Spring 2005
Literature 245 meets:
Mon - Fri. 8:30 – 9:20 am
Room 121
e-mail:
david.english101@gmail.com
Life does not cease to be
funny when people die any
more than it ceases to be
serious when people laugh.
- George Bernard Shaw
Instructor:
David Owens
Office:
101A
Phone:
524 - 5153
Office Hours:
T, Th 11:30 – 12:30
Or by appointment
Required Texts and Materials:
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Williford, Lex and Michael Martone. The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction.
Alexie, Sherman. Reservation Blues
Internet Access
30 4x6 Note Cards
Course Objectives:
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To introduce students to a wide representation of authors in several literary genres.
To increase awareness of the variety of American literary voices, styles and cultures from which these
works arise.
To develop an awareness of relationship between literature and its themes to the times and historical
events.
To help students develop the skills to interpret and analyze poetry, stories, essays, and memoir.
To gain a more sophisticated and informed appreciation for the multiple voices that examine the
“American experience” in Literature.
Assignments:
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Essays: You will be writing three out-of-class literary essays. Essays need to be 3 to 4 pages long and
typed in 12 point Times Roman font with MLA heading and title. In the essays, you will attempt an
extended analysis of one or more of our readings in order to explore and explain an idea about the literature
or about one of the issues we have been discussing in class. (100 points each)
Essays will be graded on the following criteria:
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Analysis: Does the essay attempt to build an argument or theory about an idea of some
significance in the text?
Support: Does the essay use specific details and evidence from the text to effectively explain or
persuade its audience?
Reading: Does the essay demonstrate a fairly sophisticated and detailed understanding of the
texts or ideas it is attempting to work with?
Structure and Focus: Does the essay know what it is about and does it keep the reader informed
of this purpose? Does it develop one idea or skip around to many?
Copy-editing: Does the essay conform to academic conventions? Does it pay attention to
language, grammar, syntax, usage and details?
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Note card responses: On thirty of our reading assignments, I will provide you with a question to respond
to after you have read the text. You are required to do only twenty. Each response beyond the twentieth will
receive two points of extra credit. Note card responses may be handwritten. Questions for note card
responses will be issued at least a day before the reading is to be discussed in class.
Answer each question completely, thoughtfully, and legibly, but write only on the front of a 4” by
6” card. Put your name on the back. Cards are graded on an all-or-none basis: if you complete all 20 of the
required cards, you are eligible for full credit. If you complete fewer, you will receive zero credit for this
course component. For each card response you complete beyond 20 cards that receive a  or + , you’ll
earn two points of extra credit.
I will collect these at the beginning of the class session for which they have been assigned. Late cards
or cards written during class will not be accepted, and cards may be turned in only by the author. No
exceptions or extensions. Each card will be marked with a , + or  -. Failure to cite a passage will
automatically result in a  - grade. If, at the end of the semester, the majority of your cards received a +,
you will get an “A” for this component of the course. If the majority of your cards received a , you will get a
“B” for this component. If the majority received a -, you will get a “C” for this component.
+ responses will look beyond the plot of the text and the immediate circumstance of the
characters and attempt to take a look at the question from the perspective of the entire text. So if I ask why a
character makes a particular choice, there will be a surface answer that reflects his or her motives at the
moment, but there will be a more complete answer after our understanding of the character deepens after
looking throughout and beyond the text. Imagine the character’s circumstances, get into his or her head.
Think about what the character or the situation represents in a larger context, and then write an insightful,
complex, but concise answer to the question. You might wish to fastwrite on another piece of paper before
you commit an answer to the card. (40 points)
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Exams: There will be two exams in this class. I am still not quite sure what form these exams will take, but
they will ask you to do more than simply remember what characters were in what stories and who wrote
them. You will likely be asked to make connection between texts, or between text and history as it has be
discussed in class. I would recommend at least taking casual notes in class of our discussions for this
purpose. (50 points each)
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American Writer Presentation: Because no survey of American literature can even pretend to be
comprehensive, I am inviting you to contribute to the conversation. As consumers of American literature,
you will prepare a presentation on an interesting American writer or storyteller, living or dead, that you are
familiar with, in a brief (3 to 10 min.), oral presentation with a prepared handout. This way we will all get a
broader perspective on our literature, culture, and possibly our history. (20 points)
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Attendance and Participation: It is your responsibility to create and take advantage of this community of
readers, thinkers and writers by coming prepared every day to class having read and thought about the
material we are discussing, by having drafts completed on time, contributing to class discussion and being
respectful, thoughtful and responsive listeners. I expect that you will contribute something to class
discussion at least twice a week. I will be calling on people randomly to volunteer responses to in and out of
class exercises, but it will be your responsibility to make sure you are contributing weekly, even if you are
only asking questions. Failure to participate can significantly lower your grade. (100 points)
Plagiarism is the submission of work for credit that includes materials copied or paraphrased from published or
unpublished works without proper attribution or documentation. You are also committing plagiarism if you
attribute your own words or ideas to someone else, or if you submit work previously submitted for another class
as original work. If I suspect plagiarism, the student will be called in to prove, through the use of notes, drafts
and explanations, that they did not plagiarize. If I am not convinced, the paper will be sent up for academic
review. If you are found guilty of academic dishonesty either by plagiarizing someone's work or allowing your
own work to be misused by another, you will automatically fail English 101 and have to take the course again.
