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ENGL 232W: American Literature from 1865 (3) Introduction to literary history and analysis. Writers such as Mark Twain, James, Cather, Frost, O'Neill, Faulkner, Hemingway, Hughes, and Morrison. Prerequisite: ENGL 015 or ENGL 030
Overview
Welcome to the World Campus and English 232W: American Literature from 1865. This course provides students with an introduction to literary history and analysis of works by American authors after the Civil War. As a literature survey, this course requires a good deal of reading. As a “W” course, it requires a reasonable amount of writing.
Course Structure
This course consists of fifteen lessons. Lessons 1-15 involve required readings and a reading quiz. During the course, students will be required to write four informal journal entries in response to prompts that will appear with the lessons. Students will also be asked to write six formal essays (three long and three short) over the length of the course.
Course Objectives
ENGL 232W is a survey course of American literature from the end of the American Civil War (1865) to the present. This course is designed to provide students with the following:
• An awareness of the emergence and growth of a uniquely American literature.
• A general familiarity with some of American literature’s most significant writers and their works, including an understanding of those characteristics of their works that distinguish them as important contributions to American literature.
• A strong grasp of the relationship between the literary works we will read in this course and the historical periods from which they emerged.
• Strategies for actively reading and interpreting literature.
• Skills for competently drafting informal and formal written observations about literature.
Required Course Materials
Most World Campus courses require that students purchase materials (e.g., textbooks, specific software, etc.). To learn about how to order materials, please see the Course Materials page. You should check LionPATH approximately 3–4 weeks before the course begins for a list of required materials.Many of Penn State's library resources can be utilized from a distance. Through the Library Resources and Services for World Campus and Distance Education Web site, you can...
- access magazine, journal, and newspaper articles online using library databases
- borrow materials and have them delivered to your doorstep...or even your desktop
- ask a librarian for research help via e-mail, chat, or phone using the ASK! service
...and much more!
NOTE: You must have an active Penn State Access Account and be registered with the University Libraries in order to take full advantage of the Libraries' resources and services. Registration and services are free!Software
Students using PCs must use Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003 (MSWord 2007 users MUST "Save As" .doc); students using Macs must use Office 2001, Office v.X, or Office 2004.
Technical Requirements
Web access is required in order to complete this course. We recommend the minimum World Campus technical requirements listed below:
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| Operating System | Windows 2000/XP or Vista, Mac OS X 10.2 or higher (10.3 or higher recommended) |
| Processor | 1 GHz or higher |
| Memory | 256 MB of RAM |
| Hard Drive Space | 500 MB free disk space |
| Browser | Mac OS X: Firefox (current version)
Windows: Firefox (current version) Note: Cookies, Java, and JavaScript must be enabled. Pop-up blockers should be configured to permit new windows from Penn State web sites. Due to nonstandard handling of CSS, JavaScript and caching, we do not recommend using Internet Explorer 6 as your browser. |
| Plug-ins | Adobe Reader [Download from Adobe]
Flash Player [Download from Adobe] |
| Additional Software | Microsoft Office
iTunes/Quicktime |
| Internet Connection | Broadband (cable or DSL) connection required |
| Printer | Access to graphics-capable printer |
| DVD-ROM | Required |
| Sound Card, Microphone, and Speakers | Required |
| Monitor | Monitor (Capable of at least 1024 x 768 resolution) |
If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the World Campus Help Desk.
Course Schedule
- Course length: 13 weeks
Getting Started
Orientation to the online environment.
01: Poetic Nation: Emerging Voices in American Literature – Part I
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Walt Whitman
Bio, Pgs 17-20
Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855), Pgs 21-35
Leaves of Grass [Song of Myself] (1881), Pgs 122-166
Thoreau's commentary on Whitman (Not in anthology. See link in Lesson 1 web site page.)
Emerson's letter to Whitman (Not in anthology. See link in Lesson 1 web site page.)
02: Poetic Nation: Emerging Voices in American Literature – Part II
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Emily Dickinson
Bio, Pgs 166-170
Poems: (All poems are located between pgs 170 and 196.)
#67 (“Success is counted sweetest”)
#249 (“Wild Nights—Wild Nights!”)
#258 (“There’s a certain slant of light”)
#280 (“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”)
#315 (“He fumbles at your Soul”)
#449 (“I died for Beauty—but was scarce”)
#510 (“It was not Death, for I stood up”)
#536 (“The Heart asks Pleasure—first“)
#712 (“Because I could not stop for Death”) - Reading Quiz #1/#2
03: Minority Voices
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Booker T. Washington
Bio, Pgs 744-745
Up From Slavery – Chapters I & II, Pgs 746-760
W.E.B. Dubois
Bio, Pgs 876-877
The Souls of Black Folk (excerpts), Pgs 877-901
- Reading Quiz #3
- Essay #1 -- 500-word minimum.
