ENG 304: American Exodus (L)

Transcription

1 ENG 304: American Exodus (L) Time and Place: Summer 2015, Session 1 (May 19-June28) Tuesdays/Thursdays 6:00-9:10pm Orlando 105 Contact Information: Dr. Lucy R. Littler llittler@rollins.edu (407) Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30-6pm and by appointment Course Description: So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey - Exodus 3:8 American Exceptionalism is the belief that America and its citizens have the unique and divinely ordained right and responsibility to serve as a city on a hill, a moral and political guide for the rest of the world. Though the term itself entered academic discourse in the 1930s, American Exceptionalism is in large part a remnant of the Puritan legacy in the United States which continues to permeate modern American culture. Ideas like Manifest Destiny, the American Dream, and the American work ethic relate to this notion that in America (unlike in the Old World of Europe with its rigid class structure and its imperialistic aims), an individual can work hard, both physically and morally, and reap the benefits of American national belonging. Often, American Exceptionalism is represented metaphorically as the biblical Exodus narrative a chosen people, entering into a moral and social covenant with their God, progressing through the wilderness of trials and doubt, and emerging in their Promised Land, a land of milk and honey, where they will be rewarded for serving the God they believe to have chosen and blessed them with this divine mission. Though the Exodus model has been used exceedingly well in order to bolster notions of American Exceptionalism, our goal in this course will be to examine how various 20 th century American authors have utilized aspects of that narrative in order to challenge American Exceptionalism and the Exodus narrative s viability as a representation of American identity. The novels that we will read in this summer session problematize the utopian rhetoric of progress and liberation inherent in the Exodus story, exploring and exposing how this metaphor does not reflect the lived experiences of many American individuals. In our reading and in our class discussion, we are likely to encounter issues of class, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, and culture. In addition to the specific aims of this class as outlined in this course description, we will also continue to hone more general and foundational skills in literary studies such as close reading, critical thinking, responsible researching, and thoughtful writing. General Education Requirement (L): This course fulfills the L or Literature General Education Requirement. The Rollins faculty has described the purpose of the L requirement this way: The L requirement seeks to develop lifelong readers, sensitive to the richness of literary texts and to the pleasure of exploring that richness. In support of this goal, the L requirement develops students ability to discover and articulate the ways in which literature imaginatively reflects the human condition.

2 Credit Hour Statement for Rollins College Hamilton Holt School 6-Week (First or Second Session) Summer Courses Meeting 7.5 Hours (380 Minutes) Weekly for Four Credit Hours: This course is a four-credit-hour course that meets 7.5 hours per week for six weeks. The value of four credit hours results from work expected of enrolled students both inside and outside the classroom. Rollins faculty require that students average about 2.75 hours of outside work for every hour of scheduled class time. In this course, the additional outside-of-class expectations are reading, researching, writing. Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to 1. Engage and analyze (in their reading, discussion, and writing) the Exodus narrative as a motif in American literature and culture. 2. Closely read a work of fiction, using textual evidence to support their interpretations. 3. Produce well-written, thoroughly-developed, cohesive, thesis-driven essays, based on close reading and research. Course Texts: Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston, ISBN-13: , $12.64 Bread Givers, Anzia Yezierska, ISBN-13: , $11.95 The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West, ISBN-13: , $7.75 A Visitation of Spirits, Randall Kenan, ISBN-13: , $11.38 Paradise, Toni Morrison, ISBN-13: , $13.45 Course Policies: Class Participation. You are expected to be an active participant in this course. In other words, you must be present in both mind and body for each class meeting. Come prepared, and be on time. Behavior that detracts from progress of the class is grounds for dismissal (in which case you will be counted absent). No cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, etc, and no food in class. In the course of our readings and our discussions, we are likely to engage complex and sensitive issues (Sex! Religion! Politics! Race! Gender!). Please be respectful of yourself, each other, and our academic environment. Some tips for getting the most out of this class (and for getting a good grade in it): Keep up with the reading schedule and other homework assignments. Read actively. Take reading notes, mark relevant, interesting, or confusing passages, make character, plot, symbol, and theme lists, search for patterns, note contradictions, etc. In other words, think critically about what you re reading both while you re reading it and after you ve completed the assignment. Initially, this approach might seem like a large time investment, but in reality, reading carefully and critically will not only enrich your course (and life) experience but will also save you time in the long run as you prepare for our course requirements: class meetings/discussion, discussion board posts, quizzes, and papers. Bring the text(s) we are discussing with you to class. Please obtain a hard copy I don t allow laptops, e-readers, phones etc. in class unless you have a documented medical need for this kind of device. Be an active participant during class meetings. Don t arrive late, leave early, or step out in the middle (unless it s really, really, really necessary). Contribute to class discussion by listening to others ideas, making relevant points, asking relevant questions, and taking relevant class notes. Stay in touch with me and your classmates by coming to class regularly, asking questions and making points during office hours and via , and utilizing study/peer review groups.

