of that literary piece that place it within a certain moment or mode in American
literary history, and you will be required to use several academic sources. This essay must be typed, double-spaced (12 size font, 1” margins all around)
and adhere strictly to current MLA Style Guide specifications for citation, documentation, and style. If you do not have access to a current MLA style
guide, it would be a good investment for you.
Rushwrites: Often during the term I will ask you to begin a section of class by doing a rushwrite on a topic related to our reading for that
day. Sometimes, these rushwrites will not be handed in but will serve as the discussion starters for the day. Ten times during the term, however, I will
collect these rushwrites and give you credit based the completeness of your response as well as your indicated completion of the day's reading. These
rushwrites cannot be made up, so if you miss class for anything other than a University-approved absence (for which you’ll need to submit the appropriate
documentation to me at the beginning of the semester—you should have been given a sheet), you will miss the rushwrite points for that day. During a
term this is particularly important, since I may collect more than one rushwrite during a given class period.
Grading Scale
Points
Grade
Points
Grade
Points
Grade
Points
Grade
1000-940
A
869-840
B
769-740
C
669-640
D
939-900
A-
839-800
B-
739-700
C-
639-600
D-
899-870
B+
799-770
C+
699-670
D+
Below 600
E
I promise to make every effort to read your work intelligently and to grade that work with corresponding care. That said, you should understand that
“grading” is, in my understanding, exactly that: determining a gradation in the quality of student performance on exams or papers. This process is
inevitably subjective, but not arbitrary; I read student work in terms of what is comparatively “exceptional,” “excellent,” “very good,” “good,” “fair,” “poor,”
and so on. Grades do not, in my view, assess what kind of a person you are or what I personally think of you. Rather, they let you and other interested
parties know my assessment of how well you have performed on a specific task or throughout a particular course.
After taking at least 24 hours to look over and consider the comments I’ve offered on your work, let me know if you feel that I’ve improperly or inaccurately
evaluated your work. I will be happy to re-evaluate the work submitted to me for up to three days after the assignment is returned provided you attach a
typewritten paragraph explaining why you believe the original grade was in error in light of the course grading rubric and taking into consideration any
comments I’ve written on your work. Once you submit this request, I will reassess the work in question and respond to the points you’ve raised,
indicating any modification to your original grade). If you’d like me to suggest even more specific ways that you might improve your performance on
papers and/or examinations for the class and for those of other professors, stop by my office hours and we’ll chat, although we won’t indulge in informal
in-office haggling for extra points that does not follow these grade redress policies.
I will not discuss grades via email or telephone.
Class Policies
Academic Honesty and Integrity: It should go without saying that plagiarism or other academic dishonesty is not only morally wrong but is against
BYU’s policies as well as the policies of every other university. BYU’s policy reads, “It is a violation of the Honor Code for a student to represent
someone else¹s work as their own. Also, as a condition of attending BYU, you affirmed that you would help others obey the Honor Code. I view
violations of the Honor code with extreme seriousness. It is a department policy that those who cheat on examinations or plagiarize the work of another
are given a failing grade for the course.” Before passing off other people’s work as your own, in other words, think twice. I expect you to follow MLA
guidelines for formatting and documentation to help you avoid inadvertent problems with documentation and attribution.
Office Hours: I would encourage you to come to office hours during the semester to ask questions, continue interesting discussions we’ve had in class,
and so on—after all, some of the most valuable learning that you’ll experience at BYU happens outside of class in these informal discussions with your
instructors. That said, I would ask you to limit your visits to my office to either the scheduled office hours times or to times that you’ve prearranged with
me via a set appointment (if you can’t meet me during my normal office hours)—please, no “drop-in” visits. This will allow us to have good visits during
office hour time and will also help us to complete our other university responsibilities as well as our own scholarship and research.
Communication: I expect you to email me before you will be missing any class period as a courtesy to me. I also expect you to take initiative for what
you missed. Some assignments simply cannot be made up. Don’t think that missing class is a good way to get more time on a paper or assignment. It is
not. If you have a question about a policy or an assignment that cannot be answered by either the syllabus or one of your classmates, please e-mail me. I
commit to respond to student emails at least once a day, usually in the early evening. If you email me after 7pm you are not guaranteed a response until the
next day. If you have a question that can be answered by the syllabus, you will get a response that says, “Please check your syllabus.” I do frequently
communicate important details about assignments and readings via emails to the class, so check your email regularly.
Late Assignments: Except for very unusual circumstances, I don’t accept late work. In the case of a dire emergency (death, natural disaster, or
hospitalization) that prevents you from completing a major assignment on time, please talk to me at the time of the crisis (not a few days or a few weeks
later) so we can work something out. Computer and printer problems are NOT considered dire emergencies. You need to plan ahead and give yourself
enough time in case of such problems. Be sure to keep money on your BYU ID card, just in case.