See essay topics in Lesson 3 web site page.
04: Mark Twain and the American Novel
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)
Bio, Pgs 212-215
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pgs 219-407
- Reading Quiz #4
- Journal Entry #1
See journal prompts in Lesson 4 web site page.
05: Women's Voices
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Bio, Pgs 831-832
“The Yellow Wall-paper”, Pgs 832-844
“Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wall-paper’”, Pgs 844-845
Kate Chopin
Bio, Pgs 620-622
“The Story of an Hour” (Not in anthology -- see link in Lesson 5 web site page.)
Sarah Orne Jewett
Bio, Pgs 595-597
“The White Heron”, Pgs 597-604
- Reading Quiz #5
- Essay #2 -- 1,000-word minimum.
See essay topics in Lesson 5 web site page.
06: Realism and Naturalism
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Stephen Crane
Bio, Pgs 901-903
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (Not in anthology -- see link in Lesson 6 web site page.)
Henry James
Bio, Pgs 465-468
“The Real Thing”, Pgs 506-524
- Reading Quiz #6
07: Poetry in the New Century -- Part I
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Edward Arlington Robinson
“Richard Cory”, Pg 1106
Amy Lowell
“September, 1918”, Pg 1147
Robert Frost
Bio, Pgs 1174-1175
“Mowing”, Pg 1176
“Mending Wall”, Pgs 1177-1178
“Home Burial”, Pgs 1183-1185
“After Apple-Picking”, Pgs 1185-1186
“The Road Not Taken”, Pg 1187
“Birches”, Pgs 1189-1190
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, Pg 1191
- Essay #3 -- 500-word minimum.
See topics in Lesson 7 web site page.
08: Poetry in the New Century -- Part II: Williams and Stevens
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
William Carlos Williams
Bio, Pgs 1263-1265
“Spring and All”, Pg 1268
“Queen-Anne’s-Lace”, Pg 1267
“The Red Wheelbarrow”, Pg 1271
“This is Just to Say”, Pg 1274
Wallace Stevens
Bio, Pgs 1234-1235
“The Emperor of Ice-Cream”, Pg 1237
“Sunday Morning”, Pgs 1238-1240
“Anecdote of the Jar”, Pg 1241
“Of Modern Poetry”, Pg 1249
- Reading Quiz #7/#8
- Journal Entry #2
See journal prompts in Lesson 8 web site page.
09: Regionalism and Race: William Faulkner and Zora Neale Hurston
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
William Faulkner
Bio, Pgs 1693-1695
As I Lay Dying, Pgs 1695-1790
Zora Neale Hurston
Bio, Pgs 1506-1507
“How it Feels to Be Colored Me”, Pgs 1516-1518
- Reading Quiz #9
10: Modernism and the New Poetry: Pound and Eliot
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Ezra Pound
Bio, Pgs 1281-1283
“To Whistler, American”, Pg 1283
Whistler’s “Brown and Gold” (Image: See Lesson 10 web site page for link.)
Durer – Self Portrait (Image: See Lesson 10 web site page for link.)
“A Pact”, Pg 1285
From "The Cantos” – XLV, Pgs 1301-1302
T.S. Eliot
Bio, Pgs 1417-1420
“The Waste Land”, Pgs 1430-1443
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, Pgs 1420-1423
From "Tradition and the Individual Talent”, Pgs 1425-1428
- Reading Quiz #10
- Essay #4 -- 1,000-word minimum.
See topics in Lesson 10 web site page.
11: Modernism and the New Fiction: Hemingway and Fitzgerald
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bio, Pgs 1641-1642
“Babylon Revisited”, Pgs 1658-1672
Ernest Hemingway
Bio, Pgs 1846-1848
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, Pgs 1848-1864
- Reading Quiz #11
- Journal Entry #3
See prompts in Lesson 11 web site page.
