Eng. 208 (701)
Instructor: Marc Steinberg
Summer 2014
Online
Email: msteinberg@chesapeake.edu
Course Description
This is a survey course covering major American authors and literary movements
from the Civil War era to the present. We will read, write about, and discuss numerous
works in various genres in order to analyze techniques, patterns, and issues. Discussion
and class writings will be the primary tool of analysis.
Students are responsible for class assignments, a midterm exam, a final exam, two
essays, and class discussions.
Statement of Course Goals: The goals for the course are:
1. To describe the great diversity of styles, genres, and themes encompassed by
American literature from the Civil War era to the present.
2. To demonstrate how American literature is a reflection of American culture,
including its history and values.
3. To enable students to synthesize their own interpretations with those of established
literary critics in analyzing works of American literature, both orally and in
writing.
4. To facilitate the development of an aesthetic appreciation of the best of American
literature.
5. To fulfill the requirement of a literature elective in any curriculum.
Common Core Learning Outcomes: At the completion of this course, the student will
be able to:
 identify and explain the significance of major figures, works, and trends in
American literature from the Civil War era to the present,
a. explain the relationship between the literature of the period and its historical
context,
b. demonstrate how writing in this period reflects American ideals,
 critically analyze various texts in American literature, and
 use literary criticism to support their interpretation of literary works.
Texts and Materials
The American Tradition in Literature: Volume 2. 12th edition. Eds. George Perkins and
Barbara Perkins.
Some readings (labeled “h/o”) will be found linked to Angel.
Expectations
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Students are expected to be prepared for class postings, discussions, and
assignments.
No late assignments will be accepted without prior permission. (Only in
extraordinary circumstances will an extension of the deadline be granted; late
submissions are subject to penalty.)
Essays that are more than one week late can be submitted for credit but not for a
grade.
Class writings, drafts, and essays will be due by the end of the week (Sunday at
midnight), unless noted otherwise.
Grading
*Midterm
*Final
*Essay #1
*Essay #2
Class writings
Discussions**
15%
15%
15%
25%
20%
10%
*All of these must be submitted for a chance at passing the class.
**Students are expected to regularly participate in online discussions.
Students should try to post at least 2 responses per week (either original posts or
response to other students).
Academic Instruction Emergency Management Plan
In the event that Chesapeake College needs to close for an extended period of time due to
a flu pandemic, severe weather event, or other emergency situation, consideration will be
given to the timing and duration of the closure as follows:
1. Closure during the semester for up to one week—there will be an opportunity to
make up work missed without significant alteration to the semester calendar.
2. Closure extending beyond one week (or in situations where classes are cancelled
on the same days/evenings over multiple weeks)—the College may extend the
length of the semester. Depending on the timing of the closure, scheduled breaks,
end of semester dates, and/or the processing of final grades might be impacted.
Students can acquire information about closures on the College website or by calling
410-822-5400 or 410-228-4360. Chesapeake College courses held at off campus sites
will follow the protocol of the host facility.
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Schedule
Week One (6/11-15)
 Introductions
 Emily Dickinson—“280: I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” (73-74)
 Dickinson—“288: I’m Nobody! Who are you?” (74)
 Dickinson—“465: I Heard a Fly buzz-when I died” (79)
 Dickinson—“712: Because I could not stop for Death-“ (84)
 Whitman—“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” (61)
 Whitman—“A Noiseless Patient Spider” (67-68)
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman—“The Yellow Wallpaper” (686-97)
Week Two (6/16-22)
 Joel Chandler Harris—“The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story” (516-18)
 Stephen Crane—“A God in Wrath” (703-04)
 Crane—“A Man Said to the Universe” (706)
 Crane—“The Open Boat” (747-63)
 Kate Chopin—“The Story of an Hour” (539-40)
Week Three (6/23-29)
 Chopin—The Awakening (540-627)
 James Weldon Johnson—“Negro Dialect” (1122-23)
 Langston Hughes—“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1138)
 Hughes—“Harlem” (1142)
 E.E. Cummings—“I(a” (h/o)
 Cummings—“in Just-“ (1112)
Week Four (6/30-7/6 [7/3-4, no classes])
 Cummings—“Next to of course god america I” (h/o)
 Susan Glaspell—“Trifles” (917-27)
 William Faulkner—“A Rose for Emily” (h/o)
 Zora Neale Hurston—“Sweat” (h/o)
 Essay #1 draft due (not graded)
 Midterm
Week Five (7/7-13)
 Ernest Hemingway—“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” (h/o)
 Hemingway—“Hills Like White Elephants” (h/o)
 T.S. Eliot—“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock” (950-54)
 Flannery O’Connor—“A Good Man is Hard to Find” (h/o)
 Gwendolyn Brooks—“We Real Cool” (1463)
 Essay #1 due
Week Six (7/14-20)
 Anne Sexton—“Her Kind” (1820-21)
 Sexton—“The Addict” (h/o)
 Sylvia Plath—“Daddy” (1519-21)
 Plath—“Lady Lazarus” (1521-23)
 Allen Ginsberg—“Howl” (1500-07)
 Ginsberg—“America” (1507-09)
Week Seven (7/21-27)
 Edward Albee—“The American Dream” (1381-1404)
 Betty Friedan—“The Problem That Has No Name” (1791-93)
 Bobbie Anne Mason—“Shiloh” (1942-51)
 Elizabeth Bishop—“One Art” (1440)
 Thomas Pynchon—“Entropy” (1682-92)
 Essay #2 draft due (not graded)
Week Eight (7/28-31)
 John Barth—“Lost in the Funhouse” (1646-60)
 Amiri Baraka—“In Memory of Radio” (1526-27)
 Baraka—“An Agony As Now” (1527-28)
 David Foster Wallace—“Incarnations of Burned Children” (h/o)
 Essay #2 due
Final (8/4-5)