English 220 (1Y)
Literature & the Social Experience
Fall 2004
Dr. Tynes Cowan
tcowan@bsc.edu
Office: 314 Humanities Center
Office Phone: 226-4871
Office Hours: M, W 9:30-10:30
T, Th 12:00-1:00
& by appointment
Protest Literature
"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing."
---Thomas Jefferson
OVERVIEW: As the quotation above suggests, protest is at the heart of American
history, life, and culture. It should not be surprising that among the most popular and
enduring characters in American literature is the rebel, the outsider, the little guy
fighting against the system. But besides dramatizing dissent, literature is also used to
express dissent, to reveal injustice and argue for social change. In this class, we will
focus primarily on social movements that have been prominent in American history,
though we will stray beyond U.S. borders occasionally. Although we may spend a great
deal of time discussing subjects about which there should be unanimity (we're all
against slavery, right?), each topic has contemporary manifestations that are more
controversial. We will examine the ways in which modern activists address these issues,
and we will debate the merits and demerits of modern protest rhetoric and tactics. It is a
testament to the nation's founders that, historically, groups fighting against the status
quo have returned again and again to the founding principles of the republic to argue
their causes.
GOALS Students in this course will
 develop skills of literary analysis and the ability to articulate such analyses;
 understand a number of important social issues from a variety of perspectives;
 make connections between life and art, theory and practice, literary study and
other academic disciplines;
 understand ways in which individual and group identities are formed in social
struggles and through artistic responses or contributions to such struggles;
 locate themselves on the spectrum of consent and dissent and gain knowledge of
networks through which they may affect their own social change.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Ann Charters, editor, The Portable Sixties Reader…(60s #)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
Joy Hakim, editor, A History of US: Sourcebook and Index (HofUS #)
James Nagel and Tom Quirk, eds, The Portable American Realism Reader…(ARR #)
Barbara Solomon, editor, The Haves and Have-Nots...(HHN #)
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Annie Wang, Lili: A Novel of Tiananmen
Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present
A composition handbook such as Andrea Lunsford's The Everyday Writer
2
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Tests:
* A Final Exam (to be taken at the scheduled time).
* Daily Reading Quizzes (I will count your best 10 quiz grades).
Papers:
* 1 Course Project/Paper (1,500-1,800 words).
* 5 Short Literary Analysis Papers (500 words each). Every other week
you will turn in a formal response paper based on that day's reading.
Your group number indicates which days your formal responses are due.
Post your response to the Digital Drop Box 30 minutes before class.
Blackboard Posts: You will post 1 informal reader response (250+ words each) per
week to the BlackBoard discussion board. These must be posted 20
minutes before class time. You do not have to post during the weeks
when you have presentations or formal responses due.
Group Work: Two presentations. Your group will be assigned to one of the six issues
around which this course revolves. We spend two weeks on each
issue, and group presentations will be made on Mondays. Consider the
first presentation to be informative while the second should be more
analytical. In both cases, you will be teaching the class.
Participation: You should be prepared to elaborate upon of your ideas on the days
that you turn in a response. On other days, you should be ready to leap
into the class discussion. No passive learning here!
Attendance is expected and required. You are allowed 4 absences for whatever
reason. Each absence after the fourth will result in a reduction of your
final grade by 5 points (1/2 a letter grade), and more than 8 absences may
be grounds for failure.
Although I do not doubt that many of you could earn a decent grade by
turning in essays and showing up for exams, such measurements of
ability are merely academic conventions used to assign quality points.
You are really earning 1 unit of credit for being here and participating.
LATE WORK: Your grade for an assignment will drop ½ letter grade (5 pts on a
100-pt scale) for each calendar day that a paper is late. Post all papers to
the Digital Drop Box AND bring a hard copy to class.
The final exam cannot be made up without some official notification of
illness or other emergency. Daily quizzes may not be made up.
GRADING
Daily Reading Quizzes……………… 20%
Informal Responses (BB Posts)…....... 10%
Formal Reader Responses………....... 20%
Group Work……………….… 10%
Course Paper………………… 20%
Formal Responses………….. 20%
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Reading Calendar
Fall 2004
Week One
Sept 1
FOUNDING PRINCIPLES
Course introduction.
Sept 3
Zinn: from Chapter One (middle of p. 7 - top of p. 11).
Zinn: Chapter 3 (39-58).
Zinn: Chapter 23 (631-41).
“Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress”
Henry: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!”
“Memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover”
Paine: “Common Sense” (HofUS 26-37).
Week Two
Sept 6
Labor Day
Sept 8
Zinn: Chapter 4 (59-75).
Zinn: Chapter 5 (77-102).
Jefferson: “Declaration of Independence” (HofUS 37-41).