12: Ethnicity and Modernism
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Langston Hughes
Bio, Pgs 1891-1892
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, Pg 1892
“The Weary Blues”, Pgs 1893-1894
“I, Too”, Pg 1894
“Mulatto”, Pgs 1895-1896
“Silhouette”, Pg 1899
“Democracy”, Pgs 1900-1901
Richard Wright
Bio, Pgs 1925-1926
“The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, Pgs 1927-1935
Carlos Bulosan
Bio, Pgs 1935-1936
“Be American”, Pgs 1936-1941
“Homecoming”, Pgs 1941-1946
- Reading Quiz #12
13: Tarnish on the Gilded Age – Waking from the American Dream
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Arthur Miller
Bio, Pgs 2109-2111
Death of A Salesman, Pgs 2111-2176
John Cheever
Bio, Pgs 2041-2043
“The Swimmer”, Pgs 2043-2051
David Mamet
Bio, Pgs 2508-2509
“Glengarry Glen Ross”, Pgs 2509-2542
- Reading Quiz #13
- Essay #5 -- 500-word minimum.
See topics in Lesson 13 web site page.
14: Postnuclear Poetry and the Beats
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
The Beats
John H. Lienhard’s “The Beat Generation” -- see Lesson 14 web site page for link
Allen Ginsberg
Bio, Norton Anthology Pgs 2863-2865
“Howl”, Norton Anthology Pgs 2865-2872
Ismael Reed
Bio -- Library E-Reserves (available under the "Tools" tab)
“beware: do not read this poem” -- Library E-Reserves (available under the "Tools" tab)
Jack Kerouac
On The Road, Chapters 1-10
William S. Burroughs
Naked Lunch, “Introduction” through “Meeting of International Conference of Technological Psychiatry”
- Reading Quiz #14
15: Postnuclear Fiction
ASSIGNMENTS and ACTIVITIES
- READING ASSIGNMENT:
Read online lesson commentary.
Norton Anthology of American Literature:
Thomas Pynchon
Bio, Pgs 2355-2357
“Entropy”, Pgs 2357-2367
Kurt Vonnegut
Bio, Pgs 2181-2183
Cat’s Cradle
Harlan Ellison
Bio -- Library E-Reserves (available under the "Tools" tab)
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” -- Library E-Reserves (available under the "Tools" tab)
- Reading Quiz #15
- Essay #6 -- 1,000-word minimum.
See topics in Lesson 15 web site page.
- Journal Entry #4
See prompts in Lesson 15 web site page.
Formal instruction will end on the last day of class. However, you will continue to be able to access the course materials for one year from the day the course began.
Grading
| Points | Description |
|---|---|
| 52 | Quizzes (13 @ 4 points) |
| 60 | Reading Journal (4 entries @ 15 points) |
| 120 | Longer Essays (3 @ 40 points) |
| 60 | Shorter Essays (3 @ 20 points) |
| 8 | Assignments on time (instructor-assigned points) |
| 300 | TOTAL POINTS |
There are 300 total points possible in this course. Your final grade will be calculated according to the following scale:
| Points | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| 276-300 | A |
| 270-275 | A- |
| 261-269 | B+ |
| 250-260 | B |
| 240-249 | B- |
| 230-239 | C+ |
| 209-229 | C |
| 179-208 | D |
| 0-178 | F |
Please refer to the University Grading Policy for Undergraduate Courses for additional information about University grading policies.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity—scholarship free of fraud and deception—is an important educational objective of Penn State. Academic dishonesty can lead to a failing grade or referral to the Office of Judicial Affairs.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to:
- cheating
- plagiarism
- fabrication of information or citations
- facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others
- unauthorized prior possession of examinations
- submitting the work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor and securing written approval
- tampering with the academic work of other students
In cases where academic integrity is questioned, Penn State's policy on academic integrity requires that the instructor give the student notice of the charge as well as the recommended sanction. Procedures allow the student to accept or contest the charge through discussions with the instructor. If a student chooses to contest, the case will then be managed by the respective College or Campus Academic Integrity Committee. If a disciplinary sanction also is recommended, the case will be referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs.
All Penn State colleges abide by this Penn State policy, but review procedures vary by college when academic dishonesty is suspected. Information about Penn State's academic integrity policy and college review procedures is included in the information students receive upon enrolling in a course. For that information in advance of enrolling in a course, please contact us.
Additionally, students enrolled at Penn State via the World Campus are expected to act with civility and personal integrity; respect other students' dignity, rights, and property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment of academic integrity is requisite to respect for self and others, and a civil community.
For more information on academic integrity at Penn State, please see the Academic Integrity Chart for specific college contact information or visit one of the following URLs:
www.psu.edu/dept/oue/aappm/G-9.html
www.sa.psu.edu/ja/
University Policies
Disclaimer: Please note that the specifics of this Course Syllabus are subject to change, and you will be responsible for abiding by any such changes. Your instructor will notify you of any changes.
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