Form V English – American Literature
Mr. Kidd
2011-2012
dkidd@norfolkacademy.org
http://www.davidkidd.typepad.com/
This course will explore the literature of the United States from its beginnings in the 17th Century to the Contemporary and through four thematic areas. Naturally, we will read and write a great deal in a variety of forms, both expository and creative. We will learn to cherish the details of language, to write with feeling and precision, and to enjoy the challenges in reading and understanding the best writing that this country has produced. In each class, the following questions will be relevant:
• How should we interpret literature?
• How can you become a more creative and precise writer?
• What does it mean to be American?
• What do you believe?
Required Texts:
Bryant, John, ed., et al. The Pearson Custom Anthology of American Literature.
Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005.
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. New York: Vintage, 1990.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan, 1980.
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual, 6th Edition. New York: Bedford, 2009.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Dover, 1994.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin, 2003.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. New York: Washington Square Press,1994.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Dover, 1994.
Marking Period #1:
Wonders of the Invisible World
In this marking period, we will begin our year-long inquiry into American literature by asking essential questions about our country’s cultural identity. What does it mean to be an American? How has that changed over time, and what forces contend with each other to define American identities? In 1839, John O’Sullivan envisioned an America that would do nothing short of redeeming and ruling the world: "The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High -- the Sacred and the True." Other writers have found America’s identity and history to be far less utopian, going so far as to accuse America of some of the most murderous and monetary cultural designs. These issues should help us examine and debate what’s American about America alongside some foundational American texts, including Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter. This marking period takes its title from a work of the same name of the Puritan writer Cotton Mather, and it focuses primarily on the works of four major writers (as well as a few others along the way): Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Miller, and Walt Whitman. True to the Puritan tradition, Mather saw the world as a map of spiritual signs, a place full of symbols given to mankind from God to interpret correctly as a path to salvation. Puritans constantly searched their lives for evidence of spiritual progress or damnation, and their legacy to us is more of a certain interpretive mindset than any strict moral code. While Dickinson, Hawthonre, and Whitman share this interpretive preoccupation, they reject and/or revise the way in which we are to read these signs as well as to what source we are to give them. As purveyors and interpreters of the Puritan tradition, these three writers further deepened the author's self-consciousness and awareness of his own interpretations of the symbols he confronts. If, as John Lynen suggests, the Puritan goal was "to see God in human events," Dickinson, Hawthorne, and Whitman attempt to find new ways to articulate the presence of divine and miraculous things without the angry, patriarchal God the Puritans revered. Each of these writers turns our eyes to the minutest details and asks us to view them as symbols of the largest possible messages about human experience.
Marking Period #2:
The American Journey
The central text for the second marking period is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," a story, like many of the others in this section, about an American who goes on an errand or a quest he knows will be fraught with peril and evil, but one that he must nevertheless take. These American journeys are analogous to the larger historical journey our country has made; sometimes they are journeys of spiritual triumph, and sometimes they are journeys to enslavement or genocide. Along their journeys, our travelers will face a number of tasks and bewildering signs; they will have to learn to speak an entirely new language in order to survive and interpret the world around them, a language made paradoxically and powerfully from the mixture of an American vernacular with the hallowed traditions and voices of European literature, a language of sincere and earnest spiritual insight as well as the deceptive tones of the devil's ironic voice.
Fitzgerald muses at the close of The Great Gatsby that Dutch sailors viewing Manhattan for the first time were "face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to their capacity for wonder." Some Americans were already here when Dutch sailors arrived, and theirs is a story of cultural destruction and death. Some Americans were brought here as slaves, and theirs is a story of captivity and, sometimes, escape. Other Americans came here for good and for evil, given, in their largely Christian imaginations, a new Garden of Eden, and, with it, a second chance to start civilization.
Semester Two
Marking Period #3:
Modernism and its Discontents
Our second semester begins by examining the visions of America William Shakespeare imagined in his final play, The Tempest. The “brave new world” at once looked backward to an imagined paradise as well as forward to a new kind of utopia. Americans of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed cultural changes on an unprecedented scale, and the literature of these periods reflects the dreams and the tensions of that age. T. S. Eliot's classic modernist poem The Waste Land envisions the breaking apart of Western culture. Eliot feared a culture bereft of any spiritual gifts and on the brink of ruin, a kind of desert ruled over by a king impotent to save it. By extension, Eliot's vision resembles many views of America in our time. Many modernists conceived their literary efforts along the lines of Eliot's vision, an effort to deal with the end of Western culture, people whose lives and systems of belief were spinning out of control. In the story of the Fisher King, which Eliot draws from in The Waste Land, a barren landscape ruled by an aging and wounded king gets restored by a young knight who arrives with exactly the right gifts and insights to save the land. This story gets played out to differing conclusions and in such surprising places as the lyrics of Bob Dylan and Beck, and William Faulkner's classic novel As I Lay Dying. The story and critique in Eliot's The Waste Land will take us through a tour of 20th Century American poetry and fiction, modernists, anti-modernists, and post-modernists.