Required Format: All papers submitted for this course must be typed with 1-inch margins in Times New Roman 10-12-point font, double-spaced. They
must also adhere to current MLA (Modern Language Association) style guidelines where specified. Attempts to doctor assignment length by changing
fonts, margins, etc. will not work, and if you make such attempts your grade will suffer. Every assignment you turn in must be in this format.
Classroom Courtesy: This class requires class participation and the sharing of different viewpoints. Because of the interactive nature of this course,
certain disruptions in class are simply not tolerated. Cell phones, iPods, tape recorders, newspapers, Internet, sleeping, or anything like unto these things
are unwelcome in my class. Engaging in any of these distractions may result in your being marked absent no matter how much time we have left in class. If
that is the case, you will also be unable to make up any assignments for that day. If your phone rings, I get to answer it. General rudeness, apathy, or
arrogance toward your classmates will destroy the safe environment we are trying to create, so please be courteous.
BYU Honor Code and Plagiarism: In keeping with the principles of the BYU Honor Code, students are expected to be honest in all of their academic
work. Academic honesty means, most fundamentally, that any work you present as your own must in fact be your own work and not that of another.
Violations of this principle may result in a failing grade in the course and additional disciplinary action by the university. Please see full detail on Plagiarism
as constituted in the Honor Code at http://campuslife.byu.edu/honorcode
Furthermore, students are expected to adhere to the Dress and Grooming Standards. Adherence demonstrates respect for yourself and others and ensures
an effective learning and working environment. It is the university's expectation, and my own expectation in class, that each student will abide by all Honor
Code standards. Please call the Honor Code Office at 422-2847 if you have questions about those standards.
Preventing Sexual Discrimination and Harassment: Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination against any
participant in an educational program or activity that receives federal funds. The act is intended to eliminate sex discrimination in education. Title IX
covers discrimination in programs, admissions, activities, and student-to-student sexual harassment. BYU's policy against sexual harassment extends not
only to employees of the university, but to students as well. If you encounter unlawful sexual harassment or gender-based discrimination, please talk to
your professor; contact the Equal Employment Office at 422-5895 or 367-5689 (24-hours); or contact the Honor Code Office at 422-2847.
Students with Disabilities: The Americans with Disabilities Act (enacted in 1990) prohibits discrimination based on disability in employment, public
service, public accommodations, telecommunications, and transportation. The Act is intended to afford the disabled equal opportunity and full
participation in life activities. Brigham Young University is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that reasonably accommodates
qualified persons with disabilities. If you have any disability which may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the Services
for Students with Disabilities Office (422-2767). Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified, documented
disabilities. Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the SSD Office. If you need assistance or if you feel you have been unlawfully
discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may seek resolution through established grievance policy and procedures by contacting the Equal
Employment Office at 422-5895, D-285 ASB.
Students with Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: The University offers numerous free opportunities for counseling, whether you’re worried about an
assignment, a personal crisis, a career, or just having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, there are many ways to get help on campus. You don’t
have to feel miserable and on the verge of falling apart. Visit the BYU Counseling Center in the Wilkinson Center or at: http://ccc.byu.edu
Course Schedule
Date
T – June 25
Topic
-Introduction to the Course and Each
Other
-Pre-American Origin Stories: From
Literatures of the First Encounter to
Literatures of the Colonial Enterprise
W-F – June 26-28
Getting to Know You Conferences
Th – June 27
-Pre-American Origin Stories: From
Literatures of the First Encounter to
Literatures of the Colonial Enterprise:
Pilgrim and Puritan New England
-Puritan Colonial Literature
Reading
Syllabus
N I.3-12; The Iroquois Creation
Story—N I.20-23; Christopher
Columbus, “Letter to Luis de
Santangel”—N I.24-26; Alvar Nuñez
Cabeza de Vaca, from The Relation—N
I.28-35; First Encounters—N I.36-38;
Hernán Cortés, from “Second Letter
to the Spanish Crown”—N I.38-42;
Samuel de Champlain, from “The
Voyages of the Sieur de Champlain”—
N I.43-47; John Smith, from A
Description of New England—N I.57-59;
69-72
N I. 13-19; William Bradford, from Of
Plymouth Plantation—N I.72-81; John
Winthrop, A Model of Christian
Charity—N I.90-102; Roger Williams,
