English 103A Syllabus (Ryan Boyd, Summer 2008, Session A)

Love, Death, and Money

MTWR, 3:30-4:35 p.m., Girvetz 1119

Instructor: Ryan Boyd (ryan.a.boyd@gmail.com)

Office & Office Hours: Java Jones (IV), Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-3 p.m.

[edit] Course Description:

This six-week course will consider the rise of a modern, independent American literary tradition vis-a-vis the abovementioned nexus of "Love, Death, and Money," but also in relation to formal questions of style and genre development and to cultural/historical issues such as race, gender, class, and empire. We will, in other words, think about how literary developments such as transcendentalism, naturalism, realism, the slave narrative, and poetics of the erotic overlap with events like the Civil War, the women's-suffrage movement, and the growth of American capitalism, all with an eye toward what, exactly, makes the American nineteenth century "modern" (or not modern).

Have fun with this. Be serious, but not leaden. We'll be reading a lot of great stuff, and our collective job is to wander through, ruminate on, and speculate about it all--and much of the rest of life won't give you this pleasure.

[edit] Required Texts:

• Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
• Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Kate Chopin, The Awakening
• Frank Norris, McTeague: A Story of San Francisco
• Course reader, available from The Alternative Copy Shop in IV

[edit] Assignments, Requirements, and Grading

Attendance and Participation:20%

• If you rack up more than 3 unexcused absences, you will lose this 20%. If you are going to miss a class, contact me beforehand; excuses granted only for good reasons (e.g. serious illness, death in the family, acts of God, weather, and war).
• Emphasis on participation: you are expected to do all of the assigned reading, and to speak up in class. Just showing up and sitting silently won't cut it.

First Paper (2-3 pages): 20% (due Tuesday, July 8)

Second Paper (6-8 pages): 30% (due Tuesday, July 29)

• Suggested topics for both papers will be handed out well in advance; if you want to devise your own topic, you must first discuss it with me.
• All papers must be double-spaced, written in 12-point font, and have one-inch margins and a Works Cited page. For information on these and other MLA-style guidelines, please consult Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference.
• Late papers will be penalized 10% per day, including weekends.

Final Exam: 30% (time t.b.a)

Other Key Stuff

• Plagiarism: Don't do it--you will fail this class if you get caught. If you have questions about UCSB’s official policies, have a look at the “Academic Dishonesty” heading at www.kiosk.ucsb.edu/AcademicServices. As a general rule, any time you quote, paraphrase, reference, or otherwise utilize someone else's words or ideas, whether written or spoken, you must cite them. If you have questions about how to cite sources in your writing, talk to me or consult A Writer's Reference.
• Special Needs: If you are a student with a documented disability and would like to discuss accommodations, please e-mail or talk to me after class. If you have a disability that hasn't been documented at UCSB, please contact the Office of Disabled Students at (805)-893-2668.
• That Golden Rule: Our class will go best if everybody talks a good deal. This will hopefully entail intellectual disagreements about the various texts we're reading; after all, this is a literature class, so there are no particular "right answers." However, we must respect one another. I will not tolerate any aggressive, dismissive, or hateful comments on the basis of/in reference to gender, race, sexual orientation, class, geographical origin, political affiliation, intellectual inclination, et cetera. If you can't observe this rule, you will be asked to leave the class. Also, if anything I say offends you, please talk to me about it after class or during office hours.

[edit] Reading Schedule (always somewhat flexible)

Week One

Monday, 6/23: Welcome & Introduction

T, 6/24: United States Bill of Rights; Thomas Jefferson, "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom"; Federalist Papers #1, #10 [all in reader]

W, 6/25: Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" [reader]

R, 6/26: Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Poet" [reader]

Week Two

M, 6/30: Edgar Allen Poe, "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," "The Conqueror Worm," "Hop-Frog" [all in reader]

T, 7/1: Henry David Thoreau, "Walking" [reader]

W, 7/2: Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

R, 7/3: Whitman, "Song of Myself"

Week Three

M, 7/7: Whitman, "Song of Myself"; excerpt from Specimen Days [reader]

T, 7/8: Emily Dickinson, selected poems & letters [reader]

• First paper due IN CLASS 7/8

W, 7/9: Dickinson, selected poems [reader]

R, 7/10: Dickinson, selected poems [reader]

Week Four

M, 7/14: Abraham Lincoln, "The Gettysburg Address" and "Second Inaugural Address"; Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

T, 7/15: Twain, Huck Finn

W, 7/16: Twain, Huck Finn

R, 7/17: Twain, Huck Finn

Week Five

M, 7/21: Harriet Jacobs, excerpts from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl [reader]

T, 7/22: Kate Chopin, The Awakening

W, 7/23: Chopin, The Awakening

R, 7/24: Chopin, The Awakening

Week Six

M, 7/28: Frank Norris, McTeague: A Story of San Francisco

T, 7/29: Norris, McTeague

• Final papers due Tuesday, 7/29, IN CLASS
  

W, 7/30: Norris, McTeague

R, 7/31: Final business, loose ends, goodbyes

• Final Exam: t.b.a.