ENGL 2132: American Literature II
Course Syllabus
Georgia Perimeter College, Alpharetta
Instructor: Rob Jenkins
e-mail: robin.jenkins@gpc.edu
Office: TBA
Office hours: MW 7:30 – 8:30 & 9:45 – 11:30
TR 8:15 – 10:00 & 12:45 – 1:15
Friday by appointment
Course Description:
Students consider the literature of the United States from the Civil War through the early twentyfirst century.
Texts:
The Norton Anthology of American Literature (8th Edition), vols. C, D, & E.
Course Overview:
In ENGL 2132: American Literature II, we will read and discuss works of literary value
produced in the United States, or by American writers abroad, from the period immediately
following the Civil War through the early part of the twenty-first century. You can expect to do a
fair amount of reading—about 30-50 pages a week, on average—and have regular quizzes over
your reading. The course is divided into three roughly equal units: Bridging the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries, Twentieth-Century Poetry, and Twentieth-Century Fiction. In addition to
the daily quizzes for “extra credit,” you will have an exam over each unit, plus a comprehensive
final exam essay. Toward the end of the term, you will also write a 500-700 word documented
essay on one of the authors we’ve studied.
Disclaimer:
While discussing the literary works that we will be reading this semester, we will no doubt talk
about a number of potentially controversial topics, including (but not limited to) race, gender,
sexuality, religion, and politics. On rare occasions, I may state my personal opinion on one of
those topics or on a related topic; when I do so, I will always attempt to label it as such. Most
often, though, I will decline to offer a personal opinion, choosing instead to examine the ideas of
the writers we’re studying and other relevant literary and historical figures and perhaps compare
what they have said to various other perceptions. In neither case am I attempting to
“indoctrinate” you into any particular point of view, persuade you to adopt any specific position,
or “challenge” your personal beliefs. Rather, my purpose is to encourage you to consider,
objectively, the viewpoints reflected in these literary works as you examine your own views,
assumptions, and preconceptions in an attempt to formulate an informed, thoughtful, and
defensible position. This is known as “critical thinking.”
In addition, although it is never my intention to offend anyone, I find that occasionally students
do become offended during our discussions, as some of these topics tend to be rather emotionally
charged. Please understand that being offended by someone else’s words, ideas, or opinions is an
emotional response, not a rational one. My hope is that, together, we can all remain as objective
as possible and keep our discussions on a relatively high intellectual plane. Also that we can
have fun.
ENGL 2132 Syllabus
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Course Policies (Departmental):
PROVISION FOR LATE WORK AND MAKE-UP EXAMS: Work is expected to be submitted
on time. Each instructor will provide students with a policy regarding late work. When
absolutely necessary, arrangements for late work and make-up exams should be made on an
individual basis with the instructor.
WRITING LAB: Instructional Support Services provides academic help for day and evening
students and serves as a convenient means of getting additional writing instruction. Instructors
may assign lab work for those students who need or desire extra help.
AID FOR THE DISABLED: If you are a student who is disabled as defined under the Americans
with Disabilities Act and require assistance or support services, please seek assistance through
the Center of Disabilities Services. A CDS counselor will coordinate those services.
CHEATING/ PLAGIARISM POLICY: Cheating includes any attempt to defraud, deceive, or
mislead a professor in arriving at an honest grade assessment. Plagiarism is a form of
cheating that occurs when students present as their own the ideas, language, or work of
others. Giving unauthorized help to other students also constitutes cheating.
Unless specifically authorized by the professor, the following are examples of cheating or
plagiarism, although this list is certainly not exhaustive:
1. Cheating on a test or quiz includes
 Looking at or copying from other students’ work.
 Allowing other students to look at or copy your work.
 Exchanging information with other students.
 Speaking or whispering (students may speak to professors at any time).
 Opening a textbook or notebook.
 Looking at notes.
2. Cheating on writing assignments, homework or other out-of-class assignments includes
 Copying work or answers from other students.
 Copying ideas or text from printed sources and from computer or other electronic sources
without proper documentation.
 Having someone else do the assignments.
 Allowing other students to “borrow” work and present it as their own.
3. Cheating on late work or tests includes
 Providing false information or documents in order to be allowed to make up a missed
test, quiz, or homework.
