Instructor: Trena Houp
E-mail: thoup@english.ufl.edu
Mailbox: 4301 Turlington
Office Hours: by appointment

Required Texts
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 6th Edition Edited by Nina Baym

Overview
Building on the study and practice of expository and argumentative writing in ENC 1101, AML 2070 teaches students how to analyze and appreciate literary texts, write critical arguments about literary texts, and gain a general knowledge of American literature and literary history. While individual sections of the course may involve different literary texts and different modes of analysis, all provide opportunities to work with a variety of literary genres, including short stories, novels, poetry, and essays. The course’s main focus is on the process of producing well supported, polished, and persuasive writing about texts. This particular class has been designed with two main audiences in mind: general education students who have some interest in United States literature and students who plan to major in English. This class will present the students in each of these target audiences with a group of texts that have been—or are currently—considered exceptionally important to American literature and/or culture. In hopes of meeting the needs of the students who need the broadest possible foundation for more advanced studies of American literature, I have designed the course to cover the broadest possible amount of literature, while simultaneously striving to select texts that have enough broad cultural significance to interest students with other objectives. The class will discuss literary style, form, and hermeneutics, but its main mode of inquiry will be historicist.

Major Assignments
Reading Journal: Students are expected to arrive prepared to contribute to class discussion. This preparation involves careful reading and developing thoughtful responses to the text. In this journal, you will take notes while reading in order to summarize and offer critical commentary on the required readings. Students are encouraged to use this journal to explore ideas for the response papers and the longer essay. Students should write at least two pages a week in the journal.
Book Review: In addition to the required anthology, students will read a novel by an American author and write a book review based on this text. I will provide a list of suggested titles, but students should feel free to choose an alternate title as long as they consult with me prior to reading the book. Students must discuss the novel with me before beginning the assignment to determine the appropriate focus of the review. The review should be 6-8 pages in length.
Reading Response Papers: Over the course of the semester, you will be required to complete five response papers. These papers must be at least two pages long, fully developed, and polished. Each response paper should present an argument about at least two of the texts that you have recently read. You may write about a multitude of issues (and we will discuss the possibilities at length in class), but the key is to write an argument, not a summary, vignette, character sketch, one-act dramatic performance, book report, or any other variety of prose production. The argument must have a clear thesis statement and its claims must be fully supported with details from the texts. These assignments will be given grades based on the criteria I have detailed here and that I will discuss in class.
Essay: Students will write a well thought out and researched literary analysis of one of the class texts. Students will choose a theme or aspect of the text for analysis and reflection and compose an 8-10 page paper. This paper will be a focused and more in depth exploration of a class text and needs to include both close textual reading and analysis. The goal for this paper is to produce an arguable thesis and defend it in an articulate and concise manner. Students are encouraged to consult with me prior to beginning this assignment.

Grade Distribution
Reading Journal 15%
Book Review 15%
Reading Responses 25%
Essay 25%
Class participation including in class writing and quizzes 20%

*All work must be completed for a grade or feedback because this is a Gordon Rule course.

Grading Scale
A 90-100
B+ 86-89
B 80-85
C+ 76-79
C 70-75
D+ 66-69
D 60-65
E 0-59

Course Policies

Rules for all Assignments
• Be prepared to discuss readings on the date listed.
• Ask for clarification if any assignments/requirements seem unclear.
• All writing assignments are due at the beginning of class on the date due unless specific arrangements have been made with me beforehand.
• Late essays will be lowered by one letter grade for every day late. Nothing will be accepted after five calendar days (as opposed to class days) have elapsed. If you need to submit something late over a weekend or holiday, you should contact me via e-mail to make appropriate arrangements. 
• Small writing assignments and quizzes will not be accepted late under any circumstances.   
• Average writing gets an average grade - a C. To earn a higher grade, you must demonstrate critical acumen, an engaging style, and a convincing arguing ability. Your essays will be graded on content, organization, persuasive force, wisdom, lucidity, and other criteria according to each assignment. I expect your papers to be free of major grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
 