3 Be respectful of your classmates and their ideas. Late work. Assignments are due at the beginning of the class meeting for which they have been assigned or at specific times on days we don t meet. See the tentative schedule for details. Late work will not be graded. Attendance. Your final grade in this course will be lowered by one full letter for each day you miss after your first two absences. This means that if you miss more than one week of class, you cannot earn an A in the course, no matter what your grades on individual assignments have been. If you miss four class meetings, or two weeks of class, you will automatically fail this course. There are no excused absences. All absences count toward the total number. You could interpret this policy as giving you two absences to do with what you like, but after that, no matter what your excuse, your final grade will reflect those absences. My advice to you is to save your absences for when you will need to miss class due to illness or schedule conflict. If you arrive to class after I have taken attendance, it is your responsibility to make sure I have counted you present. Tardiness, leaving early, or stepping out during class may result in absences. Missed quizzes (due to absence or tardiness) cannot be made up. Consider this our class participation credit if you re here, you get to take the quiz. If you have a scheduled absence due to official Rollins business, including athletics, (documentation required) you may contact me up to 24 hours before this absence in order to take any quiz you might miss during your absence. If you miss class on the day when an assignment is due, you must still turn in that assignment by class time or the assignment will be counted late. I will not allow make-up times for missed exams unless you encounter unavoidable circumstances and make arrangements with me to reschedule the exam prior to the exam date noted in the syllabus. If you must be absent from class, please contact a classmate to find out what you missed. The Honor Pledge and Reaffirmation. Membership in the student body of Rollins College carries with it an obligation, and requires a commitment, to act with honor in all things. The student commitment to uphold the values of honor - honesty, trust, respect, fairness, and responsibility - particularly manifests itself in two public aspects of student life. First, as part of the admission process to the College, students agree to commit themselves to the Honor Code. Then, as part of the matriculation process during Orientation, students sign a more detailed pledge to uphold the Honor Code and to conduct themselves honorably in all their activities, both academic and social, as a Rollins student. A student signature on the following pledge is a binding commitment by the student that lasts for his or her entire tenure at Rollins College: The development of the virtues of Honor and Integrity are integral to a Rollins College education and to membership in the Rollins College community. Therefore, I, a student of Rollins College, pledge to show my commitment to these virtues by abstaining from any lying, cheating, or plagiarism in my academic endeavors and by behaving responsibly, respectfully and honorably in my social life and in my relationships with others. This pledge is reinforced every time a student submits work for academic credit as his/her own. Students shall add to the paper, quiz, test, lab report, etc., the handwritten signed statement: On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work. Material submitted electronically should contain the pledge; submission implies signing the pledge. Students with Disabilities. Rollins College is committed to equal access and does not discriminate unlawfully against persons with disabilities in its policies, procedures, programs or employment

4 processes. The College recognizes its obligations under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to provide an environment that does not discriminate against persons with disabilities. If you are a person with a disability on this campus and anticipate needing any type of academic accommodations in order to participate in your classes, please make timely arrangements by disclosing this disability in writing to the Disability Services Office at (box 2613) - Thomas P. Johnson Student Resource Center, 1000 Holt Ave., Winter Park, FL, Appointments can be scheduled by calling or gridgeway@rollins.edu. Course Requirements: Unless otherwise noted, assignment descriptions below will serve as my grading rubrics. Reading Quizzes. In order to encourage the timely completion of reading assignments, to instigate class discussion, and to help students prepare for presentations and essays, we will have brief reading quizzes/in-class writing activities during most class meetings. Quizzes may be for individuals or for groups, and some out-of-class reading quizzes may be assigned in order to provide students with the opportunity to develop their responses over an extended period of time. Missed reading quizzes cannot be made up (see attendance policy above) unless you have a scheduled absence due to official Rollins business, including athletics, (documentation required). In this case, you may contact me up to 24 hours before the absence in order to take any quiz you might miss. Types of quiz questions you can expect: Short Answers. These questions can be answered in 1 sentence or less. Short Answer questions will ask you to identify relevant details from your reading and/or class discussion. Short Discussions. These questions can usually be answered in 1-2 well-developed paragraphs. Short Discussion questions will ask you to expand upon relevant details or ideas you re your reading and/or our class discussion, illustrating that you have not only read/listened carefully but that you have also thought critically about relevant ideas/topics/themes/etc. Quote IDs. These questions can usually be answered in 1-2 well developed paragraphs. Quote ID questions will ask you to utilize your close reading skills in order to analyze the significance of the quote provided, explaining the quote both in its original context (who is speaking, to whom, where and why?) and its significance to the text as a whole (larger themes, character development, etc). Discussion Board Posts. Writing is a useful method of assessment you can write to show what you know in a graded essay, for example. But writing is also a powerful learning tool. You can use it to discover what you know through informal journaling, freewriting, blogging, etc. Because informal writing can help you sift through your many ideas and figure out what you think on a given topic, over the course of this session you will write 10 (out of 11 possible) posts for our course Discussion Board. These word posts will be informal but public (we will read them aloud in class from time to time!). I cannot stress the following enough Do not merely summarize the reading assignment. Instead, use this opportunity to develop your thoughts on something that interested you from the novel and that you would like to discuss in class or write about in your End-of-Term Interpretive Essay (see description below). You may respond to one of your classmate s posts for that day, or something that sparked an idea in class discussion, but you should not merely repeat someone else s ideas. Posts will be graded as complete (100) or incomplete (0), based on deadline requirement, relevance to the assigned reading, length, and quality/originality of ideas, not on grammar, organization, or surface-level concerns. DB entries should be posted to the appropriately-labeled forum on our

