EN242:
Meeting Times, Location, & Course Delivery Details
Contact Information
Textbooks:
- The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 10h Edition. (other editions ok, but try to get the shorter one in one or two volumes)
- Nella Larsen, Quicksand. Dover Publications, 2006.
- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
- William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying. Vintage, 1990.
- Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Vintage, 2004.
- Art Spiegelman, Maus
| Week One: | Encounters |
| M 8/18: | Introduction to the Course |
| W 8/20: | Norton, Christopher Columbus, “Letter to Luis de Santangel,” “Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage,” Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, “The Relation,” |
| F 8/22: | Norton, Introduction p. 3-15, “The Iroquois Creation Story” Trickster story handouts (will be handed out in Friday’s class) Short Essay Due |
| Week Two: | Puritan Literature |
| M 8/25: | Norton: John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity |
| W 8/27: | Anne Bradstreet, introduction p. 110; “The Prologue,” “The Author to Her Book,” “Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment” Content quiz |
| F 8/29: | Cotton Mather: “The Wonders of the Invisible World,” excerpt p. 149-155 Short Essay Due |
| Week Three: | The Enlightenment; Gothic |
| M 9/1: | Labor Day: No Class |
| W 9/3: | NA: Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” “To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for North America, &c.,” p; To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing his Works,” “To His Excellency General Washington” Content quiz |
| F 9/5: | Nathaniel Hawthorne or Edgar Allen Poe—students’ choice |
| Week Four: | The Slave Narrative |
| M 9/8: | Norton: Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life,” Ch 1-7 |
| W 9/10: | Norton: Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life,” Ch 8-10 Content quiz |
| F 9/12: | Norton: Frederick Douglass, (Ch 10-end); Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July;" Sojourner Truth, "Speech to the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851" Short essay due |
| Week Five: | Romanticism and Transcendentalism |
| M 9/15: | NB: Margaret Fuller, “Four Kinds of Equality,”
|
| W 9/17: | NB: Walt Whitman, “One’s-Self I Sing,” excerpts from “Song of Myself” (#1-8, #43-52), Content Quiz |
| F 9/19: | Norton: Emily Dickinson, starting on p. 1189 (follow the top numbers): #112, #207, #320, #339, #359, #479, #764, and #1263
|
| Week Six: | Realism and Reconstruction |
| M 9/22: | Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour,” Sarah Orne Jewett, “A White Heron” Short essay due |
| W 9/24: | Essay #1 First Draft Due |
| F 9/26: | Booker T. Washington, “Up from Slavery,” (Chapter 13) W.E.B. DuBois, “The Souls of Black Folk,” (Chapter 1 and Chapter 3) |
| Week Seven: | |
| M 9/29: | Conferences/paper revision discussion |
| W 10/1: | Essay #1 Final Version Due |
| F 10/3: | Zitkala Sa, p. 1825-1835, Excerpts from Impressions of An Indian Childhood: Chapter 1 “My Mother,” Chapter 2, “The Legends,” Chapter 7 “The Big Red Apples” and short story “The Soft-Hearted Sioux” |
Week Eight: | |
| M 10/6: | Review for midterm |
| W 10/8: | MIDTERM EXAM |
| F 10/10: | Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Ch 1-7 |
Week Nine: | The Gilded Age |
| M 10/13: | FALL BREAK: No class |
| W 10/15: | Edith Wharton, Ch 8-13 Content quiz |
| F 10/17: | Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence Ch 14-18 Short Essay Due |
Week Ten: | |
| M 10/20: | Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Ch 17-21 |
| W 10/22: | Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Ch 22-29 Content quiz |
| F 10/24: | Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Ch 30-end Short essay due |
| Week Eleven: | Modernism |
| M 10/27: | William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, p. 1-64 (Up to Vardaman chapter “When they get it finished…” |
| W 10/29: | Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, p. 65-136 (up to Tull “So they finally got Anse to say…” Content quiz |
| F 10/31: | Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, p 137-197 (up to Moseley “I happened to look up…” Short essay due |
| Week Twelve: | Modernism/Harlem Renaissance |
| M 11/3: | Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, p 198-261 (end) |
| W 11/5: | Nella Larsen, Quicksand, Ch 1-12 Content quiz |
| F 11/7: | Nella Larsen, Quicksand, Ch 13-end |
Week Thirteen: | Short essay due Mid-twentieth Century Drama |