Submission of Writing Assignments
• Writing assignments will be submitted to me either paper or electronic format. 
• If papers are submitted via e-mail, they must be sent by the beginning of class on the day they are due. I must receive your papers via e-mail at the following e-mail address: thoup@english.ufl.edu. The paper must be e-mailed as an attachment in MS Word Format. If you do not have Word, please let me know.  
• If I request a hard copy of your papers, you must submit them at the beginning of class on the day that they are due.  
• Whether in hard print or electronic file, all papers must be typed and formatted according to the following guidelines: All margins should be 1 inch and the font should be 12 point Times New Roman. Any deviation from this format will result in penalties.  
• All citations are always expected to be in MLA format.

Attendance
Promptness and attendance are imperative in a discussion class. It should go without saying that you should arrive to class on time and well prepared. Tardiness, like sporadic absences, disrupts the class. Do not enter the class more than five minutes after it has begun. Three tardies will count as an unexcused absence. Your letter grade will be lowered one full letter grade after the third unexcused absence (university-sponsored events and documented illnesses are usually excused). Additional absences may cause you to fail the course. If you miss class, you are responsible for getting any assignments and making up any work.

Grade Complaints
A low grade on a single assignment will not prohibit a good course grade if your work improves. You should first discuss grade complaints with me. After doing this, if you still have grade complaints about multiple assignments and expect your final grade to be too low, get a complaint form from the English office and submit this along with all written work and an explanation of absences and class participation. A committee of faculty members will review each complaint and decide whether to raise, lower, or keep the given grade.

Academic Dishonesty
Unless it is specifically connected to assigned collaborative work, all work should be individual. Evidence of collusion (working with someone not connected to the class or assignment), plagiarism (use of someone else’s published or unpublished words or design without acknowledgement) or multiple submissions (submitting the same paper in different courses) will lead to the university’s procedures for dealing with academic dishonesty. All students are expected to honor their commitment to the university’s Honor Code.

Classroom Conduct
Every student in this class is expected to participate in a responsible and mature manner that enhances education. Each student is expected to show respect for the diversity of opinions expressed during discussion and in drafts. Each student should balance the desire to express opinions with the recognition that other students and the instructor in the class also need to be heard. Any conduct that disrupts the learning process may lead to disciplinary action.

Conferences
I encourage you to make arrangements to see me, especially when you have questions about an assignment, need help with a particular writing problem, want extra feedback on a draft, or have questions about my comments on your work. Of course, we can also correspond via e-mail.

Schedule
* This is not a lecture class, so come prepared to discuss the texts.

Week 1
August 24 W Class introduction and review of syllabus
August 26 F Literature to 1700 Introduction and Timeline

Week 2
August 29 M Iroquois Creation Story
Pima Stories of the Beginning of the World
August 31 W GARCILASO DE LA VEGA Florida of the Inca
JOHN SMITH From a Description of New England
September 2 F WINNEBAGO Felix White Sr.’s Introduction to Wakjankaga
From the Winnebago Trickster Cycle
KOASATO The Bungling Host

Week 3
September 5 M NO CLASS – Labor Day
September 7 W Literature 1700-1820 Introduction and Timeline
ANNE BOUDINOT STOCKTON Tears of Friendship
September 9 F BENJAMIN FRANKLIN The Way to Wealth and Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America, Response Paper 1 Due

Week 4
September 12 M J. HECTOR ST. JOHN DE CRÈVECOEUR Letters from an American Farmer, Letter III What Is an American
THOMAS PAINE Common Sense, Introduction and From III. Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs
September 14 W OLAUDAH EQUIANO From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
September 16 F PHYLLIS WHEATLEY On Being Brought from Africa to America, On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, 1770, To His Excellency General Washington and
To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth

