ENGL 278 B01:
SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE 2
1865-Present
Tuesdays and Thursdays • 5:30-6:50 p.m. • Room 511 • 3 credits • Fall 2011
Instructor:
Office:
Phone:
Email:
Office Hours:
Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D.
Blaine County Campus, Room 408
788-2033 or 1-800-680-0274 x6930
jdavidson@csi.edu
Thursdays, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., and by appointment
CSI Catalog Course Description: In this course, students will analyze, discuss, and write about American
literature from the Civil War to the present.
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 and ENGL 102
Required Texts:
The Norton Anthology of American Literature; Volumes C, D, E; 7th edition
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros; Vintage Books edition
This course also will use Blackboard: http://blackboard.csi.edu.
In the English Department Literature Course Sequence, students will:
 Analyze a novel, poem, short story, play or prose piece—using literary elements, conventions,
and historical and literary contexts distinctive to the genre at hand—to support meaningful
interpretations.
 Contextualize the significance of a literary selection in an appropriate cultural, historical,
thematic and/or other relevant context.
 Discuss the significance of cultural, historical, thematic and theoretical perspectives in
interpreting a literary selection.
Outcomes Assessment: To achieve the course goals, you will engage in a variety of activities which will be
evaluated to determine your final grade:
Discussion in class
5%
Quizzes
5%
Essays (2; 20% each)
40%
Exams (2; 20% each)
40%
Multimedia Project (associated with essay 2) 10%
Discussion will be evaluated on your ability to ask questions and share your thoughts in class.
Short quizzes will be given regularly in class to assess your reading of the assigned material.
Each essay will be a literary analysis of three to four pages and must follow MLA style.
Each exam will involve identifying passages and answering short response questions.
The multimedia project will be an expansion of your second literary analysis essay to include other kinds of
media engagement with a text.
Grading Scale: Grades will be determined according to the following standard college scale:
A = 90-100%; B = 80-89%; C = 70-79%; D = 60-69%; F = 59% and lower.
ENGL 278 B01
Fall 2011
Policies and Procedures: To be successful in this class, you must adhere to these policies and follow
course procedures conscientiously. See the CSI catalog, www.csi.edu/catalog, for all college policies.
Attendance: Your ideas and questions are valuable to each class session. You should attend every class
meeting. Our class discussions are critical for working through the assigned texts, and your final grade will
be determined in part by how well you participate in the discussions. If you must miss a class for a serious
reason, please make arrangements with me in advance so that you can stay on task with the course
requirements.
Assignments: This survey course covers 150 years of literature. We will do a lot of reading! You should plan
to do at least two hours of thoughtful reading for each class meeting. Short quizzes will be given regularly in
class to encourage you to stay accountable for the reading material. These quizzes may not be made up.
Please note the dates for exams and essays in the schedule; late work will not be accepted unless prior
arrangements have been made.
Plagiarism: In this course, we will analyze other peoples’ ideas as we develop our own. You must never
present someone else’s ideas as your own. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. If you plagiarize in an
essay or exam, you may fail that assignment and you may fail the course. Always acknowledge your sources
and follow MLA documentation style carefully.
Professional Behavior: Classroom discussions should be dynamic and fun. We all will not always agree, but
we must always exchange ideas respectfully. To show respect for all members of the class, please be on time,
be prepared for discussion, listen well, turn off cell phones, use considerate language, be open to new ideas,
and do not leave class early.
Course Communications and CSI Email: Please contact me if you have any questions about the course,
want to discuss a particular assignment, or simply want to explore an issue more. I am happy to meet with
you! Also, please note that e-mail is the primary source of written communication with all CSI students.
Student e-mail addresses have the following format: <address>@eaglemail.csi.edu where <address> is a
name selected by the student as a part of activating his/her account. You should activate your account and
check your CSI e-mail online at http://eaglemail.csi.edu.
Course Evaluations: To help instructors continually improve courses, students are strongly encouraged to go
online to http://evaluation.csi.edu and complete anonymous evaluations which open two weeks before the
end of the course and close the last day of class. When students enter the site, they find evaluations for
their enrolled courses. Thank you for this valuable input!
Disability Services: Any student with a documented disability may be eligible for reasonable
accommodations. To determine eligibility and secure services, students should contact Student Disability
Services at their first opportunity after registration for a class(es). This office is located on the second floor
of the Taylor Building on the Twin Falls Campus. 208.732.6260 or e-mail Scott Scholes, sscholes@csi.edu.