Sept 10
Zinn: from Chapter 19 (524-39).
Zinn: Chapter 25 (675-82).
Seneca Falls Conv.: "Declaration of Sentiments" (HofUS 136-138).
Lazarus: “The New Colossus” (HofUS 223).
King: “I Have a Dream” (HofUS 252-256).
Black: Opinion in New York Times v. U.S. (HofUS 267-268)
Week Three
Sept 13
THE COLOR LINE: Abolitionism and Civil Rights
“Resolution of the Germantown Quakers” (HofUS 20-22).
Garrison: The Liberator, vol. 1, no. 1 (HofUS 114-116).
“North Carolina Law Forbidding…” (HofUS 116-117).
Thoreau: “Civil Disobedience” (HofUS 138-142).
Douglass: “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” (HofUS 146-149).
Brown: “Last Statement to the Court” (HofUS 161-162).
Sept 15
Washington: “Address at the Atlanta Exposition” (HofUS 188-92).
Harlan: dissenting opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson (HofUS 192-96).
Dunbar: "The Lynching of Jube Benson" (ARR 524-31).
Sept 17
Chesnutt: "The Sheriff's Children" (ARR 170-85).
Chopin: "Desiree's Baby" (ARR 269-74).
Week Four
Sept 20
King: "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" (60s 24-41).
Trillin: "The March" (60s 57-63).
4
Sept 22
Moody: from Coming of Age in Mississippi (60s 45-51).
Welty: "Where is the Voice Coming From?" (60s 51-57).
Dylan: "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" (60s 63-65).
Randall: "Ballad of Birmingham" (60s 65-67).
X: "The Ballot or the Bullet" (60s 70-80).
Sept 24
The Sixties Reader, Part Seven Introduction (443-45).
Neal: "The Black Arts Movement" (60s 446-54).
Lee: from Think Black 1965-1967 (60s 454-56).
Giovanni: "My Poem" (60s 464-66).
Cleaver: from Soul on Ice (60s 478-83).
Week Five
Sept 27
WOMEN'S MOVEMENTS: Suffrage and Liberation
The Sixties Reader, part eight introduction (491-92).
Rukeyser: "Poem" (60s 512-13).
Levertov: "The Mutes" (60s 525-26).
Wakoski: "Belly Dancer" and "Ringless" (60s 527-30).
Jones: Intro Only (60s 531-32).
Solanas: from SCUM Manifesto (60s 536-39).
Steinem: "A New Egalitarian Life Style" (60s 539-42).
Sept 29
Freeman: "The Revolt of Mother" (ARR 208-22).
Friedan: from The Feminine Mystique (60s 493-503).
Oct 1
Gilman: "The Yellow Wallpaper" (Arr 254-69).
Millett: from Sexual Politics (60s 504-12).
Week Six
Oct 4
Gilman, Herland, chapters 1-4.
Oct 6
Gilman, Herland, chapters 5-8.
Oct 8
Gilman, Herland, chapters 9-12.
Week Seven
Oct 11
LABOR and POVERTY
London: "The Apostate" (HHN 285-305).
Crane: "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, chap 1-3 (HHN 219-30).
Oct 13
Crane: "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, chap 4-11 (HNN 231-60).
Oct 15
Crane: "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, chap 12-19 (HNN 261-84).
Week Eight
Oct 18
Davis: "Life in the Iron Mills" (HHN 180-218).
5
Oct 20
Garland: "Under the Lion's Paw" (HHN 306-321).
Norris: "A Deal in Wheat" (HHN 322-33).
Oct 22
FALL BREAK
Week Nine
Oct 25
HEGEMONY and CULTURAL RESISTANCE
Kipling: "The White Man's Burden" (Blackboard Link).
Orwell: "Shooting an Elephant" (Blackboard Link).
Gandhi: quotations (Blackboard Link).
Oct 27
Las Casas: “Of the Island of Hispanola” (HofUS 12-13).
Sahagun: “General History of Things…” (HofUS 13-16).
Red Jacket: “Address to the Chiefs…” (HofUS 104-105).
Monroe: “The Monroe Doctrine” (HofUS 110-112).
“Memorial of the Cherokee Nation” (HofUS 113-114).
O’Sullivan: “Editorial on Manifest Destiny” (HofUS 127-131).
Oct 29
Chief Joseph: “I Will Fight No More Forever” and
“Address in Washington” (HofUS 177-180).
Okison: “The Problem of Old Harjo” (ARR 531-537).
Week Ten
Nov 1
To Be Announced
Nov 3
To Be Announced
Nov 5
No Class---Upper-division registration
Week Eleven
Nov 8
ANTI-WAR MOVEMENTS
Howells: "Editha" (ARR 412).
Twain: "The War Prayer" (Blackboard Link).
