Eng 206--16-20: American Literature, 1860s-Present
Spring 1999
MW 11-11:50 Hibbs 303, plus Friday breakout
sections
Breakout sections: #16: F 11am Hibbs 303 #17: F 1pm BUS
1116B #18: F 1pm Hibbs 405 #19: F 1pm BUS 1107
#20: F noon Hibbs 327
Lecturer: Terry Oggel
Office: 348 Hibbs Phone: 828-1331 Office hours: 10-11am M&W and by appm't Homepage: http://saturn.vcu.edu/~toggel e-mail: toggel@vcu.edu
Teaching Assistants:
Gretchen Comba Office: Hibbs 408f Phone: 828-1331
Office Hours:
Kristen Hubbard Office: Hibbs 408f
Phone: 828-1331 Office Hours:
NOTICE: The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires Virginia Commonwealth University to provide a "reasonable accommodation" to any individual who advises us of a physical or mental disability. If you have a physical or mental limitation that requires an accommodation or an academic adjustment, please arrange a meeting with me at your earliest convenience.
Texts
Perkins and Perkins, eds. The American Tradition in Literature,
Vol. II. Ninth Edition. McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Morrison, Toni. Tar Baby. 1981.
Objectives
This course aims to introduce the student to the
major trends of American literature since the Civil War within their historical
and intellectual contexts by studying representative works and writers
of the period.
Requirements
Course policy is that class attendance is required; quality of coursework will suffer if classes are missed. Oral participation in class discussions is encouraged, and to that end this course is specially designed to include smaller group ("breakout") sections (25 students each) for the third meeting of the week in order to encourage active participation. During these meetings, therefore, discussion will be expected. Class participation showing preparation and thought will be counted favorably; no class participation or weak participation (without adequate preparation and thought) will be counted negatively. Missed classes should be explained to instructors before-hand when possible and should be accounted for promptly afterwards in all cases.
All assigned work is to be read en toto by the day it is assigned (this is related to the unannounced quizzes, explained below). Besides the readings specifically assigned on the course outline, other sections should be considered as required at the appropriate times: "An Age of Expansion: 1865-1915," pp. 1-9; "Modern American Literature 1915-1945," pp. 873-880; and "Approaching a Millennium: 1945 to the Present," pp. 1325-1336. In addition, all headnotes to authors listed on the course outline are required reading.
Graded work will include two announced quizzes, an indefinite number of unannounced quizzes, a midterm exam, a writing project (see below), a comprehensive final, and class participation (see above). The announced quizzes (20 mins. each) will be composed of a short answer section (c. 40%) and an "essay" (really, a paragraph) section (c. 60%); the unannounced quizzes will be very brief (5 minutes), testing reading and basic comprehension; the midterm and the final will be composed of a short answer section (c.25%), a short essay on the course-enhancement computer exercise (explained below), (c.30%) and a long essay section (c.45%).
For the course grade, the announced quizzes will count 10% each; the aggregate of the unannounced quizzes will count 15%; the midterm (20%) and the paper (20%) will count less heavily than the comprehensive final (25%). All these values will be modified somewhat by class discussion, which will be counted at 5-10%. The periods before both exams include reviews to help you prepare.
The writing project will be a short (7-9 pp.) critical or analytical paper (research paper is also acceptable) which investigates --any work in our period which is not a required assignment on the course outline, or --a work which is on the course outline, if you submit the paper before the day that that work is discussed.
Works should be selected from the textbook. We recommend that you work with your breakout section instructor to develop an approved thesis statement and brief outline by 26 March, and the course outline includes appropriate dates for this process (if you follow this advice, please submit a copy of the thesis statement and outline for us to keep, so we know what we've approved for you to do). The paper is due 9 April. A portion of the period on 15 March has been set aside to discuss this writing project in detail. Papers must follow MLA style (which includes proper documentation form, line spacing, margins, etc.) and be typed or printed off. Papers will be marked for both content and form (grammar, mechanics, composition, format).
There will be two course-enhancement computer projects. They will take about an hour each to work through at the workstation after you have read the works in the textbook first. These projects will be explained in detail in class on 10 February. Access to these projects, which are on the WWW, will be at workstations in Hibbs and in the basement of the library. The first will be on the war poetry of Walt Whitman ("Beat! Beat! Drums!" in our text, p. 79) and Stephen Crane ("Do Not Weep...," p. 790). The second project will be on the poem "Raleigh Was Right" by William Carlos Williams (p. 1080). One of the questions on the midterm exam will be on the first of these computer projects, so you will have about 3 weeks to complete the exercise at the workstation. One of the questions on the final exam will be on the second of these projects.
As a policy, missed work cannot be made up.
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