ENGLISH 473/ EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE – FALL 2009 SYLLABUS

Prof Robert O. Lopez: 722 Sierra Tower, 818-677-3415

Course Overview: In this class we will be studying seminal American authors from the 1770s to the 1850s, for the purpose of charting the development of fiction, exposition, and poetry alongside the formation of the United States’ national identity. To place the literature in context, we will have short weekly supplementary readings drawn from recent historians’ scholarship and pay special attention to the biographies of the country’s early presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan.

 

Course Requirements: Your grade will be based on a semester’s total of 1,000 points, broken down as follows: Two 4-5 page papers worth 200 points each (40%), a midterm exam worth 200 points (20%), a final exam worth 300 points (30%), and participation (10%).

 

Schedule of Readings: Please note that an asterisk indicates a book available at the campus bookstore, while a footnote indicates an excerpted work that will be available on the Oviatt Library’s online course reserves.

  1. M 8/24: Intro. Declaration of Independence.[1]

 

  1. W 8/26: Constitution of the US.[2] Federalist 1-10.[3]

Unruly Americans, 21-54.[4]

 

 

  1. m 8/31: Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects.*

 

  1. w 9/2: Phillis Wheatley, Extant Poems.*

Origins of African American Literature, 39-91.[5]

 

  1. w 9/9: Phillis Wheatley, Prose and Letters.*

In The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley. Ed. John C. Shields. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

 

  1. m 9/14: The Coquette,*  Letters 1-25.

 

  1. w 9/16: The Coquette*, Letters 26-50

Adopted Son. 373-432.[6]

 

  1. m 9/21: The Coquette,* Letters 51 to end.

Adams v. Jefferson, 83-112.[7][8]

 

  1. w 9/23: Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon.*13-15, 29-63, 105-112.

 

  1. m 9/28: Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon,* 127-137, 153-168, 272-282, 329-360.

One Nation under Debt, 237-268.[9]

 

  1. w 9/30: Democracy in America: Part II, Chapters 1-8.[10]

 

  1. m 10/5: Mary Prince, Narrative.*

Filibusters and Expansionists, 82-117.[11]

 

 

  1. w 10/7: Poe, “City in the Sea” [23-24], “Israfel” [22-23].[12]

 

  1. m 10/12: Poe, “Oval Portrait” [223-225].[13]

America’s First Dynasty, 61-109.[14]

 

  1. w 10/14: Poe, “Masque of the Red Death” [226-230].[15]

 

  1. m 10/19: Poe, “Black Cat” [280-288].[16]

 

  1. w 10/21: Poe, “Descent into the Maelstrom” [197-210] and “Imp of the Perverse” [309-314].[17]

American Lion, 91-123.[18]

 

  1. m 10/26: Selections by William Cullen Bryant[19]/Emerson’s “Self-Reliance.”[20]

Andrew Jackson and the Constitution, 1-19 and 87-98.[21]

 

  1. w 10/28: William Cullen Bryant, cont. / Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”, cont.

 

  1. m 11/2: Frederick Douglass, The Heroic Slave.[22]

Mr. Polk’s Army, 139-185.[23]

 

  1. w 11/4: Longfellow, Evangeline.*

 

  1. m 11/9: Longfellow, Evangeline*, cont.

The Petticoat Affair, 1-21.[24]

 

  1. m 11/16: Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener.[25]

Franklin Pierce, 446-495.[26]

 

  1. w 11/18: Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, from Leaves of Grass.*

 

  1. m 11/23: Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, from Leaves of Grass.*

The Lady and the President, 143-193.[27]

 

  1. w 11/25: Walt Whitman, Children of Adam, from Leaves of Grass.*

 

  1. m 11/30: Walt Whitman, Memories of President Lincoln, from Leaves of Grass.*

America in 1857, 47-109.[28]

 

  1. w 12/2: Emily Dickinson, 130, 199, 214, 216.[29]

 

  1. m 12/7: Dickinson – 241, 249, 258, 280.[30]

Lincoln in the Times, 15-89.[31]

 

  1. w 12/9: Dickinson – 303, 324, 341, 348, 441, 448, 465, 501, 709.[32]

 

Honor Code: It is your professor’s policy not to take attendance. I am also extremely flexible with due dates, since I prefer to give extensions and receive quality work, rather than receive poorly done work on time. As a result, it is not necessary to email me to explain absences or extenuating circumstances affecting your work. In the interest of reducing our email burden, I prefer that students do not communicate with me via email if it is at all possible to speak during or after class.