A Letter to the Town of Providence—
N I.102-103, 109; Anne Bradstreet,
“To My Dear and Loving Husband”
and “Here Follows Some Verses upon
the Burning of Our House, July 10th,
1666”—N I.110, 120-121, 122-123;
Mary Rowlandson, from A Narrative of
the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson—N I.126-143; Cotton
Mather, from The Wonders of the Invisible
Due
Personal Information Sheet
T – July 2
-The Move from Puritanism to Deism:
Two Autobiographies
-Revolutionary and Early Republican
American Literature
Th – July 4
T – July 9
INDEPENDENCE DAY HOLIDAY
-Revolutionary and Early Republican
American Literature and Poetry
-Early Romantic American Literature
Th – July 11
-The Transcendentalists (or, Emerson and
his circle)
F-S – July 12-13
EXAM #1 (TESTING CENTER)
Covering material from the beginning
through Early Romantic American
Literature
-Romanticism and the Gothic
T – July 16
-Romanticism, Abolitionist Literature, and
the Slave Narrative
World—N I.149-155
N I.157-169; Benjamin Franklin,
from The Autobiography (Part One
only)—N I.234-236, 248-292; Jonathan
Edwards, “Personal Narrative”—N
I.177-189; Olaudah Equiano, from
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the
African, Written by Himself—N I.354-387;
Red Jacket, “Reply to the missionary
Jacob Cram”—N I.229-231;
Tecumseh, “Speech to the Osages”—
N I.231-233; William Apess, “An
Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White
Man”—N I.498-504;
NO CLASS HELD
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur,
from Letters from an American Farmer—N
I.308-323; Thomas Paine, from
Common Sense—N I.323-331; Thomas
Jefferson, from The Autobiography of
Thomas Jefferson—N I.337-344; The
Federalist—N I.345-353; Philip
Freneau, "The Indian Burying
Ground"—N I. 397-398, 399-400;
Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought
from Africa to America” and “To His
Excellency General Washington”—N
I.401-403, 410-411; N I.445-466;
Washington Irving, “Rip Van
Winkle”—N I.467-468, 470-482;
William Cullen Bryant, “The
Prairies”—N I.491-493, 495-498;
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
(Introduction and Chapter I)—N I.505511, “The American Scholar”—N
I.536-549; Margaret Fuller, from The
Great Lawsuit—N I.749-760; Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of
Life”—N I.656-659; Henry David
Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil
Government”—N I.839-842, 843-858,
“Economy,” from Walden—N I.858866; Walt Whitman, "Preface to
Leaves of Grass"—N I.1005-1023,
selections from “Song of Myself” (1, 6,
15, 24, 52)—N I.1024, 1028-1029,
1033-1035, 1040-1042, 1067;
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young
Goodman Brown”— N I.603-606, 619628; Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven,”
"The Tell-Tale Heart," and “The
Philosophy of Composition,”—N
I.683-691, 714-718, 737-745; Harriet
Beecher Stowe, from Uncle Tom’s
Cabin—N I.779-818; Harriet Jacobs,
from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl—
N I.818-839; Frederick Douglass,
from Narrative of the Life (Preface,
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Literary History paper
Th – July 18
-Literature of the Civil War
-Anticipations of Modernism in Romantic
and Gothic Literature
T – July 23
-Regional Realism/“Local Color”
Literature
-Social Realism
-Psychological Realism
-Naturalism
Th – July 25
Introduction to Modernism: Modernist
Poetry
-Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance
F-S – July 26-27
EXAM #2 (TESTING CENTER)
Covers Transcendentalism through
Naturalism
Chapters I, VI, X, and Appendix—N
I.934-949, 959-961, 971-990, 998-1002
William Lloyd Garrison, “To the
Public”—N I.769-771; Sojourner
Truth “Speech to the Women’s Rights
Convention”—N I.775-776
Abraham Lincoln, “Address Delivered
at the Dedication of the Cemetery at
Gettysburg, March 19, 1863” and
“Second Inaugural Address, March 4,
1865”— N I.745-749; Walt Whitman,
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
Bloom'd"— N I.1082-1088; Frances
Ellen Watkins Harper, “Ethiopia”
and “Bury Me in a Free Land”—N
I.1184-1185, 1186-1188; Emily
Dickinson, poems 124 [216], 269
[249], 479 [712], 591 [465] and "Letters
to Thomas Wentworth Higginson"—N
I.1189-1193, 1194-1195, 1197, 12061208, 1218-1219; Herman Melville,
“Bartelby, The Scrivener”—N I.10991128;
N II.3-19; Mark Twain, “The
Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County”—N II.98-105; Kate Chopin,
“Desiree's Baby”—N II.420-425;
William Dean Howells, “Editha” and
from Novel Writing and Novel Reading—
N II.305-317, 551-553; Charlotte
Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”—N II.484-497; Henry James,
from The Art of Fiction—N II.324-327,
554-556; N II. 548-549; Theodore
Dreiser, "True Art Speaks Plainly"—N
II.562-563, 566-567; Stephen Crane,
“The Open Boat”—N II.581-600; Jack
London, “To Build a Fire”—N II.627639
N II.705-719; Edwin Arlington
Robinson, “Miniver Cheevy”—N
II.673, 674-675; Robert Frost, “The
Road Not Taken,” “Out, Out--,” “Fire
and Ice,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” N
II.727-728, 735-736; Ezra Pound, “In
a Station of the Metro” and from A
Retrospect—N II.786-788, 790, 800--802;
H.D., “Oread”—N II.808-810;
William Carlos Williams, “The Red
Wheelbarrow” and “This is Just to
Say”—N II.777-779, 784-785; T.S.
