ENGLISH 521.001

AMERICAN MODERNITIES

COURSE SYLLABUS: FALL 2010

Instructor: Dr. Karen Roggenkamp

Office Location: HL 315

Office Hours: M 1-3, W 11-12

Office Phone: 903-886-5260

University Email Address: karen.roggenkamp@tamuc.edu

COURSE INFORMATION                                                                                                   

Course Description:

Why does art matter? What is “the real thing” in life and in expression? How does one convey authentic experience‖ to reading audiences—particularly ones jaded by a seemingly fragmented society? And how does one achieve artistry within a literary culture increasingly dominated by commercialism and the privileging of appearance over reality?

Here are but a sampling of the loaded questions American writers posed in the “Modernist Period” (roughly defined as 1910-1945). Spinning out of the contexts of World War I and working through decades of decadence and depression toward the next World War, this period witnessed an incredibly rich and diverse flourishing of literary expression. In this graduate seminar, we’ll focus on novels, literary nonfiction, and poetry to investigate how a range of authors created—sometimes quite self-consciously—a culture of modernity. As a thematic touchstone for the course, we’ll return again and again to one of the most pressing questions the modernists asked: What is “reality,” and can one convey “reality” in art?

Student Learning Outcomes:

Students in this course should be able to

▪ Understand some of the central complexities, contradictions, and conventions of the American

  modernist period;

▪ Develop an ability to read, interpret, and discuss individual texts of the era;

▪ Improve their ability to produce high-quality written work using professional scholarly resources.

Materials (required books):

The following works are available at university bookstores. You may also obtain them from

other sources or use editions other than the ones I have ordered through the bookstore.

▪ James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

▪ Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio

▪ John Dos Passos, The Big Money

▪ T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland

▪ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

▪ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

▪ Nella Larsen, Quicksand

▪ Alain Locke, The New Negro

▪ Edna St. Vincent Millay, Selected Poetry

▪ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

▪ Edith Wharton, House of Mirth

▪ Additional readings provided through eCollege

COURSE REQUIREMENTS                                                                                                                       

Each week you will work on various assignments, readings, and discussions designed to assist

you in achieving the outcomes for the course.

In brief, this course will be graded on:

Participation                                        15% of course grade
Weekly discussion questions              20% of course grade
Written critical article review              20% of course grade
Article presentation in class                10% of course grade
Research paper                                  35% of course grade
                                                 Total 100%

·         Participation: I will put grades in the online gradebook three times during the semester as an assessment of how actively you are participating in class discussion.  This is worth 15% of your overall grade.

·         Weekly discussion questions: Beginning next week (and with a few exceptions, as noted in the syllabus), I will be asking you to bring to class with you TWO typed-out discussion questions, based on the night’s reading assignment.  These will help guide the night’s class discussion.  Together, these weekly discussion questions will make up 20% of your overall grade.

·         Critical article: Each student will be asked to locate and read a full-length (e.g. about 20-25 pages) critical article on one text during the semester.  When it is your turn, you will be responsible for orally summarizing that article’s thesis, main points, supporting arguments, etc. in class (it helps a great deal to supply a short hand-out with this information for your class members).  That article presentation is worth 10% of your overall grade.  In addition, you will need to write a 3-4 page (double-spaced) review and analysis of the article.  Again, what is its argument?  How successful was the author in making his/her argument?  Do you find it convincing?  Why or why not?  What are the article’s strengths and weaknesses?  The written critical article review is worth 20% of your overall grade.  (Note: this portion of the grade requires that you access university databases and journals, so you will want to get started on it right away!  You may also need to request some articles via Interlibrary Loan, which can take some time.  If you do not understand how the library’s databases work and/or have never used a source like the MLA International Bibliography to search for academic articles, a visit to the reference librarians at Gee Library is in order.  It’s your responsibility as graduate students to know the basics of how to do academic research.)   

