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Thomas Cole, Voyage of Life:  Youth		    English 771:
   The Romantic Period
   in American Literature
   ____________________

    W 6:30-9:20 pm, Grubbs Hall 312

    Instructor:  Dr. K. Nichols
    Office:  Grubbs Hall 450
    Office Hours:  MWF 12:00-2:00;
    TTh 10:00-10:50; or by apppointment
    E-mail:  knichols@pittstate.edu
 



Class Web Pages: 
The class syllabus and research/writing assignments can be accessed online in the following ways:

The assumption is that the internet assignments will be done in the Computer Lab downstairs in Grubbs Hall 101 or elsewhere on campus, although you can probably do some of the assignments on your personal computer if you wish.

Some links go to my other web pages, which you can recognize by checking at the bottom of the page for my email address.  If you find defunct links on my pages, I'd appreciate it if you would notify me.  Other links go to pages created by others.  If their links do not work or their pages have been removed, there is nothing I can do about it (unfortunately).

Course Description:
We will study a number of key authors, texts, ideas, modes, and styles associated with the Romantic period in American literature (about 1820-1870), a period also known as the "American Renaissance."   The focus will be on gothic/historical romance, transcendental nature-writing, and abolitionist literature, but some attention will be paid to the social/historical/cultural contexts (frontier expansionism, Hudson River art, the Women's Movement, slavery, spiritualism, Utopian communities, etc.).  By the end of the course, students should feel competent to answer in some detail and with some sophistication "What is American Romanticism?" and "Why does it matter?"

Texts:
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (Bantam)
Edgar Allen Poe, Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe (ss)
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (Bantam)
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings (Bantam)
Emily Dickinson, Final Harvest (Little, Brown)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (Norton)
Ward, ed. Great Short Stories by American Women (Dover) ["Life in Iron Mills" & ""Transcendental Wild  Oats"]
Herman Melville, Bartleby and Benito Cereno (Dover)
Gates, ed.  Classic Slave Narratives (NAL)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (Signet)

Note:  There will also be a number of short stories and essays that can be found online (check the links on the "Reading Schedules") or in a major American Literature anthology.  If you are short on money, some of the texts listed above can also be found online or in a major American Literature anthology.

Grading :
3 take-home essay exams  (15 % each; total 45 % of final grade)
Written online research report (15 %) and Oral presentation (10%).  More information here.
Documented literary analysis paper (30 %).  More information here.

Note: All major assignments must be completed to pass the course.

Absence Policy:
Since each class period we meet is equivalent to three class periods,  regular attendance is required and crucial. Everyone has one pre-excused absence for those difficult times in life that interfere with class attendance, so you do not need to clear absences with me. However, 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 two classes may be dropped from the roster for "excessive absences."

Late Paper/Exam Policy:  
Papers and take-home exams are generally due the week of the designated due date. If you live out-of-town, you may e-mail them to me at knichols@pittstate.edu, but make sure they are sent in a format that is equivalent to a typed paper. Late papers will be graded down one letter grade for each day they are late. Oral presentations must be given on the assigned day unless you get special permission from me to change the day.

Plagiarism Policy:
Academic honesty is expected of all students. I support the stated policies of the University and the English Department on penalties for plagiarism. Passing off anyone else's work (whether your roommate's or a published article) as your own may result in an F for that paper or an F for the course. Since students are here to learn, I am happy to help anyone who is wants to know how to avoid plagiarism.




Writing Assignments


Online Research Reports/Oral Presentations--see "Reading Schedule" for individual due dates.

Each student will select one of the topics listed here and research the cluster of online links for that topic.  (This will take time, so don't put it off until the last minute.)  You will then give this information to the class in a 15-20 minute oral presentation and write it up in a 5-page report (typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins).  Your task is to synthesize and organize the material into a well-focused presentation and report. 

For the oral presentation, do not read your paper to the class.  Instead, select out some of the most important information that will assist your classmates in understanding more about certain authors or literary modes or key ideas we are studying in class.  In effect, you will be the teacher for the day; your audience is your classmates (not the instructor).  Consider supplementing the class presentation with short handouts (maybe a list of the key points you will make or of where they can find examples in the literature we are studying) and/or with visuals (powerpoint, photocopied, etc.)  However you do it, remember to provide some details and examples that pertain to our literary studies.  You should include some of the literary examples your online sources use, but you may also add your own literary examples from the texts we are studying in class.  End your oral presentation with a discussion question (based on your material presented) for the class to consider.  Oral presentations must be given on the day they are due unless you have explicit permission from your instructor for an alternate day.