| M 11/10: | Analytical Project Planning/Signups Harlem Renaissance poetry: Norton, Claude McKay, “Harlem Shadows,” p. 2111; “The Lynching,” p. 2111; “If We Must Die,” p. 2112; “America,” p. 2112; Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” p. 2222; “I, Too,” p. 2223; “Democracy,” p. 2227; “Theme for English B,” p. 2228; Countee Cullen, “Heritage,” p. 2241; Zora Neale Hurston, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me,” p 2124-2127 |
| W 11/12: | Lorraine Hansberry, “A Raisin in the Sun,” Act I |
| F 11/14: | Lorraine Hansberry, “A Raisin in the Sun,” Act II and III |
| Week Fourteen: | Postmodernism |
| M 11/17: | Analytical Project Draft In class: Modernist Poetry: Robert Frost, p. 1922, “Fire and Ice,” Robert Frost, “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” Gertrude Stein, “From Tender Buttons,” p. 1900-1903; Carl Sandberg, “Fog,” p 1949; Wallace Stevens, “Anecdote of the Jar,” p 1951; “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” p 1957-1959; William Carlos Williams, “The Young Housewife,” p 1963; “The Red Wheelbarrow,” p 1968; “This is Just to Say,” p 1969; Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro,” p 1974 |
| W 11/19: | Art Spiegelman, Maus, Book 1 |
| F 11/21: | Art Spiegelman, Maus, Book 2, first half Analytical Project presentations |
| Week Fifteen: | |
| M 11/24: | Art Spiegelman, Maus, Book 2, second half Analytical Project presentations |
| W 11/26: | Thanksgiving Break: No Class |
| F 11/28: | Thanksgiving Break: No Class |
Week Sixteen: | |
| M 12/1: | Contemporary poetry in class Analytical Project presentations |
| W 12/3: | Final exam review |
| FINAL EXAM: | Friday, December 5: 1:00-3:00 pm |
- One formal essay, 5-7 pages: You will receive an assignment sheet. Due dates are on the calendar.
- One analytical project that will include research, writing, and a presentation
- Student-led discussion: You will join a group of classmates in leading class discussion for approximately 30 minutes based on a reading of the group’s choice.
- Quizzes: We will have regular quizzes over the reading and literary history discussed in class. Typically, they may only be made up before class. I will allow you one reading quiz make-up per semester after the quiz is given.
- Exams: We will have a midterm and a final exam covering material from the entire semester.
- Short essays: You will write an informal analytical paper in response to your reading each week; these will typically be in-class writing.
Grades will be given as percentages. 70-72% is a C-, 73-76% is a C, 77-79 a C+, etc.
Instructor Course Policies
See the current Student Handbook for the college Attendance Policy, especially as it pertains to excused absences.
How many classes can I miss? 3
What about excused absences?
I will work with you on specific incidents that go beyond 3 absences. However, please recognize that more missed classes will put you behind in class.
What about sports?
Talk to me at the start of the semester! If you will be missing many classes for your sport, you may need a different class. If you will go over by only a one or two absences, it won’t be a problem as long as you keep me updated and keep up with your work!
What if I go over 3 unexcused absences?
- Talk to me. If it is an emergency, we will work it out. If you are struggling with time management, we can discuss it.
- Participate in class more actively! Be proactive about being a good student when you are there. I will take that into consideration when determining your participation grade. You will not earn a full letter grade on your participation grade back, but you can receive a high B or a high C if you participate more.
- 9 or more unexcused absences: F
- 8 absences: D
- 6-7 absences: C
- 4-5 absences: B
- 3 or fewer absences: A
Guideline for Attendance Grades
What do I do if I have to be absent?
See the current Student Handbook for the college Attendance Policy, especially as it pertains to excused absences.
How many classes can I miss? 3
What about excused absences?
I will work with you on specific incidents that go beyond 3 absences. However, please recognize that more missed classes will put you behind in class.
What about sports?
Talk to me at the start of the semester! If you will be missing many classes for your sport, you may need a different class. If you will go over by only a one or two absences, it won’t be a problem as long as you keep me updated and keep up with your work!
What if I go over 3 unexcused absences?
- Talk to me. If it is an emergency, we will work it out. If you are struggling with time management, we can discuss it.