·         Research paper: Your major written work is a research-based original paper, based on or inspired by anything we read this semester or any other aspect of American modernist literature (about 13-15 pages).  I will be looking for the skillful and sophisticated incorporation of secondary sources/critical theories in the construction of your thesis.  I’ll be asking for a proposal and your thesis several weeks before the paper is due, so you’ll want to be thinking about this project right from the start.  Remember, it’s a research paper, and I’ll be expecting you to dig into relevant scholarship about your topic—and obviously Wikipedia is NOT “relevant scholarship.”  Get to the library.  Get into the scholarly databases.  This paper is worth 35% of your overall grade.

The department of Literature and Languages does not, as a rule, allow an Incomplete (X) on

the transcript; incompletes are only awarded under extraordinary circumstances, pending

Department Head and Dean approval. If personal issues or conflicts arise that lead to your

missing a substantial amount of class, you will want to consider withdrawing from the class early

on.

As a rough guideline for what A-F grades mean, an A is awarded for truly outstanding work, a B

denotes work significantly above the level necessary to meet basic requirements, a C is for work

that meets basic requirements in every way, a D is given for work that meets only some of the

requirements yet is still deserving of minimal credit, and an F results if work is not completed or

if it fails to meet the requirements of the assignment and/or course. I will provide detailed

information about paper evaluation at the time of those assignments.

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS                                                                                                

This course will be supplemented using eCollege, the Learning Management System used by

tamuc. To get started with the course, go to: https://leo.tamucommerce.

edu/login.aspx. You will need your CWID and password to log in to the course. If

you do not know your CWID or have forgotten your password, contact Technology Services at

903-468-6000 or helpdesk@tamuc.edu.

To access eCollege, you will need a computer with internet access (high speed recommended,

not dial-up), and a word processor equipped with Microsoft Word. Our campus is optimized to

work in a Microsoft Windows environment. This mean ours courses work best if you are using a

Windows operating system (XP or newer) and a recent version of Microsoft Internet Explorer

(6.0, 7.0, 8.0). Your courses will also work with Macintosh OS x along with a recent version of

Safari 2.0 or better. Along with Internet Explorer and Safari, eCollege also supports the Firefox

browser (3.0) on both Windows and Mac operating systems.

COURSE AND UNIVERSITY PROCEDURES/POLICIES                                                            

▪ You will have two major pieces of writing due. Information about each paper is forthcoming. I

will not grant extensions on papers unless merited by truly exceptional circumstances. Late

work will only be accepted by prior arrangement between us and with documented proof of your

inability to complete the assignment on time due to extenuating circumstances (e.g. death in the

IMMEDIATE family, truly severe illness, etc.). Technology problems are not an excuse for a late

paper—make sure you submit your work in time to allow for any problems accessing the Dropbox, eCollege, etc.

▪ Your attendance in class is crucial, and a significant portion of your grade for this course will

be based not only on attending class but on participating as well. According to the TAMUCommerce student handbook, “students are expected to be present for all class meetings of any course for which they are enrolled.” I will keep attendance, and you can expect your grade to be docked for more than one unexcused absence. By departmental policy, students are permitted to make up work for excused absences—examples of excusable absences may

include participation in a required or authorized university activity or a death in the immediate

family. If you know you are going to be absent for any reason (e.g. university activity), please

make arrangements with me in advance.

▪ Instructors in the Department of Literature and Languages do not tolerate plagiarism or other

forms of academic dishonesty, and acts of plagiarism can lead to immediate failure of the

assignment and/or course. Instructors uphold and support the highest academic standards, and

students are expected to do likewise. Penalties for students guilty of academic dishonesty

include disciplinary probation, suspension, and expulsion (Texas A&M University—Commerce

Code of Student Conduct 5.b[1,2,3]). Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to

cutting and pasting information directly from online sources, copying material from books

without providing source documentation, taking essays wholesale from online sources, having

someone else write a paper for you, and turning in work that you have already submitted for

another class.

▪ All students enrolled at the University must follow the tenets of common decency and

acceptable behavior conducive to a positive learning environment. Standards of decency and

acceptable behavior extend to the use of cell phones and instant messaging—please turn them

off in the classroom unless you are awaiting a real emergency call for some reason.

