English 3025: Survey of American Literature II
Professor: Timothy Aubry
Office: VC 7-239
Phone number: 646.312.3980
Email address: timothy.aubry@baruch.cuny.edu
Office Hours: VC 7298, Tues/Thurs, 2PM-3:30PM and by appointment.
Required Texts:
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Edith Wharton, The Reef
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Toni Morrison, Beloved
These are available at the Baruch College Bookstore.
Requirements:
Two major papers and one revision: all 6-8 pages long: 50% of final grade
Final Exam: 20% of final grade
Oral Presentation: 5% of final grade
Response papers: 10% of final grade
Class Participation (including participation on the class blog): 15% of final grade
Grading policy:
● Late policy: For every day past the deadline that you hand in your paper you
will lose half a grade. In other words, an A paper one day late becomes an A-,
two days late becomes a B+, etc. I am willing to grant extensions, but you
must come to me before the paper is due and give me your reason.
● Attendance is mandatory. Failure to attend regularly and punctually will have a
negative impact on your grade, and missing more than 4 classes without
notifying me ahead of time can be grounds for failure.
Plagiarism policy:
Plagiarism is not permitted at Baruch College. To plagiarize is to steal or pass off
the language or ideas of another writer as your own. Anyone caught plagiarizing
will be given an automatic F for that essay and will be asked to meet with the
dean.
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You are allowed, of course, to use the language and the ideas of other writers, but
you must acknowledge your sources. When you are repeating another writer’s
language verbatim you must use quotation marks and cite your source with a
parenthetical citation (including the last name of the author and the page number)
and an entry in your works cited list. When you are paraphrasing another
writer—putting that writer’s ideas into your own words—you also must include a
parenthetical citation and an entry in your works cited list.
Schedule
January 28:
Introduction.
January 30:
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), pp. 1-57
February 4:
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, pp. 58-146
Response Paper #1
February 6:
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, pp. 147-218
February 11: Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, pp. 219-307
February 13: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), “Success is counted sweetest”; “‘Faith’ is a
fine invention”; “I’m ‘wife’—I’ve finished that—”; “I like a look of
Agony”; “There’s a certain Slant of light”; “I felt a Funeral in my Brain”;
“A Clock stopped”; “The Soul selects her own Society”; “The difference
between Despair”; “Nature—sometimes sears a Sapling”; “Some keep the
Sabbath going to Church—”; “A Bird came down the Walk—”; “After a
great pain, a formal feeling comes—”; “Much Madness is divinest Sense”;
“I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—”; “This World is not Conclusion”;
“The Brain—is wider than the Sky—”; “She rose to His Requirement—
dropt”; “This Consciousness that is aware”; “It bloomed and dropt, a
Single Noon—”; “A narrow Fellow in the Grass”; “Oh Sumptuous
moment”; “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—”; “As imperceptibly as
Grief”; “The farthest Thunder that I heard”; “Apparently with no
surprise,” electronic reserve.
February 18: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “A New England Nun” (1891) 109-125; “The
Revolt of ‘Mother” (1891), 293-313, electronic reserve
February 25: W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), pp. 3-15; 36-48,
electronic reserve
Charles Chesnutt, “The Wife of his Youth,” (1899), pp. 1-24, electronic
reserve
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February 27: Stephen Crane, The Open Boat (1898), pp. 885-909, electronic reserve
March 4:
First Major Paper Due
Sui Sin Far, “Mrs. Spring Fragrance” (1910), pp. 17-28; “The Wisdom of
the New” (1912), pp. 42-61; “In the Land of the Free” (1912), pp. 93-101,
electronic reserve
March 6:
Edith Wharton, The Reef (1912), pp. 6-89
March 11:
Edith Wharton, The Reef, pp. 90-175
March 13:
Edith Wharton, The Reef, pp. 176-259
March 18:
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All (1923), Introduction, pp. vii-xii;
Poems, pp 1-45.
March 20:
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All, pp. 45-93
Response Paper #2
March 25:
Langston Hughes (1902-1967), “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”; “Mother to
Son”; “The Weary Blues”; “I, Too”; “Mulatto”; “Song for a Dark Girl”;
“Genius Child”; “Refugee in America”; “Madam and Her Might-HaveBeen”; “Democracy”; “Silhouette”; “Notes on Commercial Theater”;
electronic reserve
March 27:
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930), pp. 3-81
April 1:
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, pp. 82-176
April 3:
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, pp. 177-261
April 8:
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Coney Island of the Mind (1958), pp. 2-48,
electronic reserve
April 10:
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), selected poems (TBA), electronic
reserve.
April 24:
Second Major Paper Due
Ana Castillo, selected poems (TBA), electronic reserve
April 29:
Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987), pp. 3-86
May 1:
Toni Morrison, Beloved, pp. 87-158
May 6:
Toni Morrison, Beloved, pp. 159-247
Response Paper #3
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May 13:
Toni Morrison, Beloved, pp. 258-324
May 15:
David Foster Wallace, Good Old Neon (2004), pp. 141-181
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