When source materials are used in the writing of papers, students must document the use of these
sources by following the documentation style stipulated by their professor. Students who
require clarification of any of the above concepts must consult with their professor.
Cheating of any kind may result in penalties ranging from a grade of F or 0 on the assignment to
a course grade of F. Professors also may refer cases to the College Court for assignment of
additional penalties that may include suspension or expulsion from Georgia Perimeter College.
Such cases may be brought before the College Court regardless of whether or not the accused
admits guilt when initially charged.
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ENGL 2132 Syllabus
The accused should know that, at the sentencing phase, the Court may consider any previous
record of cheating in determining the severity of the penalty. The Georgia Perimeter College
Student Handbook section on “Academic Dishonesty” outlines the steps of due process in such
cases.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY POLICY: No person shall, on the grounds of race, color, sex, religion,
creed, national origin, age or disability, be excluded from employment or participation in, be
denied the benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity
conducted by Georgia Perimeter College.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY: Georgia Perimeter College adheres to affirmative action
policies designed to promote diversity and equal opportunity for all faculty and students.
Course Policies (Instructor’s):
ATTENDANCE: I will not withdraw you from the course for any reason, nor will I fail you
solely because of absences. If you wish to withdraw from the course, you must officially
withdraw yourself by submitting the appropriate documents to the Office of Enrollment and
Registration Services.
However, you are responsible for all reading assignments and all material covered in class,
whether you are present or not. Except in unusual circumstances, please do not contact me
regarding material you may have missed due to absence.
DAILY READING ASSIGNMENTS: The reading list for the semester is posted at the end of
this syllabus, and the daily schedule will correspond more or less (but perhaps not exactly) to the
calendar below. We may very well get behind in our readings. I may even have to move a test
back a day or two—but I promise not to move one up. Also, I reserve the right to skip over some
assigned readings if we are pressed for time—but I will not add any. I will let you know at the
end of each class meeting exactly what I expect to cover in the following class meeting.
MAKE-UP EXAMS and QUIZZES: I give make-up exams only in unusual circumstances, such
as when a student has been sick or otherwise unable to attend due to no fault of his or her own. I
may ask you to document your reason for missing the exam. You must schedule the make-up
exam with me personally, at my convenience. The make-up exam will be different from the
exam given in class and may well be more difficult.
You MAY NOT make up a daily quiz. However, there are enough of them that missing one or
two shouldn’t hurt you.
RETURN OF TESTS: I will do my best to return tests and other graded assignments within one
week.
GRADES: Your final grade will be based on your three unit exams, the final exam essay, and
the writing project, all of which count equally. Your daily quiz grades count as “extra credit,”
and those points will be added into the final total before I average.
ENGL 2132 Syllabus
WEEKLY CALENDAR:
Week 1
January 13 - 16
Week 2
January 20 - 23
Week 3
January 27 - 30
Week 4
February 3 - 6
Week 5
February 10 - 13
Week 6
February 17 - 20
Week 7
February 24 - 28
Week 8
March 3 - 6
Week 9
March 10 - 13
Week 10
March 17 - 20
Week 11
March 24 - 28
Week 12
March 31 – April 3
Week 13
April 7 - 10
Week 14
April 14 - 17
Week 15
April 21 - 24
Week 16
April 28 – May 1
Week 17
May 5 - 8
“The Liberal Arts ARE Workforce Development”
“I’m Not Paying for Your Opinion”
Whitman
MLK Holiday (Jan. 20) – College closed
Whitman, Dickinson, Jewett
Twain
Dreiser, Crane, London
Robinson, Frost
UNIT TEST I
Sandberg, Stevens, Williams
Student Study Day (Feb. 25) – No classes
Moore, Elliot, Cummings, Hughes, Cullen
Roethke, Lowell, Brooks, Ginsberg, Sexton, Rich, Plath
Spring Break
UNIT TEST II
Porter
Faulkner
Hemingway, Wright
Ellison, Welty
O’Connor
Walker, Tan
Unit Test III
Documented essay due
Review for final
Last Day of Class: May 1
Final Exams
Final exam schedule
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ENGL 2132 Syllabus
ENGL 2132: American Literature II