- Participate in class more actively! Be proactive about being a good student when you are there. I will take that into consideration when determining your participation grade. You will not earn a full letter grade on your participation grade back, but you can receive a high B or a high C if you participate more.
Guideline for Attendance Grades
- 9 or more unexcused absences: F
- 8 absences: D
- 6-7 absences: C
- 4-5 absences: B
- 3 or fewer absences: A
What do I do if I have to be absent?
See the current Student Handbook for the college’s Academic Integrity policies as they pertain to examinations, plagiarism, classroom behavior, and the process for handling academic misconduct charges. You may not copy the words or ideas of another without crediting that person in your text. This includes paraphrasing material or maintaining the same general sentence or paragraph structure as a source. Even credited material must be paraphrased in an original way that generates a new sentence and paragraph structure. Keep in mind that even unintentional copying of words, phrases, and sentence structures can sometimes be deemed plagiarism. I should always know, when reading a paper, which ideas, words, phrases, and paragraph structures originate with you and which originate with someone else. If I find that you have committed academic dishonesty on an assignment for this course, you will receive a zero for the assignment and, depending on the offense, you may receive an F for the course. In general, all offenses, minor and major, will be reported to the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, who will help me determine the appropriate consequences. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism, ask!
Any work that you produce in this class must be original and created by you, not by an AI (i.e., ChatGPT or other AI bots). If I instruct you to use AI on a project, you may use it, but otherwise I expect you to do your own work. If I find that you have used AI content instead of your own work, you can expect to fail the assignment.
Paper Formatting and Submission Guidelines
Please use MLA format for your papers and Works Cited pages. That includes Times New Roman 12 point font and 1-inch margins all around. Consult the Purdue OWL website for MLA formatting instructions. All essays must be written in Google Docs with edit history turned on. If I cannot see your edit history, I will not accept the paper.
Privacy Statement
Student work may be kept on file and used for evaluation and assessment purposes. Any work shared with either students, faculty or administration will be done so anonymously. If you have any questions or concerns about how this work is shared, let me know.
Writing Skill Development
You will write weekly short essays (1 page, double-spaced) in which you develop an argument about the text you are currently reading based on a prompt given by me. You will also write two 5-7 page papers, each of which will undergo a full revision. I will discuss what makes a good paper in class and hold individual conferences in my office before papers are due. We will conduct revisions on your initial attempts at writing.
Institutional and Program-Level Policies
All exams will follow the Final Exam Schedule. Students scheduled to take three or more final examinations on one day may request to arrange their examination schedule, so no more than two exams occur on one day.
Requests for early or late exams are considered only under extreme circumstances. Prior to the exam period, the student must file a written request on the Early/Late Exam Form available in the Student One Stop Center, Academic Records, and on the WC portal. The form must be signed by the Instructor and the Academic Dean, approving the alternate exam time. This process must be completed prior to the scheduled exam period.
Undergraduate: SP25 Final Exam Schedule Graduate:
Out-of-class Work Expectation A minimum of 2 hours of out-of-class student work is expected for each hour of in-class time for traditional face-to-face courses. For online and hybrid courses, the combination of face-to-face time and out-of-class work should be equal to 3 hours per credit hour per week. |
Instructional Course Delivery |
Academic Integrity Policy The use of generative AI is prohibited except where expressly allowed in assignment instructions. |
Class Attendance Policy |
Accessibility and Disability Services
Accessibility and Disability Services
Wilmington College provides accommodations and services for student with a variety of disabilities, including chronic illnesses, psychological, physical, medical, learning, and sensory disability amongst others. If you anticipate or experience barriers based on disability and feel you may need a reasonable accommodation to fulfill the essential functions of this course, you are encouraged to contact:
Spencer Izor, Associate Vice President of Compliance - Title IX/ADA Coordinator at spencer.izor@wilmington.edu or 937-481-2365 or Nathan Flack, Academic Resource Manager at 937-481-2208 to learn more about the process and procedures for requesting accommodations, or by visiting College Hall Room 306a or the Robinson Communication Center, Room 103.
Religious Accommodations
Wilmington College strives for an inclusive climate and welcomes students from all backgrounds, faiths, and experiences. If religious observance impedes your ability to participate fully in classroom activities or a principal holiday from your religious tradition occurs during the semester and conflicts with class meetings or activities, please make the professor aware of this immediately to determine if a reasonable accommodation is possible.