Week 5
September 19 M Literature 1820-1865 Introduction and Timeline
September 21 W JAMES FENIMORE COOPER The Pioneers, Chapter III
September 23 F WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl and The Prairies
RALPH WALDO EMERSON Nature, The American Scholar and Self-Reliance

Week 6
September 26 M THE CHEROKEE MEMORIALS
September 28 W NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Young Goodman Brown
September 30 F HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW A Psalm of Life, The Slave’s Dream and The Jewish Cemetery at Newport
EDGAR ALLEN POE The Raven and Annabel Lee
Response Paper 2 Due

Week 7
October 3 M ABRAHAM LINCOLN Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg
HENRY DAVID THOREAU Resistance to Civil Government
WALT WHITMAN Preface to the Leaves of Grass and Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson
October 5 W MARGARET FULLER The Great Lawsuit. Four Kinds of Equality and The Great Radical Dualism
EMILY DICKINSON Poems 67, 465, 505, 640 and 712
Book Review Due
October 7 F NO CLASS - Homecoming

Week 8
October 10 M HARRIET BEECHER STOWE Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Chapter VII, Chapter IX and Chapter XII
October 12 W HARRIET JACOBS Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, I. Childhood
VII. The Lover, X. A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life and XLI. Free at Last
October 14 F FREDERICK DOUGLASS Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Chapters I, VI, VII, IX, and X

Week 9
October 17 M HERMAN MELVILLE Bartleby, the Scrivener
October 19 W Literature 1865-1914 Introduction and Timeline
October 21 F MARK TWAIN Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Response Paper 3 Due

Week 10
October 24 M MARK TWAIN The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses
JACK LONDON To Build a Fire
October 26 W KATE CHOPIN Désirée’s Baby
October 28 F BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Up From Slavery, Chapter XIV
W.E.B. DU BOIS The Souls of Black Folk, The Forethought and III. Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others

Week 11
October 31 M NAVAJO NIGHT CHANT The Sacred Mountain
CHIPPEWA SONGS The Approach of the Storm and Song of the Captive Sioux Woman
ZITKALA SA Impressions of an Indian Childhood
November 2 W Literature 1914-1945 Introduction and Timeline
WILLA CATHER Sculptor’s Funeral
November 4 F ROBERT FROST The Road Not Taken, Birches, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
EZRA POUND Portrait d’une Femme

Week 12
November 7 M T.S. ELLIOT The Waste Land
November 9 W ERNEST HEMINGWAY The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Response Paper 4 Due
November 11 F NO CLASS - Veteran’s Day

Week 13
November 14 M CLAUDE MCKAY The Lynching, America and If We Must Die
COUNTEE CULLEN Yet Do I Marvel
ZORA NEALE HURSTON How it Feels to Be Colored Me
LANGSTON HUGHES I, Too and Mulatto
November 16 W American Prose Since 1945 Introduction and Timeline
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS A Streetcar Named Desire
November 18 F RAPLH ELLISON Invisible Man, Chapter 1

Week 14
November 21 M JAMES BALDWIN Going to Meet the Man
November 23 W FLANNERY O’CONNOR Good Country People
Response Paper 5 Due
November 25 F NO CLASS - Thanksgiving

Week 15
November 28 M GLORIA ANZALDUA How to Tame a Wild Tongue
ALICE WALKER Everyday Use
November 30 W American Poetry Since 1945 Introduction and Timeline
GWENDOLYN BROOKS The White Troops Had Their Orders, The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till and We Real Cool
December 2 F ALLEN GINSBERG Howl
JOHN ASHBERY Illustration
ADRIENNE RICH Storm Warnings

Week 16
December 5 M ANNE SEXTON The Starry Night and Sylvia’s Death
SYLVIA PLATH Morning Song, Lady Lazarus and Child
December 7 W Essay Due

NOTE: I reserve the right to alter the syllabus at any time.