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Evaluation:
Essay 1
Exam 1
Essay 2
Essay 3
Exam 2
Note Card Responses
American Writer Presentations
Participation
Total
100 points
50 points
100 points
100 points
50 points
40 points
20 points
100 points
560 points
Participation. You will earn 1 point for showing up PREPARED for class, and can earn up to 2 participation
points per day of class by asking intelligent questions, answering questions, or making a meaningful
contribution to class discussion. You may be marked absent if you are not in class by the time I take
roll, if you come without the materials to work that day, or if you are mentally absent from class. I will
subtract two participation points for every day you fail to show up to class at all. (Max 110 points)
Late Work. Essays will lose 10 points for every day they are late, starting with the hour after they are due. No
assignment will be accepted after the original batch has been graded and returned.
Incompletes: No incompletes given unless 3/4 of the total course work is already completed. A request for an
incomplete must be accompanied by a plan for completion.
Writing Center Use: The Writing Center is a fantastic resource for any class that involves writing. Many of
my students regret not having discovered the Writing Center until later in the quarter. Don’t wait! This is an
excellent student-focused, results-oriented resource. Take advantage of it!
Disabilities Policy: If you are a student with documented learning disabilities, or if you are a student who
suspects that you may have a disability, please contact LaDessa Smelcher, our Disabilities Coordinator, at 5274258 or stop by her office behind TRIO near the Registrar’s Desk. You may request accommodations if your
disability can be documented.
Week 1
T
W
Th
F
Week 2
T
W
Th
F
Week 3
4/11
T
W
Th
F
Week 4
Introduction; Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
Reservation Blues Chapter 1
Reservation Blues Chapter 2; Washington Irving, “Traits of an Indian Character”
Reservation Blues Chapters 3-4
Reservation Blues Chapter 5; “Iroquois Creation Story”
No Class. In-Service
Reservation Blues Chapter 6; Sherman Alexie, “This Is What It Means…” (21)
Reservation Blues Chapter 7; Andrew Jackson, “On the Removal of the Indians”
Reservation Blues Chapter 8; Skim “Constitution of Cherokee Nation 1839”
Reservation Blues Chapters 9-10
Mark Twain, Huck Finn Ch. 21,22,23;
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecouer, “What is an American?”
4/12 O. Henry, “Ransom of Red Chief”; “The Declaration of Independence”
4/13 Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.”
4/14 Tim Gautreaux, “Same Place, Same Things” (325)
4/15 Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
4/18 Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” 1,3,10,13,16,17,24,31,44,48
3/28
3/29
3/30
3/31
4/1
4/4
4/5
4/6
4/7
4/8
3
4/19 Essay 1 Due; Allen Ginsberg, “America”
4/20 Kauffman, “Patriotic” (398); e.e. cummings “next to of course god america i,”
“l(a,” “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r,” “pity this busy monster, manunkind”
Th
4/21 Phyllis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” “Hymn to Humanity”;
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask,” “Fredrick Douglass,” “Douglass”
F
4/22 Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B,” “Negro Speaks of Rivers,”
“Democracy”; Dudley Randall, “Ballad of Birmingham”
Week 5 4/25 Flannery O’Connor, “The Artificial Nigger”
T
4/26 Malcolm X, “Message to the Grass Roots,”
Official Program for the March on Washington
W
4/27 August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson – film in class
Th
4/28 Reginald McKnight, “The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas”
F
4/29 Exam 1
Week 6 5/2 Cynthia Ozick, “The Shawl,” (526); Mark Richard, “Strays” (542)
T
5/3 Amy Tan, “Two Kinds” (584)
W
5/4 Junot Diaz, “Fiesta 1980” (244)
Th
5/5 Bharati Mukherjee, “The Management of Grief” (456)
F
5/6 Robert Frost, “Two Tramps in Mudtime,” “Birches,” “After Apple-Picking”
Week 7 5/9 Ernest Hemingway, “The Killers”; Carson McCullers, “A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud”
T
5/10 Essay 2 Due; Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried” (501)
W
5/11 John Updike, “A & P”; Charles Bukowski, any eight poems
Th
5/12 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
F
5/13 Dorothy Parker, “You Were Perfectly Fine,” “One Perfect Rose,” “Resume,” “Men,”
“Song of One of the Girls,” “Plea”
Week 8 5/16 Toni Cade Bambara, “Raymond’s Run” (46); Amy Bloom, “Silver Water” (159)
T
5/17 Sandra Cisneros, “Woman Hollering Creek” (219)
W
5/18 Russell Banks, “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story” (53)
Th
5/19 Rick Bass, “Wild Horses” (96)
F
5/20 Kate Braverman, “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” (167)
Week 9 5/23 John Barth, “Click”
T
5/24 Michael Cunningham, “White Angel” (229)
W
5/25 Michael David Kaplan, “Doe Season” (384)
Th
5/26 Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener, A Story of Wall Street”
F
5/27 Edward P. Jones, “Marie” (361)
Week 10 5/30
No Class - Memorial Day
T
5/31 Donald Barthelme, “Me and Miss Mandible,” “The School” (93)
W
6/1 Essay 3 Due; Thom Jones, “Cold Snap” (373)
Th
6/2
Denis Johnson, “Emergency” (351)
F
6/3
Joyce Carol Oats, “Ghost Girls” (488)
Week 11 6/6
Film in Class – Dr. Strangelove, Or
T
6/7
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb
W
6/8
Th
6/9
Exam 2 8:30 – 10:30
T
W
4