English 246 – American Literature III
20th Century American Literature: Revolutions in Form
Instructor: Christy Scheuer
E-mail: Christina.scheuer@seattlecolleges.edu
Course Time and Location: 9:00-9:50 a.m.
Office Hours: Office hours, 10-11 a.m., Mon.-Thurs.
Mon.-Fri., IB 3416
(and by appointment)
Office: IB 2306 D
Instructor Phone: 206-934-4538
Course Websites
Angel:
http://angel.northseattle.edu/
Faculty web page:
https://people.northseattle.edu/users/cscheuer
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The series of social, political, artistic, and scientific revolutions of the 20th century have
radically changed the way that people think about war, technology, sexuality, God,
patriotism, community, and the meanings of art and human life. At the beginning of the 20th
century, the poet Ezra Pound urged writers to “Make it new!,” asking them to respond to
the revolutionary changes in the world by challenging old modes of writing and by finding
new forms of expression. Responding to radical changes in how people live and
communicate with one another, writers change how they write as well as what they write
about. And we are still faced with these questions today: When the world changes utterly,
how do we respond?
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 2006. ISBN: 9780743297332
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Random House, 2007. ISBN: 9780307278449
Cain, William E. American Literature: Vol. II. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
Foer, Jonathon Safran. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. New York: Mariner Books,
2006. ISBN: 9780618329700
Additional readings and handouts for this class will be handed out during class time. I
recommend using a binder to keep track of all of the reading. If you miss a class, you are
responsible for asking your classmates about any handouts that you have missed.
Course Objectives
1. To become acquainted with a range of writing produced in the United States during
the twentieth century.
2. To closely study a selection of works that stand out as artistically excellent or
unusually illuminating of some aspects of American experience.
3. To consider how American literary works express and reflect the outlook and
experience of people of diverse ethnicity, class, gender, and region.
4. To develop our ability to articulate analysis, to support analysis through the
literature itself, and to interpret the works more fully.
DEVELOPING A COMMUNITY OF READERS AND WRITERS
Students come to this class with a broad range of educational, writing, and personal
experiences. This diversity enhances our class by expanding the range of viewpoints
expressed and providing us with new ideas to discuss in class. It is very important that
you are respectful of every student’s work and opinions so that the classroom is an
environment in which everyone feels welcome.
Please communicate with me at any time regarding any concerns or questions you have
about the course. You can come to my office hours or make an appointment if you
would like to talk about your progress in the class, specific assignments, or any other
concerns or questions that arise during the quarter. I’m here to help you, and I enjoy
talking to students throughout the writing process.
GRADES
Your grade will be based on a variety of assignments, discussion posts, and exams,
including five seminar papers, two exams, a short annotated bibliography, and a formal
paper, and a series of in-class responses based on the reading that you have done for
that day.
I encourage all of you to come to my office hours—or e-mail me to set up an alternative
office hour—to discuss the drafts of your papers. You may also schedule an appointment
with me at any time if you have a question about how the class.
Seminar Papers (5 x 25 points)
125 pts
Annotated Bibliography (Due Nov. 21)
50 pts
Major Essay (Due Dec. 5)
100 pts
Proposal (Due Nov. 8)
20 pts
Rough Draft (Due Nov. 28)
20 pts
Midterm (Nov. 2)
100 pts
Final (Dec. 10, 8:00 a.m. -10:00 a.m.)
150 pts
HW and In-class responses (10 pts each, best 6 out of 7)
60 pts
Participation (35 pts Midterm + 40 pts Final)
75 pts
Extra Credit: Memorizing a Poem
[10 pts]
_________________________________________________________________________________
Total:
700 pts
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS:
Seminar Papers
The seminar papers will be a semi-formal response to the reading that we are doing
that week. Each seminar paper should be 2 pages long, double-spaced, and it should
reference the texts that we are reading at least 3 times in the course of your
discussion. These papers allow you to delve deeper into each text and to work
through some new ideas that you might have. Often, they will also allow you to
connect the reading to your own experiences or to do an imitation or creative piece
to try out some of the techniques that the authors are using.
Each Friday, I will post a new set of seminar questions for the following week. These
questions can be found in Angel under Lessons>Assignments>Seminar Paper __. The
Seminar Paper will be due the following Thursday.
On the day that the seminar paper is due, we will have seminar discussions (in small
groups or a large group) in which we discuss the ideas that you’ve developed in
your papers.
The grading rubric for the Seminar Papers and guidance on how to write a Seminar
Paper can be found in the “How to Write a Seminar Paper” handout, which will be
available in class and online.
Essay and Annotated Bibliography:
In this course, you will be required to write one full-length essay that provides a
careful analysis of a text that we are reading this quarter. Before you write this
essay, you will also complete a short Annotated Bibliography (3 entries) in which
you explore ways in which other people have approached this text. For this essay,
you will be required to write a rough draft and to engage in the peer review and
revision process. As we read, think about which texts engage you and which ones
you would like to know more about.
