Paper Writing Guidelines  Revision/Research Expansion Guidelines
Course Summary NOT AVAILABLE YET   Final Instructions NOT AVAILABLE YET

Class Date

Please check the online syllabus once a week for notes to the class in red and for new "Prof's Stuff" or "Web Links" materials..

Romanticism summary

Another Romanticism summary

Jan 25**

Prof's Query#2--Respond to whatever interests you in Melville's  "Bartleby"

Class Tip: Think about writing your essay on "Bartleby" (it's short, which means you can read it over and over again for interpretive nuance!)

Melville: "Bartleby, the Scrivener"  (in the thin Dover edition)
Irving: "Rip Van Winkle" (e-text)

Dear Students:  My apologies for keeping you past 9:05 last week.  That won't happen again.  I owe each of you a cup of coffee!!!

I will briefly lecture on the Irving story, but most of class time we'll spend discussing Melville's story.  Both for this class and the next class on Dickinson we'll do some sort of exercise to help you start thinking about/getting paper topics.  It is early in the semester to talk a lot about papers, but if you get an idea for a paper, feel free to email me and we can discuss.

I've put lecture/discussion review notes above in "Prof's Stuff" for Emerson & Thoreau.

STUDENTS INTERESTED IN THE THEORY OPTION--CLICK HERE FOR AMAZON.COM READER REVIEWS OF THE THEORY BOOK.
 

IMMENSITY WITHIN: DICKINSON

Feb 1**

Prof's Query#3--Provide a mini-analysis of any of the poems.  If you wish, "translate" a poem into a prose narrative. E.g. "Dickinson imagines herself seeing her own corpse, with family members around...."

Dickinson: Letters and Poems (I'll provide a handout)

If you did not get a handout, email me and I will send it to you (but it's a big file).

Rip and Bartleby Prof. Stuff reviews are above.

Dickinson site--just look at pictures in sublinks to see where Dickinson lived, etc.

Dickinson bio.

POE'S GOTHIC INTERIORITY: METAPHYSICAL CAPTIVITY

Poe: "Marginalia (The Veil of the Soul)," "To Helen," "Annabel Lee," "The Poetic Principle,"  "The Oval Portrait" (e-texts),

Poe: "The Cask of Amontillado,: cut from reading list" "The Tell-Tale Heart," & "The Black Cat" (in our edition of Poe)

Feb 15

Poe: "The Purloined Letter," "Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Fall of the House of Usher," & "Manuscript Found in a Bottle," & Narrative of A. Gordon Pym cut from reading list
 

Paper Writing Guidelines  

To the right I've put lecture notes for Poe for last week's discussion.  You MUST read this review before you read the stories for this week.
 

Other Miscellaneous:

--you probably noticed that I wrote big 6:25's on the board.  'Nuff said, I hope!

--some of you need to re-read the policy on absences.  Because the class meets once a week, missing one class is really equivalent to missing two regular classes.  Also 'nuff said, I think.

--I quote myself from an earlier Prof. Stuff link: A General Tip about Being an English Major or Liking Literature: The more you study it the appeal is not just whether a story is a "good" read, but also sorting through the interpretive possibilities.  Analysis can give you a headache, or seem boring, only if you get too preoccupied with correctness.  Part of the fun is seeing how much you can "get" out of a story, but then also to realize that what you "get" is indefinite.   To put it in a phrase, the pleasure and futility of your own ingenuity is what it is all about.  The WHOLE goal of the class is to be dazzled by your own interiority. 

--putting on the Freudian hat: please, please keep in mind that the point is not to linger vulgarly on sexual meaning in our works.  Rather, desire/longing gets articulated in many ways.  With Poe, longing for the metaphysical "supernal" (more or less equivalent to Emerson's cosmic oversoul or diminishment of "mean egotism"), for re-attachment to the maternal presence, for erotic satisfaction/engulfment, for exploring the deep depths of our own interiority--all are convertible terms. 

--see sample Dickinson response above next to Dickinson week

Midterm Instructions:

The midterm will consist of 20 or so fill-in-the blank or one sentence response questions.  The questions will be about basic plot, character, or interpretation issues.  The goal is to reward those who have attentively done the reading.  It should take no more than ½ hour to complete.  You are responsible for everything that you’ve been assigned up to the midterm, including the text to be read on the day of the midterm, and “Prof. Stuff” and the exterior links.  You are NOT expected, however, to memorize the materials in my lecture/discussion summaries or in the exterior links.  I’ll leave it to your own discretion, but if you’ve done the reading and already checked out the websites and my lecture reviews, you really should not have much to prepare for. 

