| Professor Christine
Doyle 319 Willard Hall 832-2764 doylec@ccsu.edu |
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If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible. See office location and hours above.
COURSE DESCRIPTION/OBJECTIVES:
America's writing women have always been, as Elaine Showalter puts it, "Hybrid"
writers: they write both as Americans and as women. While acknowledging that
this is true in a general sense for any writer (i.e., she/he writes as a hybrid
of the many things she/he may be), in this course we will be exploring some
of what that meant specifically to American women who wrote before the beginning
of the twentieth century, as they contributed to the work of establishing an
American consciousness in traditional genres (poetry, personal narrative), emerging
genres (novel, short story, sensation fiction, slave narrative), and genres
generally known as "women's writing" (sentimental fiction, children's
fiction). In analyzing selections from each of these genres, we will consider
the thematic, narrative, and linguistic modes these women employed, the tensions
their texts exhibit between literary conventions and the particular stories
being told, and the extent to which they address the notion of woman as artist.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
The Sovereignty and Goodness of God . . .
(Rowlandson)
The Coquette
(Foster)
Kelroy
(Rush)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
(Jacobs)
Uncle Tom's Cabin
(Stowe)
Little Women
(Alcott)
Scribbling Women
(Ed. Showalter)
RECOMMENDED FOR BACKGROUND READING:
Beneath the American Renaissance
(Reynolds) [19th cent.]
Revolution and the Word
(Davidson) [earlier writers]
Sister's Choice
(Showalter) [good chapter on
Little Women
Little Women
and the Feminist Imagination
(Eds. Alberghene and Clark) [a collection of critical essays on Little Women
Whispers in the Dark
(Keyser) [on Alcott]
Sentimental Designs
(Tompkins) [sentimental fiction; Stowe]
The Feminization of American Culture
(Douglas) [deplores most of the works we're reading!]
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1. Short (1-2 pages) response papers 25%
2. Term Paper 25%
3. Midterm Exam 20%
4. Final Exam 20%
5. Presentation 10%
Response papers: On class days indicated
by *** (ten times during the semester), please prepare a 1-2 page response paper
in which you focus on one aspect of your response to the reading assignment.
These are most effective when you think about one event character, passage,
etc., that intrigued, confused, or otherwise interested you, and explore that
one element in a few paragraphs of focused writing, with careful attention to
the text involved. The purpose of these responses is to get you thinking ahead
of time about issues that could develop into promising class discussions. These
will be graded on a 1-10 scale; lowest one will be dropped. MUST be handed in
at class meeting.
Term papers: 10+ pages for undergraduate credit, 15+ pages and outside research
required for graduate credit. Topic of choice, but I recommend that you speak
to me about your topic before beginning; use MLA format for citations. Due no
later than 3 p.m. May 8.
Exams: Midterm will be a take-home exam, essay format. Final will be a combination
of short answer and essay. More information closer to exam dates.
Presentation: Each student will launch our class discussion of one work with
a 10-minute presentation focusing on one or two of the brilliant insights he/she
has derived from the day's reading. Grad students will base their presentations
on a critique of a secondary source pertinent to the reading. Sign-ups for presentations
during the second week of class.
Participation: Regular attendance is required; more than three absences will
result in a grade deduction. Consistently scintillating class discussion is
also required. This size of this class is purposely small to encourage a seminar
format. Translation: I expect you to TALK! Make it your goal to say SOMETHING
(besides "Good morning!") during every class period.
NOTE CONCERNING WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS: Please remember that this is a 400-level literature course. You are expected to be able to develop an interesting and sophisticated thesis about the work(s) you examine and to support it with textual evidence. In addition, you are expected to be able to employ the conventions of standard written English correctly, and to be able to use your primary and secondary sources with proper documentation and without plagiarizing. In other words, form AND content matter in ALL your written work. Please see the attachments to this syllabus regarding standards for written work, and ask questions whenever they arise.
SCHEDULE: Note--you are responsible for
changes in this schedule announced in your absence. When we are spending more
than one day on a work, please try to have at least half the work read by the
first class date, and the rest by the next, in order to contribute meaningfully
to class discussion.
January 23
Introduction; Anne Bradstreet
25
Anne Bradstreet (handout)
28
The Sovereignty and Goodness
(Rowlandson); read text of the narrative (pp. 61-112),
pp. 149-153, and pp.164-168
30
Rowlandson
Feb. 1
Rowlandson
4
The Coquette
(Foster)
6
The Coquette
The Coquette
Kelroy
(Rush)
13
Kelroy
HOLIDAY
18
HOLIDAY
20
Kelroy
The early nineteenth century: Lydia Maria Child (handout)
25
***Catherine Sedgwick (SW),Elizabeth Stuart Phelps; Frances Harper (SW)
27
Early writers (cont.)
Mar. 1
Margaret Fuller (handout)
4
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe)
6
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Jacobs)
15
Incidents
Jacobs
Midterm EXAM due
SPRING BREAK
Apr. 1
Behind a Mask
(Alcott; SW)
Behind a Mask
Little Women
(all of Part I; Part II, Ch. 24-25, 27, 32-35, 38, 40, 42-end)
10
Little Women
"Circumstance" (Spofford; SW)
17
***Dickinson (handout)
19
Dickinson
22
***"Life in the Iron Mills" (Davis; SW)
24
"Life in the Iron Mills" 26
"Marcia" (Davis; SW)
29
***Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (4 stories; SW)
May 1
Freeman
3
Freeman
6
"The Storm" (Chopin; SW)
8
Review