For the written report, you should draw a number of conclusions about the online material you researched and then organize your paper around those conclusions.  To keep the report well-focused, you need to develop one overall conclusion that will function as your thesis and relate together the various sub-conclusions you have drawn.  (That thesis-conclusion will appear at the end of your introduction and at the beginning of your conclusion, and will be developed throughout the paper as you cover your sub-conclusions.)  Organize that material in the "order of climax"--moving from preliminary introductory information (that might include some pertinent background or definitions) to your most important and/or significant material near the end of the report.  A good portion of the material included will be summary/paraphrase (some short quotations are acceptable, but keep them short), but make sure you have also  included helpful details and examples from your sources.  At least the introduction and the conclusion should relate this information to the literature of the Romantic Period in some way, but it would be helpful if the body of the paper also contained some literary examples/connections (you may add some of your own, if you wish). 

To keep the documentation as simple and unobtrusive as possible, I suggest you use "Numbered List of References" style rather than MLA style.  (Online sources often do not have convenient "authors" listed or page numbers indicated--which is problematic with MLA style.)   Instead, on a separate page, list the online address (the URL--the "http://") for each source, and then number the sources (1 through 10, for instance).  Insert that number (in parenthesis) into the main text after your paraphrased/summarized/quoted material.

Note:  To avoid plagiarism, remember that summaries/paraphrases must be in language very different than your source's language and that quotations must be exactly the same as the source's language (and in quotation marks).

 

Documented Literary Analysis Paper--due end of semester

Select one of the following topics and two scholarly articles (online or in the library) related to your topic.  Then,  write a literary analysis paper comparing/contrasting at least two major writers/texts from our syllabus.  The text of the paper should be 9-11 pages long  (typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins), with MLA in-text citation and Works Cited page.

Topics:  Remember that a topic is not a thesis for a paper.  You will need to draw some conclusions about your selected topic.   One overall conclusion (that ties together your various sub-conclusions) will be your thesis.  Your proofs or support (details and examples) as you develop your thesis throughout the paper will come directly from the selected literary texts. 

Note:  I'm open to variations on these topics, but get my permission before you launch off in new directions.

The transcendental self vs the gothic self
The light and dark heroine convention
Dickinson (or Hawthorne) as a critique of Transcendentalism (Emerson or Thoreau)
Romantic imagery of  transformation, transcendence, etc.
Romantic nature imagery (water or plants or animals or light, etc.)
The rhetoric of feeling and sympathy (persuasive language)
Celibacy and Sexuality
The Romantic hero
The meaning of "nature"
The theory of correspondences
Women in Female Gothic vs Male Gothic
Racial politics in Romantic (or Gothic) Literature
Sexual politics in Romantic (or Gothic) Literature.
Class politics in Romantic (or Gothic) Literature.
Captivity vs freedom
Boundaries, border crossings, boundlessness
National Identity (What is an American?)
Journeys/traveling; Life as a journey, etc.  (quest?)--the traveler as Romantic ideal?
Critiques of 19th Century Society
The uses of settings (natural and otherwise)
Ecstasy and other mystical/spiritual states
Nature vs civilization
Spiritual Allegories (or other kind of allegory)
The discovered or constructed self (or speaker) in romantic autobiography
Circularity vs linearity (space vs time)
The role of the Romantic (literary) artist
Romantic critiques of Calvinism (or Enlightenment values)
Romantic language of the senses: visual, auditory (or other sense?)

In this paper you will be developing your own thesis/argument, but it must be combined with--or better yet, in dialogue with--the arguments advanced in the scholarly articles.  Combining the two while advancing your own argument is the challenge.  For instance,

Either way, make sure you weave your secondary sources (the scholarly articles) smoothly and effectively into the argument you are developing in your paper.  The details and examples that support and develop your thesis should come mainly from your primary sources (the literary texts you are discussing). Remember to discuss/analyze/explain your examples.



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     Comments/suggestions: knichols@pittstate.edu                      Posted:  1-15-02                      Background by: www.graphicsbyrhiannon.com