Eng 210-01 American Literature: Beginnings to the Civil War
WF 8:00-9:15 AM
Willard Hall 301
Spring 2012
Dr. Gilbert L. Gigliotti
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
Recognize the major periods and representative writers of American literature up to
1865;
Discuss effectively the literary principles and practices of the Native Americans,
Puritans, Neo-classicists, and Romantics (including the Transcendentalists); and
Write coherent and cogent analyses, using textual support and appropriate academic
conventions and language, of the literary products of early American literature in its
many genres (poetry, nonfiction, drama, fiction, etc.).
SYLLABUS
W
18 Jan
Introduction to class; assignments, requirements, expectations
“Iroquois Creation Story”
F
20 Jan
The English in the New World
John Smith, A Description of New England
Roger Williams, An Help to the Native Language
W
25 Jan
Anne Bradstreet
“The Prologue”
“The Flesh and the Spirit”
“The Author to Her Book”
“Here Follows Some Verses…”
Edward Taylor
“Prologue”
“Meditation 150”
“The Preface”
F
27 Jan
Samuel Sewall, “The Selling of Joseph”
Cotton Mather, “The Wonders of the Invisible World”
W
1 Feb
Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity…
F
3 Feb
Sarah Kemble Knight, The Private Journal…
W
8 Feb
J. H. St. John de Crevecoeur
Letters from an American Farmer
Letters III, IX, and XII
F
10 Feb
Phillis Wheatley
“On Being Brought…”
“To Maecenas”
“To the University of Cambridge”
“To S.M….”
W
15 Feb
Royall Tyler, The Contrast
F
17 Feb
Test #1
W
22 Feb
Philip Freneau
“On the Emigration…”
“The Indian Burying Ground”
“On Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man”
F
24 Feb
Washington Irving, “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
W
29 Feb
William Cullen Bryant
“Thanatopsis”
“Sonnet”
Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney
“Death of an Infant”
“The First Slave Ship”
“Columbus before the University…”
F
2 Mar
Edgar Allan Poe
“Sonnet – To Science”
“The Cask of Amontillado”
W
7 Mar
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”
F
9 Mar
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “My Kinsman, Major Molineaux”
W
14 Mar
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Preface” to The House of the Seven Gables
F
16 Mar
Test #2
W
F
21 Mar
23 Mar
SPRING BREAK: No classes
SPRING BREAK: No classes
W
28 Mar
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
F
30 Mar
William Apess, An Indian’s Looking-Glass…
Sojourner Truth, “Speech…Women’s Rights Convention”
Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address”
W
4 Apr
Lydia Maria Child, Letters from New-York, Letters I, XXVIII, XXXIV
F
6 Apr
DAY OF REFLECTION: No classes
W
11 Apr
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Volume I: Chapters I and VII
Volume II: Chapters XXXIV and XL
F
13 Apr
Henry David Thoreau, “Slavery in Massachusetts”
W
18 Apr
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life…(selections)
F
20 Apr
Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener”
W
25 Apr
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Psalm of Life”
“The Slave Singing at Midnight”
“The Jewish Cemetery at Newport”
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
“Ethiopia”
F
27 Apr
Walt Whitman
“Preface” to Leaves of Grass,
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
W
2 May
Emily Dickinson, Poems 39, 112, 202, 225, 236, 348, 365, 381, 466, 477,
598, 1096
F
4 May
READING DAY: No classes
W
9 May
Test #3
Grading Breakdown
Test #1
Test #2
Test #3
Reading Quizzes (unannounced)
Attendance and Participation
8:00-9:15 AM
15%
25%
25%
25%
10%
Required Texts
Baym, Nina, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volumes A and B.
8th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011.
Assignments
Participation and Attendance
Each student can miss up to two classes during the course of the semester. These absences may
be related to illness, “better offers,” or even sloth, with little penalty. (See “Reading quizzes.”) If
students miss three or more, however, their grades may well be affected negatively. The other
half of this grade is participation (i.e., what students do after showing up for class: demonstrating
their preparation by asking pertinent questions, answering questions, respectfully challenging the
professor’s and fellow students’ interpretations, volunteering to read aloud, etc.). Even
attending every class is still only half this grade.
Reading quizzes (unannounced)
Fairly regular quizzes on the assigned reading(s) for that day that will focus on the basic
information/major plot points/themes/general questions of genre and not the more elaborate
interpretative or literary subtleties that will be discussed in class. Since the main point of the
unannounced nature of the quizzes is to reward those students who regularly come in prepared,
make-ups for quizzes missed will not be allowed, but in recognition that one might either miss
an occasional class or be less-than-prepared once in a great while, the lowest two quiz scores
will be dropped.
Accommodations
Please contact me privately to discuss your specific needs if you believe you need course
accommodations based on the impact of a disability, medical condition, or if you have any
emergency medical information to share. I will need a copy of the accommodation letter from
Student Disability Services in order to arrange any accommodations. Contact Student Disability
Services, room 241, Copernicus Hall if you are not already registered with them. Student
Disability Services maintains the confidential documentation of your disability and assists you in
coordinating reasonable accommodations with your faculty.
Academic Honesty policy
The CCSU homepage contains an extensive section on academic honesty and plagiarism that you
should read thoroughly (www.ccsu.edu/AcademicIntegrity/). Appropriating someone else’s ideas
or words without giving them credit, whether intentionally or not, is unethical and is subject to
the penalties described in the guide. You are responsible for understanding what constitutes
plagiarism and for avoiding both deliberate and unintended plagiarizing.
A Final Word
PLAGIARISM is the un-attributed use of another’s ideas and/or words (EITHER
intentional OR accidental). Don’t do it. If you are at all unsure, ask me or another English
professor. Remember: People’s academic careers have ended because of plagiarism.
Contact Information
Gilbert L. Gigliotti
Professor, CCSU Department of English
Emma Hart Willard Hall 329
860/832-2759
Gigliotti@ccsu.edu
Office hours:
Every Friday: 12:15 – 1:15 PM;
Almost every Wednesday: 12:15 - 1:15 PM
(or by appointment)
Blog: www.connecticuthalfwit.blogspot.com
Weekly radio show:
“Frank, Gil, and Friends,”
Tuesdays 8-10 AM
On-air: WFCS 107.7 FM
On-line: www.Live365.com/stations/wfcs