Nov 10
Sontag: "What's Happening in America" (60s 119).
Levertov: "Life at War" + "Overheard Over S.E. Asia" (60s 124).
Bly: "The Teeth Mother Naked at Last" (60s 128).
O'Brien: "The Man I Killed" (60s 171).
Kovic: from Born on the Fourth of July (60s 176).
Komunyakaa: "You and I Are Disappearing" and
"2527th Birthday of the Buddha" (60s 184).
Nov 12
McDonald: "I Feel Like I'm Fixin'-to-Die Rag," "Talking NonViolence," and "Superbird" (60s 261-65).
Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five, Chapter 1 (1-22).
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Week Twelve
Nov 15
Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five, Chapters 2-4 (23-86).
Nov 17
Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five, Chapters 5-7 (87-161).
Nov 19
Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five, Chapters 8-10 (162-215).
Week Thirteen
Nov 22
EXPORTING DEMOCRACY: The Student Movement in China
Wilson: “War Message” and “The 14 Points” (HofUS 207-214).
Roosevelt: “The Four Freedoms” (HofUS 229-233).
Truman: “Truman Doctrine” & “Atomic-Bomb” (HofUS 237-41).
Reagan: “Speech at Moscow State University” (HofUS 268-272).
Nov 24-26
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week Fourteen
Nov 29
Wang: Lili, chapters 1-4 (1-58).
Dec 1
Wang: Lili, chapters 5-8 (59-116).
Dec 3
Wang: Lili, chapters 9-11 (117-185).
Week Fifteen
Dec 6
Wang: Lili, chapters 12-14 (186-240).
Dec 8
Wang: Lili, chapters 15-17 (241-307).
Exam Week
Dec 14 (Tuesday)
1:00-4:00
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GUIDELINES FOR ASSIGNMENTS
Formal Response Papers
To begin these responses, you should choose a quotation for close reading. This should
be an analysis, not a summary of the text. Use the quotation as a focal point for
investigating some aspect of that day's reading. Your goal is to explain the significance
of the quote in relation to a larger concept or theme of the entire work. You may use this
formula: Pick a topic, usually expressed in a word or two such as "death" or "love."
Then, decide upon a theme, or what the author is saying about the topic--usually
expressed in sentence form. Your argument will form around your conclusions
concerning what the text is "about." Be assertive. Defend your interpretation and back it
up with specific textual evidence.
You are encouraged, but not required, to make connections to other texts and other
information (biographical, historical, etc), but beware of trying to do too much in such a
short assignment. All of this will make more sense as the semester progresses. Also,
check the online Blackboard for writing prompts. These papers will be used to
generate class discussion, so it is essential that they be completed and posted to the
Digital Drop Box 30 minutes BEFORE class time on the days they are due.
Informal Reader Responses (Blackboard Posts)
Throughout the term, post a total of 10 responses to the Discussion Board. The
directions for formal reader responses can get you started, but do not feel constrained by
those directions; the important thing is to share ideas, so don't worry too much about
style. These responses should be at least 250 words each. Postings made after class
discussions will count for ½ of a post.
Group Presentations
Use the checklists provided on Blackboard .
Course Project
I will give you guidelines around the middle of the term, but you should read the
instructions from an earlier class, which I've placed on Blackboard.
Also, here is a short list of texts that work well in the final project:
Environment: Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)
Hegemony: Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller (1981)
War: Michael Herr, Dispatches (1991)
Labor: Martin Sprouse, ed., Sabotage in the American Workplace: Anecdotes of
Dissatisfaction, Mischief, and Revenge (1992)
Women’s Movements: Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth
AIDS/gay rights: Tony Kushner, Angels in America (1993)
Poverty: Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace (1996)
War: Abbie Hoffman, The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman (2000)
Poverty: Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed (2002)
War: George Braziller, ed., Cry Out: Poets Protest the War (2003)
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THIS IS AN OLD ASSIGNMENT
BUT SHOULD GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT YOUR COURSE PAPER WILL BE LIKE
BASIC COMPONENTS:
1. A text we have read. We'll call this the classic text/movement.
2. A text we have not read. This should be from a current/contemporary movement.
3. Textual analysis—interpretation of literary text(s) based on close reading of intrinsic material.
4. Contextualization—interpretation of literary text(s) based on application of extrinsic material.
STEP ONE:
STEP TWO:
Say: "I like _______." Fill in the blank with one of the following:

An Issue: one of the five or one we haven't covered
such as the environment, abortion, gay rights, etc….

A Time Period: Revolutionary, Antebellum, Gilded Age, 1960s
or one we haven't really covered such as the Jazz Age

A Genre: A particular type of protest such as poetry, speeches,
satire, marches, fiction, etc….