Eliot, “The Wasteland,” “The Hollow
Men,”—N II.819-822, 825-840; e.e.
cummings, “next to of course god
america i,” and “anyone lived in a pretty
how town”—N II.951-952, 954-955,
957; Booker T. Washington, from Up
from Slavery N II.447-457; W.E.B.
DuBois, from The Souls of Black Folk—
N II.531-547;
Literary History Project
Scope Proposal Due
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Literary History Full Draft
Due
T – July 30
-Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance
(cont.)
-Modernism and Prose
Th – August 1
-Modernism and Prose (cont.)
-From Modernism into Postmodernism
-Postmodern American Poetry
T – August 6
-Postmodernism and the Rise of Ethnic
Literary Studies
Th – August 8
Postmodernism and the Rise of Ethnic
Literary Studies (cont.)
Postmodernism: Essays and Creative
Nonfiction
T – August 13
Th – August 15
Reading Day
EXAM #3 (CLASSROOM B150 JFSB)
11:00-1:00pm Covers Modernism and
Postmodernism
Langston Hughes, “The Negro
Speaks of Rivers”—N II.10371039; Countee Cullen, “Heritage”—N
II.1056-1060; Zora Neale Hurston,
“The Gilded Six-Bits”—N II.939-940,
943-951; Katherine Anne Porter,
“Flowering Judas”—N II.929-938;
Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White
Elephants”—(handout); William
Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”—N
II.994-1004;
John Steinbeck, from East of Eden
(handout), “Leader of the People”—N
II.1045-1055; Richard Wright, “The
Man Who Was Almost a Man”—N
II.1060-1069; Wallace Stevens, “The
Snow Man"—N II.766-768; Flannery
O’Connor, “Good Country People”—
N II.1339-1353; Allen Ginsberg, "A
Supermarket in California"—N II.13541356, 1364-1365; Yusef Komuyakaa,
"Facing It"— N II.1537-1539;
Adrienne Rich, “Storm Warnings,”
and “A Valediction Forbidding
Mourning”—N II.1379-1382, 13851386; Li-Young Lee “Persimmons,”
“Eating Alone,” “Eating Together,”
“This Room and Everything in It”—N
II.1613-1619; Lance Larsen (handout);
Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal”—N
II.1209-1221; Alice Walker, “Everyday
Use”—N II.1530-1537; Toni
Morrison, “Recitatif”—N II.14011416; Gloria Anzaldúa, "How to Tame
a Wild Tongue"—N II.1520-1529;
Sandra Cisneros, "Woman Hollering
Creek"—N II.1587-1595;
Sherman Alexie, “At Navajo
Monument Valley Tribal School,”
“Pawn Shop,” and Crow Testament”—
N II. 1645-1649; Edward Abbey,
“Havasu”—N II.1620-1624; Barry
Lopez, “The Raven”—N II.1624-1625;
Art Spiegelman, from Maus—N
II.1550-1568; Saul Bellow, “The
Adventures of Augie March”—N
II.1221-1232; Philip Roth, “Defender
of the Faith”—N II.1334-1356; N
II.1619-1620; Terry Tempest
Williams (handout); Marilynne
Robinson selected essays (handout);
LITERARY HISTORY
ESSAY DUE
Test Review posted on
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Student Statement:
I _________________________, understand that my education is fundamentally my responsibility. Brigham Young
University is a nationally ranked university, and the standard of work that was acceptable in my previous institution may not be
acceptable by BYU academic standard. I am willing to put in the time and effort to educate myself well. This class is a
beginning to the world of American Literary History, and is thus not comprehensive. I will treat this course, my classmates, my
instructor, and myself with respect. I have read through the entire syllabus, and am familiar with all course assignments and
policies. I hereby contract with my instructor to not whine about, act surprised by, or seek to change these assignments or
policies.
Name (please print): _________________________________
Date: _________________________________________
Signature: ______________________________________