Special note regarding new deadlines for the fall 2011 semester:
August 26 is the last day to add, drop without a “W,” or change to/from an audit. It is also the tuition due date.
It is the student’s responsibility to drop a course. A student may drop a course or all courses prior to the
end of late registration (first Friday of the term) without it being recorded on the student’s official transcript.
A student-initiated drop after the late registration period is considered a withdrawal, and results in the grade
of W. (Students may drop courses online until the end of the late registration period. In order to withdraw
from one or more courses following late registration, a completed registration form is required. Instructions
on the form indicate when a signature of instructor and/or Financial Aid advisor is required. The completed
form may be submitted to Admissions & Records or any off-campus center.) NOTE: Students may
withdraw from courses until 75% of the course meetings have elapsed. No course may be withdrawn from
after 75% of the course has elapsed.
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ENGL 278 B01
Fall 2011
Survey of American Literature 2
Course Schedule
August 23
Introduction to the course. “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln (handout).
August 25
“The Second Inaugural Address” by Abraham Lincoln (handout). Harriet Ann Jacobs and
excerpts from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself (handout).
August 30
“The Navajo Night Chant” (C, 371-377). “Native American Oratory” and “[I am alone]” by
Cochise and “[He has filled graves with our bones]” by Charlot (C, 382-387).
September 1
“Corridos” (C, 1132-1140).
September 6
Walt Whitman and “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (C, 17-25). “The New Colossus” by Emma
Lazarus (C, 520).
September 8
Emily Dickinson and poems #112, 202, 269, 320, 340, 359, 479, 591(C, 74-88).
September 13 Mark Twain and “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (C, 100-107).
Ambrose Bierce and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (C, 359-366).
September 15 Booker T. Washington and excerpts from Up from Slavery (C, 663-680).
September 20 Exam 1.
September 22 Sarah Orne Jewett and “A White Heron” (C, 520-528). Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The
Yellow Wall-paper” (C, 806-819).
September 27 Frederick Jackson Turner and excerpt from The Significance of the Frontier in American
History (C, 1148-1153). Theodore Roosevelt and excerpt from The Strenuous Life (C, 1153
and 1156-1159).
September 29 Willa Cather and My Ántonia (D, 1214-1235).
October 4
My Ántonia (D, 1235-1268).
October 6
My Ántonia (D, 1268-1309). Jonathan Franzen story (handout).
October 9
Special class meeting for Jonathan Franzen lecture.
October 11
My Ántonia (D, 1309-1349).
October 13
No class meeting. Optional individual conferences on Friday, October 14.
October 18
Essay 1 due.
October 20
Robert Frost and poems “Mending Wall,” “The Wood-Pile,” “The Road Not Taken,”
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and “The Gift Outright” (D, 1388-1407).
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ENGL 278 B01
Fall 2011
October 25
Wallace Stevens and “The Snow Man,” “Anecdote of the Jar,” and “Thirteen Ways of
Looking at a Blackbird” (D, 1439-1450). William Carlos Williams and “The Young
Housewife,” “The Red Wheelbarrow,” and “This is Just to Say” (D, 1462-1472). Ezra Pound
and “A Pact” and “In a Station of the Metro” (D, 1477-1482).
October 27
William Faulkner and “Barn Burning” (D, 1858-1860 and 1955-1967).
November 1
Ernest Hemingway and “The Snows of Kilimanajaro” (D, 1980-1999).
November 3
Langston Hughes and selected poems (D, 2026-2036). Gwendolyn Brooks and selected
poems (E, 2409-2414).
November 8
Allen Ginsberg and selected poems (E, 2574-2585). Gary Snyder and selected poems (E,
2672-2679).
November 10 Toni Morrison and “Recitatif” (E, 2684-2698).
November 15 N. Scott Momaday and excerpts from The Way to Rainy Mountain (E, 2764-2775).
November 17 Exam 2.
November 22 Gloria Anzaldúa and “La conciencia de la mestiza / Towards a New Consciousness” (E, 29352946).
November 24 Thanksgiving Holiday
November 29 Sandra Cisneros and The House on Mango Street
December 1
The House on Mango Street
December 6
Review.
December 8
Essay 2 due. Multimedia presentations.
December 14 Optional: It’s a Wonderful Life Theater Performance at the Company of Fools
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