Winter 2015
Dr. Allison Johnson
2:00PM-3:50PM, Bunche 2160
email: allijohnson@ucla.edu
Office Hours: W, 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, and by appointment, Humanities 211
English 170B: American Literature, 1900-1945
Required texts:
Heath Anthology of American Literature, volume D
Charles Chesnutt, Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Pages numbers in parentheses denote first page of reading in the Heath Anthology of American
Literature.
Course Information:
Participation: Every student will come to class prepared for a critical discussion. Every student
will read all of the assigned readings, come to every class meeting, engage with the texts and
participate in the discussion, offer interpretations, ask and answer questions, and be respectful to
other students. Please email me if you are unable to attend. Detrimental and disruptive behavior
(i.e., text-messaging, instant-messaging, talking) will result in the loss of participation credit.
Office Hours and Email Policies: I encourage you to meet with me in my office to ask questions
about the course, tests, and paper assignments. You can email me if you are unable to come to
the office.
Course Requirements and Grade Breakdown:
Midterm, 2/9: 25%
Participation & Quizzes: 10%
Final paper (5-7 pages), 3/11: 35%
Final Exam, 3/20: 30%
Paper Regulations: Your papers should be written in double-spaced 12pt. Times New Roman
font, and should be formatted utilizing the MLA guidelines. The OWL site produced by Purdue
( http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/) provides good examples of MLA
citations. Late papers will be marked down 1/3 letter grade per day (including weekends).
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined as “presenting another’s words or ideas as if they were one’s
own,” including “paraphrasing ideas, data, or writing without properly acknowledging the
source” (The UCLA Student Guide to Academic Integrity, available at
http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/conduct.html.) At UCLA, cheating and plagiarism are dealt
with very seriously. Cases will be reported to the Dean of Students, and may lead to dismissal.
Please cite your sources!
Week 1:
The Color Line
1/5 – Monday
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
Winter 2015
Dr. Allison Johnson
2:00PM-3:50PM, Bunche 2160
email: allijohnson@ucla.edu
Office Hours: W, 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, and by appointment, Humanities 211
1/7 – Wednesday
NO CLASS
Week 2:
The Color Line
1/12 – Monday
Charles Chesnutt, Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line: “The Wife
of His Youth,” “Her Virginia Mammy,” “The Sheriff’s Children,” “A
Matter of Principle”
1/14 – Wednesday
Charles Chesnutt, Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line: “Cicely’s
Dream,” “The Passing of Grandison,” “Uncle Wellington’s Wives,” “The
Bouquet,” “The Web of Circumstance,” “Baxter’s Procrustes”
Week 3:
The Trenches
1/19 – Monday
Dr. Martin Luther King Day (no class)
1/21 – Wednesday
Charles Chesnutt
Week 4:
The Border Line
1/26 – Monday
Selection of World War I poems (course website)
1/28 – Wednesday
Josephina Niggli, from Mexican Village (1593)
María Cristina Mena, “John of God, the Water-Carrier” (1600), “The
Education of Popo” (1613)
Week 5:
The Color Line and the Poetic Line
2/2 – Monday
Américo Paredes, “The Rio Grande” (2640), “Night on the Flats” (2641),
“The Four Freedoms” (2642)
Younghill Kang, from “East Goes West” (2611)
2/4 – Wednesday
Alain Locke, “The New Negro” (2051)
Jean Toomer, “Blood-Burning Moon” (2066)
Claude McKay, “If We Must Die” (2161), “The Lynching” (2162)
Countee Cullen, “Incident” (2115), “From the Dark Tower” (2116)
Winter 2015
Dr. Allison Johnson
2:00PM-3:50PM, Bunche 2160
email: allijohnson@ucla.edu
Office Hours: W, 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, and by appointment, Humanities 211
Week 6:
Poetic Lines
2/9 – Monday
Midterm
2/11 – Wednesday
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (2084), “Negro” (2086),
“I, Too” (2087), “Harlem” (2088), “Freedom Train” (2089), “The Negro
Artist and the Racial Mountain” (2099), “The Weary Blues” (2273),
“Blues Lyrics” (2274)
Gwendolyn B. Bennett, “Heritage” (2123), “Advice” (2124), “Lines
Written at the Grave of Alexandre Dumas” (2125)
Week 7:
Poetic Lines
2/16 – Monday
Presidents’ Day (no class)
2/18 – Wednesday
Robert Frost, “After Apple-Picking” (1628), “The Wood-Pile” (1629),
“The Road Not Taken” (1630), “Out, Out--” (1631), “Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening” (1635)
H.D., “Sea Rose” (1871), “The Helmsman” (1817), “Oread” (1818),
“Helen” (1819)
Gertrude Stein, “Susie Asado” (1742), “Preciosilla” (1743)
Week 8:
Timelines
2/23 – Monday
Ezra Pound, “A Virginal” (1682), “A Pact” (1682), “In a Station of the
Metro” (1683), “A Retrospect” (1683)
T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1870), “The Waste
Land” (1882)
2/25 – Wednesday
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
Week 9:
The End of the Line
3/2 – Monday
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
William Faulkner, “Barn Burning” (1997)
Winter 2015
Dr. Allison Johnson
2:00PM-3:50PM, Bunche 2160
email: allijohnson@ucla.edu
Office Hours: W, 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, and by appointment, Humanities 211
3/4 – Wednesday
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Week 10:
Breadlines
3/9 – Monday
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
3/11 – Wednesday
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Babylon Revisited” (1904)
H.T. Tsiang, “Chinaman, Laundryman” (2038), “The Hanging On Union
Square” (2041), “And China Has Hands” (2043)
Final paper due
Final Exam due 3/20 by 11:59 p.m.