Prison Lit.
English 2114, section 001
Spring Semester 2011
T-Th 11:00 - 12:20, Anderson Classrooms 022
Professor Katherine Henry
Office: Anderson 1015
Office phone: (215) 204-1795
Office hours: T 10:00-10:50 and Th 1:00-1:50, or by appointment. See me during my
office hours for any problem related to our course or to your completion of any
assignment for our course.
e-mail: katherine.henry@temple.edu (please allow 24 hours for a reply)
Required Texts
H. Bruce Franklin, Prison Writing in 20th-Century America (Penguin) ISBN:
9780140273052
Constance Lytton, Prisons and Prisoners (Broadview) ISBN: 9781551115931
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Penguin) ISBN: 9780140437959
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Other Stories (Dover Thrift
Editions) ISBN: 9780486298573
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) ISBN:
9780486290300
Jennifer Egan, The Keep (Random House) ISBN: 9781400079742
The other required readings will be available electronically through BlackBoard.
Course Description
This course examines how prisons and prisoners have been represented in literature.
Topics will include punishment, discipline, and rehabilitation; the prison as a model for
social order and the prison as civil society’s terrifying opposite; slavery and
incarceration; prison stories of rebirth and redemption; the prison in popular culture; and
restorative justice. Course requirements include a visit to Eastern State Penitentiary in
Philadelphia.
Course Objectives
This is a mid-level, elective course in literary study. Aside from engaging the issues
outlined in the course description, students will be expected to:
 Acquire tools for a critical engagement with literature, and be able to trace the
literary motif of imprisonment over time and through various genres.
 Demonstrate familiarity and intellectual engagement with all of the assigned texts.
 Carry out a thoughtful on-line conversation with classmates about the reading,
and respond productively to classmates’ postings.
 Sharpen and improve expository writing skills and techniques of literary analysis.

Develop sophisticated textual analyses and construct sustained arguments in the
written assignments and formal essays.
Course Requirements
Careful reading of all assigned texts. The quality of our classes and the quality of your
own experience depends upon your having completed the reading assignment before
class. If I believe that students are not keeping up with the reading, I will give reading
quizzes as an added incentive.
Good attendance and participation in class discussions. More than four absences will
affect your final grade, and more than nine absences will place you at risk of failing the
course.
Participation in a BlackBoard discussion group. An assignment sheet for BlackBoard
postings will be distributed early in the semester.
An assignment and two short essays. The assignment will be a short exercise in using a
theoretical or critical source in a close reading. The 5-6 page formal essays will develop
an argument of your own, supported by close readings of the text(s) you choose to write
about. Each of the essays must be handed in twice, as a rough draft and a final draft.
Because we will be spending class time on peer reviews of the rough drafts, no late rough
drafts will be accepted.
Policies
Students are expected in class on time, and are expected to remain in class for the
duration of the period. Any student arriving more than five minutes after the start of the
period, or leaving early, will be marked “L,” and two “L” marks will count as one
absence.
Significant participation in class discussions and activities is an integral part of the
course, and will be factored into the final grade. By “significant participation” I mean
more than simply coming to class and asking a few questions. I expect students to
approach this class with a sense of ownership in it—to come prepared for lively
discussion of the texts, to take the lead in completing group assignments and activities,
and to let me know how I can make our classes more useful and engaging for students.
Both rough and final drafts are due on time. Because we will be reading and commenting
on one another’s rough drafts in class, it is especially important that they be completed on
time. Any rough draft not submitted by the beginning of class on the day it is due will be
given a zero. One full letter grade will be deducted for each day a final draft is late.
All BlackBoard postings and are due on time. Because the quality of our BlackBoard
discussion depends on timely individual contributions, any assignment that is posted late
will receive no credit.
Plagiarism is the representation of another’s works or ideas as one’s own: it includes the
unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person’s work, and/or
the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person’s ideas. Please see me if you
have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism. All cases of suspected plagiarism
will be handled in accordance with the Temple University Policy on Academic
Dishonesty.
Disability Statement: This course is open to all students who meet the academic
requirements for participation. Any student who has a need for accommodation based
on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss the specific
situation as soon as possible. Contact Disability Resources and Services at 215-204-1280
in 100 Ritter Annex to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with
documented disabilities.
Statement on Academic Freedom: Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are
inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has adopted a policy on Student
and Faculty Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy # 03.70.02) which can be
accessed through the following web address:
http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02.
Grading
BlackBoard postings
Assignment
Essay #1, rough draft
Essay #1, final draft
Essay #2, rough draft
Essay #2, final draft
Attendance and participation
15%
05%
10%
25%
10%
25%
10%
Schedule of Assignments (subject to change)
Jan.
Feb.
18
Introductions.
20
Reading: “A Prescription for Torture” (Prison Writing 341-345) and
selection from New Jack (course documents).
25
Reading: selections on Angola prison (course documents).
27
Reading: Introduction (Prison Writing 1-18) and selection from Texas
Tough (course documents).
1
Reading: selection from Tocqueville, On the Penitentiary System in the
United States (course documents).
Mar.
3
Reading: selection from Foucault, Discipline and Punish (course
documents).
8
Reading: Kafka, “In the Penal Colony” (Metamorphosis and Other
Stories 53-75).
10
Visit to Eastern State Penitentiary (details to be announced).
15
Reading: selection from Smith, The Prison & the American Imagination
(course documents).
17
Reading: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1-109).
22
Reading: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (110-225).
24
Reading: selection from Texas Tough (course documents).
Due: Assignment.
1
Film: I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (part 1).
3
Film: I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (part 2).
SPRING BREAK
Apr.
15
Reading: “The Movement and the Prison” (Prison Writing 145-214).
17
Due: Essay #1, rough draft. Peer reviews.
22
Writing workshop.
24
Reading: Lytton, Prisons and Prisoners (49-169).
29
Reading: Lytton, Prisons and Prisoners (170-286).
31
Reading: selections from Prison Writing (to be announced).
Due: Essay #1, final draft.
5
Reading: Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
7
No class. Professor Henry will be at an academic conference.
12
Reading: Halttunen, “Humanitarianism and the Pornography of Pain in
Anglo-American Culture” (course documents).
14
Reading: Egan, The Keep (3-97).
May
19
Reading: Egan, The Keep (98-255).
21
Due: Essay #2, rough draft. Peer reviews.
26
Writing workshop.
28
Last class.
10
Due: Essay #2, final draft.