English 8191 Syllabus |
Course OverviewThis class will provide graduate students with opportunities to engage in advanced research in topics in American literature. ObjectivesOver the semester, I expect students to achieve the following goals:
ExpectationsIn order to accomplish this goal, students must
Grade Breakdown:
Your grade will depend primarily on your written work and the understanding of the material that you convey through that work. A command of standard written English and the ability to present an argument will also contribute to the determination of your grade. Late assignments will receive a deduction of 1/3 of a letter grade for each business day that they are late. Students who miss exams may not make them up without a valid excuse for the absence. Valid excuses include health emergencies and family crises. If students anticipate missing an exam or a paper deadline for a valid reason and consult with me in advance, I can consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Academic dishonesty tarnishes the reputation of the University of Minnesota Duluth and discredits the accomplishments of its students. Because the university is committed to providing students every possible opportunity to grow in mind and spirit, it must insist on an environment of trust, honesty, and fairness. Consequently, all members of the academic community must regard any act of academic dishonesty as a serious offense. In keeping with this ideal, this course will adhere to UMD's Student Academic Integrity Policy, which is available online at "http://www.d.umn.edu/conduct/integrity/". This policy sanctions students engaging in academic dishonesty with penalties up to and including expulsion from the university for repeat offenders. Individuals who have any disability, either permanent or temporary, which might influence their capacity to perform in this class, should inform me at the start of the semester. I can make special adaptations of teaching methods, assignments, materials, or testing as required to provide for equitable participation in the course. The Disability Resources Center is also available to assist students with disabilities. It is located in 258 Kirby Student Center and on the web at "http://www.d.umn.edu/access/". Required TextsCarver, Raymond. What We Talk about When We Talk about Love. New York: Knopf, Doubleday, 1989. Print. Dickey, James. Deliverance. 1970. New York: Random House, 1994. Print. Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. 1930. New York: Knopf, Doubleday, 1991. Print. Haruf, Kent. Plainsong. New York: Knopf, Doubleday, 2000. Print. Hurston, Zora Neale. Mules and Men. 1935. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Print. Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs. 1896. New York: Knopf, Doubleday, 1954. Print. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin, 1986. Print. Supplementary TextsAllen, Paula Gunn. "Special Problems in Teaching Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony." American Indian Quarterly 23.4 (Fall 1999): 379-86. Print. Brodhead, Richard. Cultures of Letters: Scenes of Reading and Writing in Nineteenth-Century America. Chicago: U. of Chicago P., 1993. Print. Campbell, Donna. Resisting Regionalism: Gender and Naturalism in American Fiction, 18850-1915. Athens: Ohio U. P., 1997. Chase, Richard. The American Novel and Its Tradition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. P., 1957. Print. Coltelli, Laura. Winged Words: American Indian Writers Speak. Lincoln, NE: U. of Nebraska P., 1990. Print. Evans, Brad. Before Cultures: The Ethnographic Imagination of American Literature, 1865-1920. Chicago: U. of Chicago P., 2005. Print. Fetterly, Judith and Marjorie Pryse. Writing out of Place: Regionalism, Women, and American Literary Culture. Champaign: U. of Illinois P., 2005. Print. Folks, Jeffrey. "The Kindness of Strangers: The Fiction of Kent Haruf." Modern Age 51.2 (Spring 2009): 123-133. Print. Gates, Henry Louis and Kwame Anthony Appiah, eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad, 1993. Print. Hardwig, Bill. Upon Provincialism: Southern Literature and National Periodical Culture, 1870-1900. Charlottesville, VA: U. of Virginia P., 2013. Print. Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Champaign: U. of Illinois P., 1977. Print. Jehlen, Myra. Class and Character in Faulkner's South. New York: Columbia U. P., 1997. Print. Meisenhelder, Susan Edwards. Hitting a Straight Stick with a Crooked Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston. Tuscaloosa: U. of Alabama P., 1999. Print. Kaplan, Amy. "Nation, Region, and Empire." The Columbia History of the American Novel. Ed. Emory Elliott. New York: Columbia U. P., 1991. 240-266. Print. Minter, David. William Faulkner: His Life and Work. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. P., 1980. Print. Nesset, Kirk. The Stories of Raymond Carver: A Critical Study. Athens: Ohio U. P., 1995. Print. Thesing, William B. and Theda Wrede, eds. The Way We Read James Dickey: Critical Approaches for the Twenty-First Century. Columbia, SC: U. of South Carolina P., 2009. Print. |
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John D. Schwetman 21 January 2015 |