5 course Blackboard site no later than 11:59pm on Wednesdays/Fridays. See the Tentative Schedule for exact due dates. End-of-Term Interpretive Essay. This assignment provides you with the opportunity to engage a course text of your choice over an extended period of time. In order to balance your individual interests with the overarching goals of our course, you will develop your specific essay topic from a provided list of broad topics (see below). You will support your original, thesis-driven essay with your own textual analysis and research. The final draft of your End-of-Term Interpretive Essay will be: Thesis-driven (see broad topics below; you ll narrow one of these down to create your own unique and specific thesis) Supported with your own textual analysis and 3-4 outside, scholarly sources (sources must be well-integrated into your essay and cited appropriately). Organized into cohesive, well-supported paragraphs (introductory, body, and concluding) that develop your thesis and progress logically throughout the essay with clear transitions words in length Edited for surface/sentence-level clarity and carefully proofread Formatted in MLA style ( Submitted to Turnitin by the due date specified in our tentative schedule Tech issues are not a valid excuse for missing a deadline. Plan ahead. Make sure you can submit from your home computer or laptop ahead of time or plan to use one of the many on-campus computers to submit your work. Some tips: (1) do not wait until the last minute to submit. (2) Submit your work as a.doc,.docx, or.rtf file. (3) If you are a MAC user, do not log on to Blackboard using Safari. Use Internet Explorer or Firefox instead. (4) Do not hesitate to ask me or tech services for help. Your essay grade will be lowered by one full letter if you miss or are unprepared for your individual conference meeting with me or our in-class Peer Review (see tentative schedule). Broad Topics: 1) How do 1-2 novels from our syllabus utilize the Exodus narrative in order to problematize American Exceptionalism? 2) How do 1-2 novels from our syllabus examine American identity or American national belonging via the Exodus motif? If you are having trouble coming up with a specific topic, please talk to me about it. Grading Policies: Percentages for Determining Final Grades. Quizzes 20% DB Posts 20% End of Term Interpretive Essay 60% Numeric Grading Scale. A , A , B , B 83-86, B , C , C 73-76, C , D+ 67-6, D 63-66, D , F 0-60 Grades as Defined by Rollins Course Catalog. A reserved for work that is exceptional in quality and shows keen insight, understanding, and initiative. B given for work that is consistently superior and shows interest, effort, or originality. C a respectable grade. A C average (2.00) is required for graduation. It reflects consistent daily preparation and satisfactory completion of all work required.

6 D the lowest passing grade. It is below the average necessary to meet graduation requirements and ordinarily is not accepted for transfer by other institutions. F unacceptable or failing. Tentative Schedule: Important note about Week 1: I will be at a conference (Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts, Bryn Mawr) from May 19-22, so our first 2 class meetings will take place in an online format. For our first class meeting, you should watch the prepared digital lecture/discussion under Course Documents on our Blackboard homepage. Before or immediately following this class meeting, you should begin Zora Neale Hurston s novel Moses, Man of the Mountain. On Thursday, May 21, you should watch Jump at the Sun, a documentary on Zora Neale Hurston, which is available online via Olin Library. You can find this film through the Olin website, or you can use the link on our Blackboard homepage. Week 1 Tuesday, May 19 Course Introduction (see note above) Wednesday, May 20 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Thursday, May 21 By the beginning of class time today, please read Moses, Man of the Mountain to the end of chapter. During class time, please watch Jump at the Sun (see note above). Friday, May 22 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Week 2 Tuesday, May 26 For class today, finish Moses, Man of the Mountain. Wednesday, May 28 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Thursday, May 29 For class today, read Bread Givers, pages TBA. Friday, May 30 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Week 3 Tuesday, June 2 For class today, finish Bread Givers. Wednesday, June 3 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Thursday, June 4 For today, read The Day of the Locust, pages TBA Friday, June 5 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Week 4 Tuesday, June 9 For class today, finish The Day of the Locust

7 Wednesday, June 10 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Thursday, June 11 For class today, read A Visitation of Spirits, pages TBA. Friday, June 12 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Week 5 Monday, June 15 Last day to withdraw without academic penalty. Tuesday, June 16 Finish A Visitation of Spirits Wednesday, June 17 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Thursday, June 18 For class today, read Paradise Friday, June 19 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Week 6 Tuesday, June 22 For class today, finish Paradise Wednesday, June 23 Optional Discussion Board Post due by 11:59pm Thursday, June 24 Researching/Writing Workshop, Final Paper Conferences Sunday, June 28 End-of-Term Interpretive Essay due to the Turnitin Link on our Blackboard homepage no later than 11:59pm.