Course Syllabus

Description:

“What is an American?” queried the French-American writer De Crevecoeur in 1781 as he contemplated the emerging nation called the United States of America. In today's trans-national world, that question should be expanded to include the other inter-related cultures and nations of the western hemisphere. We will explore definitions of American identity by studying a variety of literary texts from South, Central, and North America (including the Caribbean and Canada) on topics such as Old and New World encounters, slavery, post-colonialism, literary modernism, and magical realism.

Texts:

• Jorge Amada, The War of the Saints (Brazil)
• Isabel Allende, Of Love and Shadows (Chile)
• Derek Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays (St. Lucia)
• Juan Rulfo, Pedro Paramo (Mexico)
• Carlos Fuentes, Aura (Mexico)
• William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses (U.S.)
• Thomas King, Medicine River (Canada)

Plus online readings: stories by Borges, Cortazar, Viramontes, Marquez, O'Connor, Atwood, and others; poetry by Mistral, Neruda, Walcott, Ginsberg, and others; prose nonfiction by Paz, Anzaldua, and Kingston. See online Reading Schedule. Bringing printed copies to class will facilitate class discussions.

Grading Policy:

• 3 exams (17% each)
• 1 shorter paper (17%). Online directions.
• 1 longer paper (34%). Online directions.

All major assignments must be completed to pass the course.

You may e-mail papers to me at knichols@pittstate.edu, but make sure they are attached as a .doc file.

Late Work Policy

Late papers will be graded down one letter grade for each day they are late.

Missed exams must be made up just as soon as possible. See me immediately when you return to class.

Absence Policy:

Regular attendance is required. Everyone has four pre-excused absences for those difficult times in life that interfere with class attendance, so you do not need to clear absences with me, but it is a good idea to check with me (or a classmate) to make sure an assignment was not changed while you were gone.

Students who miss more than four classes may be dropped from the roster for "excessive absences."

Plagiarism Policy:

I strongly support the policies of the English Department and the University on plagiarism. Undocumented use of someone else's material (including "borrowing" their language or their ideas) will result in an F on the paper or for the course--or worse for the most egregious cases.

See me if you have questions about what is or is not plagiarism. I'm always happy to help students who make a good-faith effort to do things right.

Course Web Pages:

You can quickly access our online syllabus by typing in one of the following addresses:

• Engl 555-01 Course Syllabus: faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/americas.html.
• Engl 555-01 Reading Schedule: faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/americas2.html.
• Dr. Nichols' Home Page:
  members.cox.net/academia/nichols.html.

You can also access my home page (which links to all my web pages) by going to the PSU home page and then typing "English Department Home Page" in the "PSU Search" box. Click on the "Faculty" list and locate my name--which is linked to my home page.