A Text/Author/Protester: Among those we have studied, such as
Frederick Douglass, Bacon (of Bacon's Rebellion), C.P. Gilman
Find: A contemporary expression or analogous situation to your choice in step 1.
A "real world" movement, plus an individual expression of it. (The
closer to today's date, the better. But since we haven't pushed much
past the 1960s, you might be able to use a movement from the 1980s and
1990s as "contemporary")
Examples: Current War Protesters as the current incarnation of the
antiwar movement of the 1960s. Some political rap or hip hop
as extension of the Black Arts Movement.
STEP THREE: Write: Separate "close readings" for your choices from step 1 and step 2.
These will be like your reader responses and should allow you to explore
your choices independent of one another.
STEP FOUR:
Consider: What does a comparison of these two "texts" tell you? Is new light
shed on the "classic movement? Do you have a greater appreciation for
the contemporary movement? Does the contemporary movement make
specific connections to the classic—trying to claim legitimacy, but
perhaps taking protest too far? Etc….
STEP FIVE:
Submit: A proposal to me. This should be the bare bones of your idea and where
you expect it to go—no more than a short paragraph.
STEP SIX:
Start Drafting
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GROUP PRESENTATION # 1
Each group will be assigned extra readings, mostly from Zinn's A People's History of the United
States. Each group member will take one of those readings and present it to the group. After
discussing the various readings, the group will prepare a presentation for the class.
QUESTIONS for the INDIVIDUAL
I. THE HISTORICAL MOMENT
A. time period. Contextualize by reference to well-known historical markers
(for example, the decade before the civil war).
B. Offer 2 or 3 undisputed facts (such as the passage of the fugitive slave Law) and
explain their significance.
C. Your issue (such as "the color line"): What prominence does your issue have for
the people living in that time period?
II. THE PLAYERS
A. Who are the opposing sides in the struggle? Go beyond the basic oppositions
(such as abolitionists vs. slaveholders) to explain the complexities
of the struggle.
B. What are 2 or 3 key arguments on either side? (Again, don't say something obvious
like "Abolitionists were opposed to slavery.")
C. What are the methods, tactics, and goals of the "oppressed" group? (That is, the
group NOT in control.) Pay particular attention to the cultural and
rhetorical aspects of their resistance. (In other words, do they write
poems and pamphlets? Socialize in saloons or hold benefit concerts?)
III. THE MASTER NARRATIVE
A. What is the traditional history against which Zinn is writing?
B. Keep in mind what Zinn says in chapters 1 and 23. Traditional histories are the
memories of states. The focus on individual figures as "saviors"
denies the power of popular movements. Instead, the people seem
simply to go along for a ride through history.
IV. ZINN'S DECONSTRUCTION
A. What are Zinn's methods for deconstructing that "master narrative"?
B. How successful is he?
V . ORGANIZATION SURVEY: Do some web research and find current organizations that are
committed to social change linked to your issue. Your group should have a total of three
organizations, each with a different scope one college level, one local or regional, and one
national or international. Each group member should complete the “Organization
Survey” on Blackboard under “Assignments.”
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QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP
I. Identify commonalities between/among the individual readings
A. Do the terms of the struggle change over time? Do the "Players"
change? Is there a shift in emphasis?
B. Do tactics of the oppressed group undergo dramatic changes? Likewise,
are the goals of the group pretty much the same? What is the
relationship between tactics and goals?
C. Give specific examples of the rhetoric—the form given to the argument.
D. Do some movements or time periods lend themselves more naturally to using
the revolutionary rhetoric employed by the founding fathers?
Do some groups make inappropriate use of such rhetoric?
II. Prepare a list of study questions—Central points to which we can return throughout
the two weeks that we spend on this topic.
A. Examples:



To what degree are famous individuals responsible for social change?
To what degree are the changes demanded consistent with the ideals
set forth in the country's founding documents?
Which particular victories by protesters have made life in 21st century
America better—and which ones have made things worse?
B. These sample questions are rather broad and could apply to any issue. Your
questions, focusing on a single issue, should be more precise.
GROUP PRESENTATION # 2
I. You will choose an academic discipline from which you will read an article related to your
larger topic. Each member will be taking the perspective of a different discipline.
For example, your topic may be women's movements and your perspective is
psychology.
II. Characterize the Perspective
A. If the perspective sees the issue in terms of 2 sides in conflict, what are the sides?
B. Does the perspective focus on a particular aspect of the topic that we have not
discussed? Or one of the many aspects we have discussed?
III. Meet as a Group and compare notes. The comparison should help each member sharpen
his/her description of that discipline's perspective.
IV. Apply these perspectives to one of Monday's readings. For example, one member might say,
"From the perspective of an economist, the story would mean…."
Note: Try to characterize the discipline without stereotyping its members.