 

The flexibility regarding attendance and due dates requires, however, that you show maturity and take responsibility for the work expected of you. I cannot recap lectures for classes that you have missed, nor can I elaborate at length on guiding principles for assignments I went over in class if you were not there. I advise you to find a “buddy” in class and keep in touch with him or her so you can get the notes for days you missed. If you were not in class and did not receive important information about the assignment, you will still be graded based on the same expectations as those who did attend. In other words, be an adult and come to class, and pay attention.

 

Because I am easygoing about attendance, I have to be much stricter about academic honesty. If you turn in papers that do not address the primary texts we read in class, or if your essay seems to be far adrift from the themes I went over during lecture times, I will usually return the paper to you and ask for a rewrite. Unfortunately, in an age of rampant Internet dishonesty, I cannot give students the benefit of the doubt; papers tend to look plagiarized if they show a general disconnect from the class discussions. Please do not become alarmed if I ask for a rewrite. I am not “turning you in” or “accusing you” of anything; I simply need for your work to adhere more closely to the assignment guidelines so we can all feel confident in the integrity of each other’s work.

 

To prevent plagiarism, it is also crucial that you cite everything properly and use the formatting established by the Modern Language Association. Your Penguin Handbook should provide you with most information you need, and I will supplement it from time to time with my own course study guide. If you turn in essays that use other citation methods (like APA or Chicago), this usually raises a red flag and casts doubts on the authenticity of your authorship. Please acquaint yourself with Northridge guidelines about academic honesty, and above all pay close attention to my instructions, and we should be fine. – ROL

 

 


[1] This will be available through Oviatt course reserve.

[2] Same as above.

[3] In The Federalist, Ed. Jack N. Rakove. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.

[4] Holton, Woody. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

[5] Bruce Jr., Dickson D. The Origins of African American Literature 1680-1865. Charlotteville: U Press of Virginia, 2001.

[6] From: Clary, David A. Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution. New York: Bantam Books, 2007.

[7] From: Ferling, John. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

[8]

[9] Wright, Robert E. One Nation under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008.

[10] DeTocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. Trans. George Lawrence. Ed. J.P. Mayer. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.

[11] Owsley Jr., Frank Lawrence and Gene A. Smith. Filibusters and Expansionists: Jeffersonian Manifest Destiny 1800-1821. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997.

[12] Selected Poetry and Prose of Poe.  Ed. T.O. Mabbott. New York: Modern Library,  1951.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Brookhiser, Richard. America’s First Dynasty: The Adamses 1735-1918. New York: The Free Press, 2002.

[15] Selected… Poe, above.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Meachem, John. American Lion. New York: Random House, 2008.

[19] From William Cullen Bryant: Representative Selections. Ed. Tremaine McDowell. New York: American Book Company, 1935.

[20] Emerson, Ralph W. “Self-Reliance.” In Selected Writings of Emerson. Ed. Donald McQuade. New York: Modern Library, 1981. 129-153.

[21] Magliocca, Gerard N. Andrew Jackson and the Constitution. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2007.

[22] Douglass, Frederick. The Heroic Slave. In Three Classic African-American Novels. Ed. William L. Andrews. New York: Penguin, 1990. 23-69.

[23] Winders, Richard Bruce. Mr. Polk’s Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1997.

[24] Marszalek, John F. The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House. New York: Free Press, 1997.

[25] Melville, Herman. Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. In The Piazza Tales. New York: Modern Library, 1996. 21-68.

[26] Nichols, Roy Franklin. Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958.

[27] Snyder, Charles M. The Lady and the President: The Letters of Dorothea Dix & Millard Fillmore. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1975.

[28] Stampp, Kenneth M. America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

[29] In American Literature Volume I. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Penguin Academics, 2004.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Lincoln in the Times. Eds. David Herbert Donald and Harold Holzer. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.

[32] In American Literature Volume I, see above.