Additionally, please note that I enforce standards of inclusiveness in my classes. What that

means is that I will not tolerate discrimination and disrespect in regard to race, color, creed,

religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran

status, or sexual orientation.

▪ The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides

comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this

legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that

provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you have a disability requiring an

accommodation, please contact: Office of Student Disability Resources and Services, Texas

A&M University-Commerce, Gee Library 132, Phone (903) 886-5150 or (903) 886-5835, Fax

(903) 468-8148, StudentDisabilityServices@tamuc.edu.

▪ You are responsible for reading and understanding all the information on this syllabus, as well

as on any additional materials I distribute during the course.

COURSE OUTLINE / CALENDAR                                                                                                 

English 521 Schedule of Assignments and Readings

8/30  (Week 1): What is modernism? And why?  

­ Introduction to course

9/6  (Week 2): LABOR DAY, NO CLASS

9/13  (Week 3): On the Cusp of Modernism

­ Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (1905)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

(Also two critical article presentations will be given this night—see sign-up sheet)

 9/20  (Week 4): Manifestos of High Modernism

­ T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland (1922)
­ Edna St. Vincent Millay, Selected Poems

­   “Renascence” (3-9)

­   “Witch-Wife” (35)

­   “Blight” (36-37)

­   Sonnets I, II, III, IV, V (40-44)

­   “Recuerdo” (50)

­   “The Penitent” (61)

­   Sonnets I, II, III, IV (69-72)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

(Also two critical article presentations)

9/27  (Week 5): Life in a Northern Town

­ Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio (1919)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

(Also one critical article presentation)

10/4  (Week 6): The Eyes are Watching You

­ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

(Also two critical article presentations)

10/11  (Week 7): “My Mother is a Fish”

­ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

10/18  (Week 8): Discourses of “Renaissance”

­ Read “The Harlem Renaissance as History, Memory, and Myth,” from The Harlem Renaissance: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Jeffrey B. Ferguson (Boston: Bedford, 2003).  Available in “Doc Sharing” portion of eCollege.

­ Selections from Alain Locke, The New Negro (1925). Please read at least the following:

▫ Introduction (ix-xxiii)

▫ Foreword (xxv-xxvii)

▫ “The New Negro,” Alain Locke (3-16)

▫ “The City of Refuge,” Rudolph Fisher (57-74)

▫ “Carma,” Jean Toomer (96-98)

▫ “Fern,” Jean Toomer (99-104)

▫ “Spunk,” Zora Neale Hurston (105-111)

▫ All poems by Countee Cullen (129-133)

▫ All poems by Claude McKay (133-135)

▫ All poems by Langston Hughes (141-145)`

▫ “Harlem: The Culture Capital,” James Weldon Johnson (301-311)

▫ “The Task of Negro Womanhood,” Elise Johnson McDougald (369-382)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

(Also one critical article presentation)

10/25  (Week 9): Race, Class, and Gender

­ Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

(Also one critical article presentation)

11/1  (Week 10): The Great Divide

­ John Dos Passos, The Big Money (1936)

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

(Also two critical article presentations)

11/8  (Week 11): The Power and Poison of Popularity, part 1

­ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Please read chapters 1-18

­ Email me a 300-500 word proposal, including clear thesis, for research paper

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

11/15  (Week 12): The Power and Poison of Popularity, part 2

­ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. Please read chapters 19-30

(No discussion questions required this week!)

(Also two critical article presentations)

11/22  (Week 13): We are the People

­ In-class viewing of John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

(No discussion questions required this week!)

(Also one critical article presentation)

11/29  (Week 14): “Totally Actual,” part 1

­ James Agee and Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1939). Please

read pages ix –193

­ Two discussion questions, typed out and brought to class

12/6  (Week 15): “Totally Actual,” part 2

­ James Agee and Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Please read pages 197 – 416

(No discussion questions required this week!)

(Also two critical article presentations)

RESEARCH PAPER DUE IN DROPBOX ON MONDAY DECEMBER 13th BY MIDNIGHT