Sample questions: In Irving’s “Rip” what significant change is conveyed by the tavern’s sign?  What does Bartleby say frequently?

Feb 22

 

Douglass: Narrative of...

Midterm Today (includes Douglass; see instructions from previous week)

Paper Writing Guidelines--same as above but with some paper possibilities at the top  

March 1**

Prof. Query#5: Citing particular episodes, argue briefly whether you think UTC is racist or not racist.

Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin (Chapters I-XVIII first half)

This is a LONG book but an easy read.

Douglass review is up in Prof. Stuff above.  I ENCOURAGE you to write on Douglass, if you do not already have a topic simmering, as the 1845 edition is short and "easy" to manage.  Use my Prof. Stuff notes as a brainstorming aid, for instance, over the inside/outside circle issue.
 

P.S. If you truly do not understand some of my summaries (as opposed to just not reading them), you should speak to me.  A good test case is the lastest summary on Douglass: if you do not get the point (or see why it is a BIG point vs. much-to-do-about-nothing) about either the inside/outside episode or the voyeurism implicit in the Aunt-being-beaten episode, I'd like to buy you coffee and chat.

Some of you have become very passive readers, which given that this is an advanced-level literature class, is not what it is all about.  Those who actively participate, history has shown (as I remember grade books from years past), get amply rewarded!  'Nuff said, I hope! 

Read this very brief summary of
course thus far if you have not already done so

March 8

Dear Students: I'm concerned that many of you seem overextended/fatigued and are not keeping up with the reading and thus are not participating, which as I've emphasized is really key.  If you don't write about something or talk it through, you won't remember it.  Exams have their utility, but they are a poor substitute for active, engaged thought getting expressed.  My goal would be for each of you to have an "expression epiphany"!!!

So, how about a breather.  The paper and option schedule remains the same, but Stowe gets pushed forward one week, and 1/2 of Whitman gets sliced off at the end.

This means all you have to do this week for this class is to turn your paper in on Friday.  BUT come tonight prepared to share your paper ideas with your fellow students; bring a first paragraph or two if you have it.

We might also see a film.

Essay Due Friday of this week either in my mailbox or via email: March 11 
Please do not forget to tell me if you will be turning the paper in late because of competing assignments (see top of Paper Guidelines).

Theory Option--Email me indicating that you have ordered the theory book by the end of this week.

March 22
No class: Spring Break

Spring Break


Revision/Research Expansion Guidelines (I will be emailing feedback to you this week and next week; if you do not hear from me by March 25th, email and ask for your feedback)

SAMPLE PAPERS FROM PREVIOUS AMERICAN ROMANTICISM CLASSES--
(NGers OR LOW GRADE FOLKS SHOULD READ THESE SAMPLE PAPERS; AND, OF COURSE, YOU SHOULD GO OVER YOUR PAPER WITH ME IN CONFERENCE DURING MY OFFICE HOURS OR AFTER CLASS BEFORE YOU REWRITE IT)
 

Feel free to email me during this week.
 

The prudent student would get a start on Melville's Moby-Dick!

March 29**
 

Prof. Query#6:
 

Respond as you see fit.

Melville: Moby-Dick: xi-xv (introductory material in the edition I ordered, but if you have a different edition just read the introductory/prefatory stuff in it) and Chapters 1-22, 26-32, 35-39, 41-42, 44, 46-52, 55, 58-61 (I've cut mainly chapters that detail aspects of whaling, but which do not develop the plot or characters)


Research Option--Summary of articles due via email to harveyb@fiu.edu the Friday of this week: April 8 (see policy page for brief instructions)

Theory Option--Submit mini-reading using theory via email to harveyb@fiu.edu the Friday of this week: April 8

Take your previous MDick response and resubmit it, after revising it stylistically and in light of your completion of the novel. 
 

Moby-Dick Review Notes

AMERICAN BODILY ECSTASY & EMPATHY: WHITMAN

Whitman:  "Song of Myself"  (You can skim thru the following sections somewhat: 7, 12, 14, 16-18, 21-23, 26, 30, 41-47; the other sections should be read intently)

Review, Wrap-Up, and Class Evaluation
 

Research Essay or Theory Final Assignment due in-class. 

Whitman: Calamus poems--"In Paths Untrodden," "Whoever You are Holding Me Now in Hand," "For You O Democracy," "Trickle Drops," "City of Orgies," "I Hear it was Charged against Me," "Here the Frailest Leaves of Me," "A Glimpse," "I Dream'd in a Dream," "Among the Multitude"

"The Wound-Dresser" and "As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life"

FINAL EXAM:
 

April 26

Tuesday at regular class time 6:25-9:05

Exam Option: In-Class Exam