Reading List
Unit I: Bridging the 19th and 21st Centuries
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
Emily Dickinson, poems #202, 340, 448, 1096, and 1236
Sarah Orne Jewett, “A White Heron”
Mark Twain, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
Selections from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: pp. 130-159, 173-176, 183-202, and 259-309
Theodore Dreiser, from Sister Carrie, chpts. I & II
Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”
Jack London, “The Law of Life”
E.A. Robinson, “Luke Havergal”
“Richard Cory”
“Miniver Cheevy”
Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”
“The Road Not Taken”
“Birches”
“Fire and Ice”
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Unit II: 20th-Century Poetry
Carl Sandburg, “Chicago”
Wallace Stevens, “A High-Toned Old Christian Woman”
“The Emperor of Ice Cream”
“Sunday Morning”
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
“Of Modern Poetry”
William Carlos Williams, “The Young Housewife”
“Portrait of a Lady”
“The Red Wheelbarrow”
“This is Just to Say”
“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”
Marianne Moore, “Poetry”
T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
“The Waste Land”
e.e. cummings, “Buffalo Bill’s”
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
“Mother to Son”
“Theme for English B”
Countee Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel”
“Uncle Jim”
Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”
Robert Lowell, “For the Union Dead”
Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”
Alan Ginsberg, “Howl”
Anne Sexton, “The Truth the Dead Know”
Adrienne Rich, “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”
Sylvia Plath, “Morning Song”
“Daddy”
Unit III: 20th-Century Fiction
Katherine Anne Porter, “Flowering Judas”
William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”
“Barn Burning”
Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
Richard Wright, “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”
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ENGL 2132 Syllabus
Eudora Welty, “Petrified Man”
Ralph Ellison, (from Invisible Man) Chapter I [Battle Royal]
Flannery O’Connor, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
“Good Country People”
Alice Walker, “Everyday Use”
Amy Tan, (from The Joy Luck Club) “Two Kinds”
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Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Topics and Activities
Course introduction
The Writing Process
Discussion: Descriptive
writing
Invention exercises
Drafting
September 1:Labor Day—
campus closed
Rough drafts due
Peer editing
Style workshops
First Essay Due (Description)
Discussion: Narration
Invention exercises
Drafting
Rough drafts due
Peer editing
Style workshop
Second Essay Due
(Narration)
Discussion: Definition
Invention
Drafting
Rough drafts due
Peer editing
Style workshops
Third Essay Due (Definition)
Discussion: Process writing
Invention
Drafting
Midpoint of term: Oct. 16
Rough drafts due
Peer editing
Style workshop
Fourth Essay Due: Process
Discussion: Comparing and
classifying
Invention
Drafting
Rough drafts due
Peer editing
Style workshop
Fifth Essay Due
(Comparing/Classifying)
Discussion: Analysis and
argument
Discussion: Analysis and
argumentation
ENGL 2132 Syllabus
Reading assignments*
Connelly, pp. 1-36
Capote, “Out There,” p. 125
Urrea, “Border Story,” p. 129
Rowan, “Unforgettable Miss Bessie,” p. 137
Preston, “Ebola River,” p. 73
Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant,” p.78
Goodman, “The Company Man,” p. 181
Ciardi, “What is Happiness?” p. 189
Student, “Disneyland Dads,” p. 224
Kolbert, “Birth of a TV Show,” p. 433
Harris, “ How Our Skins Got Their Color,” p. 444
Elbow, “Desperation Writing,” p. 448
Grinslade, “Evaluating a Job Opportunity,” p. 459
Zinsser, “The Transaction,” p. 240
Stark, “A Tale of Two Sitcoms,” p. 249
Baker, “The Plot Against People,” p.367
McClintock, “Propaganda Techniques in Today’s
Advertising,” p. 396
Huff, “How to Lie with Statistics,” p. 301
Jacobson, “Swept Away,” p. 514
Tomkin, “Hot Air,” p. 525
Connelly, pp. 548-553
Hodges, pp. 516-545
Simon, “Why Even Pacifists. . .” p. 554
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14
15
16
Finals
Research tools and techniques
MLA Documentation
Sixth Essay Due
(Argumentation/Analysis)
Strategies for timed writing
Thanksgiving Holidays
Nov. 26-28
Practice timed essay
Seventh Essay (In-class)
Final Exam (TBA)
ENGL 2132 Syllabus
Student, “Why a Black Student union,” p. 604
Hodges, pp. 546-693
*All readings are from The Sundance Reader unless otherwise indicated
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