Huck Finn Homepage

English 349: American Novel to 1900 / Spring 2004

	Prof. Scott Peeples
   Office: 22B Glebe St., Rm. 201 
   Web page: http://www.cofc.edu/~peeples/ 
   E-mail: peepless@cofc.edu     Phone 953-1993
   Office Hours: MWF 2:00-3:00, TR 9:00-10:00 and by appointment
 

COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is designed to help students better understand eight of the most significant American novels written before 1900 in terms of their cultural contexts as well as subsequent critical controversies. Another objective is to develop students' close reading and critical thinking skills and to improve students' ability to express themselves through speaking and writing.

TEXTS
Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok (Rutgers UP)
Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (Oxford UP)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Norton)
Elizabeth Stoddard, The Morgesons (Penguin)
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (Norton)
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bedford)
Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (Bedford)
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (Norton)

Some supplemental readings will be available on electronic reserve at the library.

GRADED REQUIREMENTS
In-class writing (see below) 50 pts.
Oral Presentation 10 pts.
Short (4-5 pp.) essay 40 pts.
Research proposal 10 pts.
Researched essay (8-10 pp.) 80 pts.
Mid-term exam 40 pts.
Final exam 60 pts.
Total 290 pts.

POLICIES AND OTHER INFORMATION

1. Attendance and participation are requirements of this course. If you miss more than three classes, I will deduct two points from your final grade for each additional class you miss. (For example, if you miss six classes and your numerical grade for the course is an 81, it would turn into a 75.) You should save the three absences you're allowed for illnesses and emergencies, because I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences when I calculate grades.

2. In-class writing: Each day, I will give a brief writing assignment to the class, the main purpose of which is to allow you to write without the pressure of a substantial grade, in order to generate ideas for discussion or for your essays. If you demonstrate adequate familiarity with the text and a sincere effort to develop an idea through your writing, I will give you full credit (2 pts.). For writing that shows little effort or little familiarity with the text, I will assign 1 point. No significant effort/familiarity, no credit. No make-ups.

3. Short essay and presentation: Once during the semester, you will present an analysis or interpretation of one or more of the readings for that day. The presentation should last about 5 minutes, no more than 10. You should not merely report on your topic but advance your own thesis concerning the day's reading, supported by evidence. The following class day, you will turn in a 4-5 page essay on the same topic. The title of your essay (and presentation) should be an issue question, which your essay attempts to answer.

4. Criteria for graded writing: I look primarily for content (evidence of original thinking, claims supported by textual evidence and logic), then effective organization of sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into a coherent essay. Next I am concerned with the clarity of your sentences and your ability to vary sentence structures, and on the mechanical correctness of your writing.

***Late penalty: one letter grade for each class period an essay is late; one letter grade for each weekday an essay is late after classes end. I will not accept any written work after May 7.

I will assign number grades to your essays.
On a 100-pt. scale, A = 90-100, B+ = 86-89, B = 80-85, C+ = 76-79, C = 70-75,
D = 65-69, and an F = 64 or lower.

5. Improving. If you want to improve your grades, talk to me about how you can write better exams and essays in the future: that's what I'm here for. However, I will not allow you to retake an exam or do an additional assignment for extra credit.

Schedule

1/15 Course introduction

1/20 Hobomok: Karcher's introduction and the first 12 chapters

1/22 Homomok: finish the novel, also the excerpt from Letters from New York (181-90)

1/27 Pym: Kennedy's introduction, first 6 chapters, "How to Write a Blackwood Article," "The Premature Burial"

1/29 Pym: Chs. 7-22

2/3 Pym: finish the novel, also "MS. Found in a Bottle" and Kopley's introduction (on e-res)

2/5 The Scarlet Letter: "The Custom House" and Chapters 1-3; also Boewe / Murphey, "Hester Prynne in History," and Baym, "The Romantic Malgré Lui"

2/10 The Scarlet Letter: Chapters 4-13; also Brodhead, [Method in the Scarlet Letter]

2/12 The Scarlet Letter: finish the novel

2/17 The Scarlet Letter: Reynolds, "The Scarlet Letter and Revolutions Abroad"; Railton, "The Address of The Scarlet Letter" (both are on e-res)

2/19 The Morgesons: Buell and Zagarell's Introduction and first 15 chapters

2/24 The Morgesons: Chapters 16-28

2/26 The Morgesons: finish the novel, also selection of poems by Sarah M. B. Piatt (e-res)

3/2 Mid-term exam

3/4 Moby-Dick: Etymology and Extracts, "Melville's Reading and Moby-Dick," "Whaling and Whalecraft," and "Before Moby-Dick" (431-69)

Spring Break

3/16 Moby-Dick: Chapters 1-21

3/18 Moby-Dick: Chapters 22-42

3/23 Moby-Dick: Chapters 43-70

3/25 Moby-Dick: Chapters 71-99

3/30 Moby-Dick: Chapter 100-Epilogue; read several of the reviews (595-625)

4/1 Huck Finn: "The Life of Samuel Clemens and the Reception of Huckleberry Finn"; Chapters 1-16

4/6 Huck Finn: Chapters 17-30

4/8 Huck Finn: Finish the novel.

4/13 Huck Finn: Essays by Henry, Brenner, Phelan, Walker, and Fiedler

4/15 Research proposal due.

Maggie: "In Darkest New York" (97-101); Rollins, "The New Uncle Tom's Cabin"; Riis, "The Problem of the Children"; Philips, "The Bowery at Night"; Sanger, from "The History of Prostitution"; Brace, "Street Girls"; Campbell, "The Case of Rose Haggerty"

4/20 Maggie: Read the novella itself, and Véron, from Aesthetics

4/22 The Turn of the Screw: First 15 chapters

4/27 The Turn of the Screw: Finish the novella, also Porter/Tate/Van Doren Radio Symposium and the essay by Lustig

5/4 Final exam and due date for research papers. Turn in your paper earlier if you can.