Marking Period #4:
anyone lived in a pretty how town
This marking period focuses on the tension or dialectic between the individual and the society to which he belongs. It takes its title from an e e cummings poem of the same name where the forces of community threaten to destroy individualism. America has long had a contradictory character, one devoted to self-reliance and individualism while at the same time stressing the importance of the community, a collective ideal, and the needs of the whole. "E pluribus Unum" affords us many ways to debate and consider how we work together to be individuals. Questions we will consider this marking period include: Is America about the group or the individual? Is it best to be part of something or to be you? Are they necessarily at odds? How do we negotiate those tensions? How are other cultures able to be present inside a dominant mainstream? Is there still a dominant mainstream in America? What is the nature of the American dream? Does everyone have a chance to achieve it? These questions will form a large part of our approach to the readings during this marking period, and they will be questions you will apply to yourself as you compose the year's culminating project, the Credo, a statement of personal beliefs, and your own contribution to the collection of individual voices you've studied in a year of American Literature. See the Credo assignment sheet for further details about this important project.
Writing:
These assignments will range from expository and argumentative essays to fiction and poetry. Each original writing will count twice towards the final average, and each revision will count once. Though students may revise “A” essays for additional commentary and education, they will not receive a higher “A” grade for that revision. All revisions must be prefaced by a typed cover letter (details and expectations for the cover letter will be covered in class). In addition, I will require that students revise some essays. Naturally, some assignments will be longer than others. All writing assignments will include instruction in the advanced and subtle nuances of English grammar and prose, which will allow you to become a more precise and adventurous writer. Occasional grammar tests and editing worksheets will help us strengthen both grammar and writing.
Format for Assignments:
All compositions written outside of the classroom must be word-processed. Please use 12-point type and one-inch margins. Write all in-class compositions in dark ink, and single space. Also, please write on only one side of the paper. Place the following heading (flushed left and not justified) on each paper turned in to me: Your Name, Creative Title (for the piece of writing, and yourself should you choose!), Date, and Bell. I will keep all writing done for the class in a folder, and I will give students that folder at the end of the year. Students may check out a piece of writing in order to revise it, but it should be returned to the folder when they finish. These folders will help in tracking how well each writer improves over the course of the year. At the end of the year, students will receive their Credo along with all of the other work in their portfolios from the entire year.
Reading:
In this course, we will not only read as many different and diverse American authors as we can, we will also read a large variety of writing styles and genres. Occasional reading quizzes will keep us on task as well as extending our understanding. Students will also work on outside reading to encourage them to be life-long readers and learners.
Speaking:
Discussion will be a vital part of the class, and students will receive a grade for participation. In addition, students will make formal presentations and even teach a poem. Students will receive a grade each marking period for their overall academic citizenship.
Grading Policy:
I will assign each piece of work a maximum point value based on its importance. For example, a vocabulary quiz may be worth 20 points, while a test or a paper covering two weeks' work may be worth 100 points. At any point in the grading period, students may determine their progress by dividing the total number of points accumulated by the total number of possible points. At the end of the semester, each marking periods' average and the exam will constitute the semester grade. Students will receive a grade for class participation each marking period, constituting approximately 10-20% of the marking period grade. Participation grades will be based on class and online discussion, readiness for class, and overall academic citizenship.
Late Work:
I will penalize students with incomplete work until they turn in the work. This policy should encourage students to meet deadlines. Students who do not complete larger assignments on time will be assigned to late backwork.
Absence:
When students are absent, they are responsible for getting all notes, taking all tests, and completing all assignments. Students must confer with me on the day they return to schedule make-up work to be completed. Whenever it is convenient and appropriate we will use e-mail and the web to keep track of late work, or even for students to submit work electronically. My e-mail address is at the top of this syllabus. If students know in advance about sports or another planned school activity, they should arrange their work with me ahead of time. I am always available for extra help, but students have the responsibility to plan ahead. Such planning will help them to avoid emergencies and “emergencies.”
