Syllabus

Syllabus and Course Schedule
English 2013/Introduction to American Literature

Instructor: Dr. Cory Shaman
Office:   Witherspoon 143

Email:   cshaman@atu.edu
Office hours: MWF 9-10; MW 4-5; and by
      appointment

Required Texts
      ◙ Walden and Other Writings, Henry David Thoreau
      ◙ The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories, Sarah Orne Jewett
      ◙ My Antonía, Willa Cather
      ◙ A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor
      ◙ Martín and Meditations on the South Valley, Jimmy Santiago Baca
      ◙ Vineland, Thomas Pynchon
      ◙ Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, Randall Kenan
      ◙ Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Janisse Ray

Course Objectives
      This class is designed to offer you a wide-ranging introduction to American literature of the last century and a half. We will explore significant developments in American literature by reading and engaging with primary materials and supplementary contextual information.   The class will seek to understand the evolving development of American literary culture, and we will aim to locate our own relationship to that tradition.   We will pay particular attention to the ways the non-human world is represented; in other words, we will consider how various writers understand human interaction with the natural world.   The course will fulfill General Education opportunities to develop critical thinking, communicate effectively, develop ethical perspectives, and demonstrate knowledge of the arts and humanities. You will also be expected to demonstrate effective writing in your assignments.

Course Requirements
      You will take four exams (20% each, for a total of 80%); you will write five (5) one-page responses to the reading (2% each, for a total of 10%); and quizzes will be a regular and unannounced part of the semester (10%).

Attendance and Late Work Policy
      You are allowed five (5) absences of any kind; each subsequent absence will result in a five point penalty to... [continues]

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