"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.

I want to achieve it through not dying." 

  (Woody Allen)

Images: (Top) Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Pynchon, F. Scott Fitzgerald; (Middle) Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo; (Bottom) Joyce Carol Oates, Ralph Elison, William Faulkner.

Course Description

This course will examine twentieth century American fiction in scope and in depth. We will begin in the first term with turn-of-the-century naturalist novels by Kate Chopin and Frank Norris to set some foundations for the literature of the century. The rest of the term will cover a range of modernist work: from the 1920s expatriate modernism of Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway to the Harlem Renaissance writing of Zora Neale Hurston. The second term begins with one of the century’s most important authors, William Faulkner, before turning to a range of contemporary writers. We will explore the postmodern suburbia of Don DeLillo’s White Noise and the alternative, downtown scenes of Audre Lorde’s Zami. We enter the ruins of the Twin Towers and other contemporary traumas in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and return to the century’s greatest trauma, the Holocaust, in graphic novelist Art Spiegelman’s Maus. Throughout the course, we will evaluate works in both their social and artistic context, giving attention to a range of themes: violence and the American Dream; the allures of materialism and spiritualism; the cult of the individual and rise of identity politics; the American landscape and expatriation; and American attitudes towards race, class, and gender.

Texts

Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Frank Norris, McTeague
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Gertrude Stein, Selected Writings
Zora Neal Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

William Faulkner, Light in August
Don DeLillo, White Noise
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Art Spiegelman, Maus

Procedure, Assignments and Workload

I want this class to be a meaningful learning process for both you and me.   Your participation is valued and is essential for the kind of classroom I intend this to be.   Though this class will involve some lecturing to introduce topics, I hope that much of our time will be spent on fruitful discussion and analysis of the assigned texts.   In order to participate fully I expect you to do a number of things:

•  Attend class regularly, having completed the reading and any homework questions and being ready to participate in discussions.

•  Read in a thorough and active way: i.e. marking up your text and taking notes—thinking about what is important, intriguing, odd, or worthwhile for you.   Please bring your questions and observations to class on a regular basis

•  Keep a class journal. This final item is not a requirement but a useful suggestion.   Recording your honest responses to texts as you're reading them is a great method for generating questions and ideas, keeping track of material for exams, finding essay and dossier topics, and keeping yourself involved with the work.

You should allot 8 hours a week for work in this class.   Those (like me) who are not fast readers may need more time than this to complete the readings.

Please feel free to see me anytime during office hours, or make an appointment for another time if these don't work for you.

*Clich here for Essay Assignment

Mark Breakdown

First term

First term dossiers (@2) or essay = 30%
Mid-term test = 15%
Participation (Message Board Posts) = 15%
December exam = 40%

*Click here for Grading Scale and Criteria

Essays

All graded work (essays and dossiers) must adhere to the following guidelines:

· Essays must be typed or word-processed, double spaced, with a one inch margin on both sides and at the top and bottom of the page. All pages should be numbered. Staple or paper clip pages together. Your title and name should appear on a separate title page—and not on each page. Use as standard size font—Times Roman 12 point is a good choice (you do not want a font much bigger or much smaller). Please avoid fancy graphics or distracting fonts.

· Essays are due in class on the assigned date. If you are unable to be in class that day, make an arrangement with me at least 24 hours in advance. Late assignments will receive a penalty of –5% for the first day late, and then –10% for up to one week late. After a week I will not accept assignments.

· Essays must meet university-level standards for basic grammar, mechanics, sentence structure, and formatting. To meet this standard essays can have no more than 3 errors of any type per page. Papers that do not live up to this standard will receive a full grade (10%) deduction. Papers considerably below this standard may not receive a passing grade.
.
Plagiarism

Plagiarism means taking another person's words or ideas as your own without properly acknowledging their source.   This can include anything from buying an essay, downloading one off the Internet, copying sentences or phrases from an unacknowledged source (cutting and pasting lines from internet sites), or using someone else's ideas (whether in direct quotation or paraphrase) without giving them credit.   Plagiarism is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Cases of plagiarism will be reported to the relevant dean's office and students will face the following penalties: First offence: zero on the assignment and offence noted on the student's academic file; second offence: zero in the course, and possible discontinuation from CBU; third offence: discontinuation from CBU .   Avoid unintentional plagiarism by making sure you keep careful record of any ideas or text you've borrowed from other sources. When working with text on the Internet, always cut and paste the URL at the top of your page so you'll be able to easily refer back and cite your source.

(On a related topic: Sparks Notes and similar on-line resources are not suitable sources for research for essays or dossiers. Read them if you want, but please do not cite them in your papers.)

ENGLISH 351 FIRST SEMESTER CALENDAR

The following is a general syllabus which indicates daily topics and readings. While some readings may change slightly based on our progress, you should plan to read at least all of the following:

ENGLISH 351 SECOND SEMESTER CALENDAR (TBA)

The following is a general syllabus which indicates daily topics and readings. While some readings may change slightly based on our progress, you should plan to read at least all of the following:

Handouts and Resources

MODERN AMERICAN FICTION SECOND TERM CALENDAR

The Writing Process

Elements of fiction