Materials, Punctuality, and Class Expectations:
Students must come to class on time with all the necessary supplies: the right books, a binder with loose-leaf paper, homework, relevant worksheets or handouts, and a pen or pencil. If students do not have necessary materials they will not be able to participate fully in class activities and risk having their grade lowered. I expect demeanor to be appropriate to a scholarly environment. Students who do not have a scholarly demeanor will risk being unable to participate fully in the class and will endanger their success.
Recommended Readings to Supplement the Course:
I have a number of critical studies about American Literature I would be happy to loan to students who meet with me to discuss their interests and projects, especially those involved in the Renaissance Reader program. Find below our supplementary reading list for this course. You may choose books from this list for outside reading assignments:
Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio
Bellow, Saul Seize the Day
Carson, Rachel Silent Spring
Cather, Willa My Antonia
Dillard, Annie Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man
Franklin, Benjamin Autobiography
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior
Melville, Herman Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale
Percy, Walker The Moviegoer
Sanders, Scott Russell Hunting for Hope: A Father's Journeys
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath
Welty, Eudora One Writer's Beginnings
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth
Wright, Richard Native Son
Keillor, Garrison ed. Good Poems
McClatchy, J.D. ed. The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry
A Final Note:
I love English. Each year I learn more and more about American literature and my students. I am always happy to meet with students to pursue the fine art of discussing and analyzing how words work.
-Mr. Kidd
Norfolk Academy English Department Honor Statement
We begin by assuming that all students at Norfolk Academy are familiar with the general principles set forth in the Honor Code. Quite simply, the basis for the community we hope to create is eroded when anyone engages in lying, cheating, or stealing. The Honor System does not exist to keep a watchful eye over each member of the community, but rather to allow each of us to function in an atmosphere of mutual trust and relative freedom. The purpose of this departmental Honor Statement is to set forth specifically some areas of academic honesty that apply especially to work done for English classes. The first of these regards failure to read an assigned book or story; the second, plagiarism. It is obviously dishonest to write or present a report on a work that has not been read. For this reason, all of your work for this course should be fully pledged. The pledge assures us that the literary work assigned was read in its entirety. A word of further explanation is important here. We recognize the desire of many students, especially those at the upper levels, to study critical essays on or introductions to books before writing or reporting on them. We frequently encourage the use of such aids because we want to enable you to begin work in literary research and to familiarize yourselves with excellent critical writing. It is, however, dishonest to use such aids as a means of avoiding development of your own critical and creative faculties as you respond to literature. We thus discourage the use of secondary sources or introductions instead of your own ideas. Further, the use of Notes (such as Cliff's or Spark Notes) instead of reading the novel, play, or whatever is obviously dishonest and constitutes an honor offense. The second area of dishonesty concerns plagiarism, one of the most serious violations of academic integrity. Plagiarism is saying or writing as one's own words or thoughts the words or ideas of another. This means that copying verbatim from any source without properly quoting and saying from whom the quotation was borrowed is dishonest. More difficult to realize about plagiarism, however, is that borrowing ideas is also dishonest. You need to be aware of your obligation to cite with care the sources of all ideas, not just facts. All students should remember to cite the author and the book from which any words or ideas have been borrowed. Because handling the ideas of another with integrity is an acquired skill, we will spend considerable time working to help you acquire that skill. We understand that you will make mistakes as you learn to use footnotes and other methods of citing sources; right now, it would be better to err on the side of quoting too often or footnoting too frequently. While the procedures you learn in the English classroom may not apply in exact detail to other classes, the principle of never borrowing words or ideas without giving some credit applies to all work that you do for any class. Because the temptation to lie, cheat, or steal often stems from a lack of preparation, the best defense against dishonorable actions is thoughtful preparation. Abiding by the letter and the spirit of the Honor System centers on accepting personal responsibility for your actions and never engaging in fraud or deception. To this end, you should note the following expectations:
• All written homework should be your own. (While it's all right occasionally to consult with others if you're temporarily “stuck” on a particular question, random or wholesale copying of answers is obviously an honor offense.)
• The pledge assures us that the work you hand in is your own.
• On quizzes, tests, and examinations, the pledge assures us that you did not share any information either within or outside the classroom.
• Failure to sign the pledge does not excuse you from the provisions of this honor statement.
We trust you to use your own best judgment. Please consult your English teacher if you need further advice or have specific questions.
Honor Pledge: I have acted honorably in completing this assignment.
