English 318
Survey of American Literature I

Dr. John Todd Coke
Office: Pawling Hall 114 (ex. 8127)
Hours: 12-1 MWF or by appointment

Course Description:
(As printed in the catalog): "History and interpretation of American literature from John Smith to Walt Whitman. Prerequisite: ENG 211 or 213."

Policies and Requirements:

Attendance.. You will be allowed to miss a maximum of four classes during the semester, no explanations required. I have also built into the schedule several Mandatory Attendance days (see schedule). These are classes during which we will cover crucial material. Missing any one of these days will affect your grade adversely. Missing more than one will result in your being dropped from the class.

Reading Assignments: The material listed in the syllabus should be considered a minimum, mandatory requirement. In order to excel, the ambitious student should expect to spend extra time gaining familiarity with the standard works of criticism and reference in the field of American Literature.

Quizzes: During the course of the semester I will give approximately ten brief (5-10 min.) quizzes on the assigned reading for the day. You should arrive at every class period under the assumption that a quiz will occur on that day.

Exams: I will give only two major exams during the semester. Both tests will include essay and objective questions, and both will include at least one question on each item from the reading list for the testing period. These exams are IMPORTANT; they are one third of your grade. Do not wait until the last minute to catch up on your reading.

Papers: A ten-page, critically-informed treatment of a topic of special interest to you, but subject to my recommendations and approval, due on a yet-to-be-determined date.

Grading: One third of your grade will be based on your paper, one third will depend upon your performance on the mid-term and final, and a final third will be the product of your performance in the classroom. This last category includes daily preparation, quizzes, and discussion.

Schedule of Assignments:

1. Orientation
2. William Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation, Chapters IX, X, and XXVIII
2. Ann Bradstreet: "The Author to Her Book"; "Before the Birth..."
4. Anne Bradstreet: "To My Dear... Husband"; "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild";
"Upon the Burning of Our House"; "As a Weary Pilgrim"
5. Edward Taylor: "The Joy of Church Fellowship"; "The Reflexion"; "Meditation 8"; 
"Meditation 39"; "Upon a Spider Catching a Fly" Mandatory Attendance 
6. Jonathan Edwards: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
7. Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard (pp. 225-229); The Autobiography (from Part Two, pp.
282-292)
8. Thomas Jefferson: "Letter to John Adams"
9. Thomas Paine: "The Age of Reason
10. Philip Freneau: "To Sir Toby:; "On the Universality... of Nature"
11. Washington Irving: "Rip Van Winkle" Mandatory Attendance
12. James Fenimore Cooper: The Deerslayer
13. Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Nature" Mandatory Attendance
14. "Nature," cont.
15. "The American Scholar"
16. "The Divinity School Address" (Handout)
17. "Experience" (Handout)
18. "Fate" (Handout)
19. Henry David Thoreau: Walden, "Economy" Mandatory Attendance
20. "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" (893)
21. "Higher Laws" (Handout).
22. "Spring"
23. "Conclusion"
24. Review for Mid-Term
25. Mid-Term Exam
26. Introduction to Whitman
27. Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass, "Song of Myself" Mandatory Attendance
28. "Song," cont. Mandatory Attendance
29. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"
30. "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"
31. "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
32. "Passage to India"
33. William Cullen Bryant: "Thanatopsis"; "To a Waterfowl"; "The Poet .... To the Fringed Gentian"
34. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport"; "My Lost Youth"
35. John Greenleaf Whittier: "Snow-Bound"
36. Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Chambered Nautilus"
37. Edgar Allan Poe: "The Fall of the House of Usher" Mandatory Attendance
38. Poe: "Ligeia"
39. Poe: "The Cask of Amontillado" (Handout); "The Tell Tale Heart"
40. Nathanial Hawthorne: "Young Goodman Brown" Mandatory Attendance
41. Hawthorne: "The Birth Mark"
42. Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil"
43. Melville: "Bartleby the Scrivener" Mandatory Attendance 
44. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin, Chapters I and XL Frederick Douglas, "The Life and Times" Chapters 15 and 17


FINAL EXAMINATION: Time to be announced

Standard Reference Works in American Literature

Bibliography:
Blanck, Jacob. Bibliography of American Literature

Biography:
Jackson, Allen, and Dumas Malone (eds.) The Dictionary of American Biography

Histories:
Spiller, Robert E. (ed.) et al. Literary History of the United States

Cunliffe, Marcus. The Literature of the United States.

Bibliographical and Research Guides:

Gohdes, Clarence. Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Literature of the U.S.A. Woodress, James (ed.) Eight American Authors

Bateson, F.W., and Harrison Meserole. A Guide to English and American Literature. Hart, James D. The Oxford Companion to American Literature.