Exams
You will have two exams, a Midterm and a Final, and these exams will ask you to
identify passages of texts that we have read and analyze these passages in a series of
short essay questions.
The final exam will be cumulative, and it will also include a longer essay question.
In-Class Response Papers
You will be given a series of short in-class writing prompts. The goal of these
responses, which will be unannounced, will be to make sure that you have read the
assigned reading carefully and taken notes of passages that seemed significant,
intriguing, or difficult. You will be able to use your book and your notes for the
responses.
Extra Credit
There will be a few extra credit opportunities available throughout the quarter. The
first opportunity is to memorize a poem (at least 14 lines) and to recite that poem
for the class or a smaller group of people. This act of memorization allows you to
more fully delve into the rhythms and meaning of the poem, and it allows the poem
to become a part of your own experience and memory. I highly recommend
participating!
ATTENDANCE AND CLASS PARTICIPATION
Since this is a small, discussion-based course, your regular attendance is imperative. If
you miss a class, it is your responsibility to seek a trustworthy classmate to provide you
with notes on class discussion and lecture material, information about assignments,
handouts, and announcements. Therefore, I recommend exchanging phone
numbers and/or e-mail addresses with each other so that you can help one
another out. Please let me know as soon as possible if chronic health problems, a
personal emergency, or extraordinary circumstances threaten to interfere with your
attendance so that we can discuss the best course of action.
Please come to every class prepared to discuss the assigned reading for that day. This
means that you will have read the assignment carefully and identified any passages that
you would like to discuss—this can include passages that you loved and those that
confused and annoyed you. You will often be asked to do in-class writing about these
passages.
COURSE POLICIES:
 Attend daily. The importance of regular attendance cannot be overestimated. Please
arrive on time and expect to remain until class is over. Your attendance and
participation will figure into your final grade in the form of your participation grade
and points assigned for unannounced in-class responses. These exercises cannot be
made up. If you arrive late or leave early and miss an in-class exercise, you will not be
permitted to complete the exercise you missed.
 Papers must be typed. All assignments (including drafts) should be typed, doublespaced, using 12 point Times New Roman font.
 Save your work. It is your responsibility to keep a copy of all assignments that you
turn in.
 Submit your work on time. An assignment is counted late if you do not submit it
during class on the date it is due. Seminar papers, responses, and drafts (the small stuff)
will not be accepted late. The major essay may be submitted late, but for each class
period an assignment is late, your grade on that assignment will be reduced by one
letter grade. For example, an A paper that is received one class late will be reduced to a
B; two class periods late, a C; three classes late, a D; and four classes late, an F. If an
assignment is turned in even 1 minute after class time on the day it is due, it will be
counted as one day late.
RESOURCES
Accessibility and Disability Services: My goal is to make the classroom as accessible
as possible to all students. If you require any disability-related accommodations, please
contact me by e-mail, phone, or in person. I would also recommend contacting disability
services. There website can be found here: https://northseattle.edu/disability-services.
To make an appointment, contact the Disability Services office by phone at (206) 5273697, TTY at (206) 526-0079 modem, or e-mail at ds@sccd.ctc.edu.
The Loft Writing Center: Need feedback on your writing? Visit the Loft Writing Center
Plus on the top floor of the library to get help during every stage of the writing process
from brainstorming and outlining through the final polishing phase. You'll find more
information including hours of operation at https://northseattle.edu/tutoring/loftwriting-center
Library: The library is a phenomenal resource to use if you have questions about
research or sources—or really questions about anything. You can find useful
information at https://library.northseattle.edu/
E-MAIL
E-mail is usually the most effective way to get a hold of me. Please e-mail me at any time
with any questions that you may have about the course. I will have office hours each
week, but feel free to e-mail me if these hours do not work for you, and we can set up a
different time to meet.
I expect your e-mails to be written in clear and communicative prose and proofread for
mistakes.
A NOTE ON (AND AGAINST) PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the intentional use of someone else’s words or ideas without giving that
person credit. This includes submitting someone else’s essay in its entirety or in parts
as your own, using any words, phrasing, and/or ideas from a source (this includes the
Internet) without proper citation, having someone else write your paper or assisting so
much that the phrasing and ideas are no longer your own, and re-submitting an essay
previously written for another class. Plagiarism is absolutely prohibited and may result
in receiving a “0” on the paper and/or discipline on the part of the college
administration.
WEATHER-RELATED EMERGENCIES
In the case of a weather-related emergency (such as a snow storm), I will post
information about the status of the class on Angel. We will try to maintain our course
schedule even in the midst of potential cancelations; therefore, if you have an
assignment due on a day when school is canceled, you should e-mail me that
assignment on the day that it’s due.