English 391 American Novel I – Prof. Gordon Sayre

Winter term 2005 CRN 26961 4 credits

MWF 1:00 – 1:50 pm in Chapman 204

In this course we will read seven remarkable books from the nineteenth-century United States. We will discuss definitions of the novel as a genre, and explore some of its intersections with autobiography, travel narrative, and the essay. Moreover, we will examine several important literary topoi or themes which connect two or more of these books: sympathy and sentimentality, the gothic, the place of women in a patriarchal society, the attractions and threats of the primitive and exotic, and the problem of slavery and race.

The course is open to both English-majors and non-majors, and among our goals is to develop a scholarly understanding of these works and to learn some of the skills of literary criticism, critical analysis and writing. Hence we will read short critical essays about several of the texts.

This is will be primarily a discussion course, although I will make short lecture/presentations in each class meeting. On some days there may be unannounced quizzes, and on others I will organize small group discussions with your classmates. It is essential that you do the reading assignment for each day in its entirety, and come ready to discuss and answer questions about the assignment.

ENG 391 satisfies the Arts and Letters Group requirement, and fits the 1789-present distribution requirement within the English major.

Books (available at the University Bookstore)

It is important that you have the critical editions of Walden, Scarlet Letter, and Typee that I have ordered at the bookstore, because we will be reading essays included in these. The first novel, Charlotte Temple, is quite short, I have not ordered the book at the bookstore. Please obtain it online or from Smith Family Bookstore.

Charlotte Temple by Susanna Haswell Rowson (Project Guttenberg #171)

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=171

Edgar Huntly by Charles Brockden Brown (Penguin)

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Riverside/Houghton Mifflin)

Typee by Herman Melville (Riverside/Houghton Mifflin)

Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (Norton Critical Edition)

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (Harvard)

Pudd'nhead Wilson and other tales by Mark Twain (Oxford)

Assignments and Grading

• Six 1-2 page response papers, on six of the seven books we will read. You may choose to hand a paper in on any of the days we are discussing that novel, but it must address the daily question for that date. No late papers will be accepted. You may submit the papers by email. These must be sent before the beginning of class. The six papers together will be worth 30% of your grade.
• Quizzes and class participation. 10% of your grade. Participation may take the form in-class discussion or postings to the course blackboard site.
• A mid-term exam, on Feb. 11th. It will account for 10% of your grade.
• Final paper, 6 pages minimum. All students are required to meet with me to discuss a topic for the final paper. The final paper is worth 25% of your grade.
• Final exam. The exam will cover the entire term and count for 25% of your grade.