Prof. Bruce Harvey
AML 4503--Modern Southern Fiction/ HUM 4544 Literature & Humanities
Spring 2005, Monday evenings 6:25-9:05, Biscayne Bay Campus

Biscayne Bay Office Hours: AC1 346, (305) 919-5254, 4:00-6:15, Mondays & Tuesdays, and by appointment
Home phone: 954-920-8938

A region of incredible rural beauty and rich folk traditions, and yet also a land bearing the legacy of slavery and vast class inequalities--the South has inspired some of the most morally profound and artistically compelling writing of the twentieth-century. Our authors--William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, Richard Wright, Carson McCullers, and Lee Smith--use their Southern experiences and the myths of the South and its history to offer complex insights about racial tensions, the relations between the sexes, family life, and the rituals of growing up. We will explore their unique visions as well as what ties them together as Southerners. I will give occasional lectures to fill in biographical and historical/cultural context, but the bulk of class time will be devoted to discussion. The course has three goals:

--to increase your knowledge about modern Southern literature
--to improve your analytical ability to see how texts work aesthetically and culturally
--to develop your skill and pleasure in communicating ideas, both in class and on paper

This is a senior-level literature course, with a lot of reading and a lot of writing, and you should be prepared to commit yourself intensely to both.

Please note: raw and racist phrasing and content appear in some of our texts, and we'll approach that material in an intellectual and non-offensive manner.

After the first meeting, email me saying "I've read the policy page"--so that I know you did and so that I will have your email address. Your email message is also a chance for you to express any initial concerns or questions that you might have about the course policies or the course in general.

TEXTS (Click on the titles below to link to reader reviews)

Richard Wright: Black Boy (Perennial Classics, 1998) ISBN: 0060929782

William Faulkner: Light in August (Vintage, 1991) ISBN: 0679732268

Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Perennial, 1998) ISBN: 0060931418

Lee Smith: Fair and Tender Ladies (Ballantine Books, 1993) NOT ORDERED YET

Carson McCullers: Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Bantam, 1983) ISBN: 0553269631

William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury (Norton, 2nd edition, 2003) ISBN: 0393964817

Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Signet, 1989) ISBN: 0451171128

GRADES

Everyone

--25% Eight one-page reading responses

--25% Six-page interpretive essay
--25% Objective short answer midterm

To meet different learning styles and interests, I've devised the options below:

Research Option
--06% Annotated bibliography of six scholarly articles or books relevant to your interpretive essay

--06% One-page summary of three of the above
--12% Ten-page researched essay, based on the earlier essay and your research

Learning Literary Theory Option

--12% Two pages summarizing the usefulness of three theories for one of our texts

--12% Two-page theoretically informed mini-reading of a portion of the text you wrote your six-page essay on

Exam Option
--25% Final semi-comprehensive in-class exam: short answer and paragraph-long responses to passages

COURSE POLICIES & ASSIGNMENTS

Participation and attendance: Every student is a vital part of the class community, and I will expect you to work to make the class an intellectually energizing experience. The flow of good discussions will result in a course more satisfying for everyone. Participation can take a variety of forms--the raising of questions or issues, stating opinions about the work or topic being discussed, responding to other students’ or my comments, involvement in group activities, and so on. Classroom participation will affect your final grade positively, helping to pull it up a notch or two (especially in borderline cases).

Always bring the syllabus and current text to class. Regular, and on time, attendance is required (I abide by FIU's policy on religious holy days). You get two absences penalty free. I won't ask, and you don't need to tell me the reason. For the next absence, your grade will be docked 2 notches--e.g. B+ to B-. If you miss four or more classes, you cannot pass the course.

Reading Responses: On each of the dates marked with a ** on the syllabus a response to a "Prof. Query" is due. These must be decent in terms of grammar, spelling/punctuation, and sentence style; and they should be focused--i.e., don't ramble and don't summarize plots. The responses are a chance for you to explore your intellectual reactions to the texts; write what you think, not what you believe I may want to hear. Sometimes I will post a passage and ask you to respond; at other times the query will be more open-ended.

Post-discussion or late responses--which should be emailed to me at harveyb@fiu.edu--will not be accepted past the Thursday after we meet, and only three of these can count towards your total. These may take off from--but must avoid merely parroting--our discussion.

The responses should be single-spaced and between 1/2 and 1 page long, printed on a single page. Put your name/my name/course title/response title at the top, with no cover page.

For each, you will receive either a "2" (thoughtful and competently written) or a "1" (not very thoughtful or poorly written) or "0" (not submitted). "1"s may be revised, but the revision must be extra thoughtful and especially polished in terms of grammar and style. All revisions must be submitted within a week of the original being returned to you. The revisions may be emailed to me, left in my mailbox, or brought to class. The collective grade for the responses will be calculated as follows: A(16-15), A-(14-13), B+(12-11), B(10-9), B-(8-7), C+(6), C(5), C-(4), D+(3), D (2), D-(1), F(0).

Occasionally, I may post online especially interesting or well-written responses, sans names.

Midterm: The midterm will be a short 1/2 hour quiz-style check on whether you've kept up with the reading and used the "Prof.'s Stuff" and "Web links" sites.

Paper and Options: Everyone writes a standard analytical-interpretive essay, six-pages long, focusing on one of our works. You then have the choice to either convert that paper into one in dialogue with other scholarship (i.e., research), or instead take a semi-comprehensive exam at the end of the semester, or learn a bit about--and demonstrate you've learned a bit about--literary theory. If you elect the research option, you then have a sequence of preparatory stages; if you elect the exam option, you take the exam on the officially designated day; if you select the theory option you must order a theory book, on your own, and follow the directions for the two related assignments.

You choose which way you want to go by completing or not completing the first research exercise or by showing me your copy of the theory book. If you follow the exam or theory option, rewrites on your paper will only be allowed if you put forth an earnest initial effort. If you follow the research option, obvious development and improvement for the final version will impress me, and will definitely be factored into your final course grade.

More specific paper-writing guidelines and models will be put online as the semester gets underway.

I will do all that I can to help you develop your analytical/interpretive writing skills, but this is not a remedial class. Little slack will be given for sloppy prose. Any essay with a number of major grammatical or sentence-construction glitches will be returned without a grade, and at my discretion will be deemed late. A late paper will be penalized 2/3rds of a grade for each class period submitted late, and only emergencies will allow you to submit your essay late without a penalty. Competing work commitments do not count as emergencies.

The following requirements are for those who select the research option:

Annotated Bibliography: You may find scholarly books and articles either on the FIU shelves or through electronic-databases, especially JSTOR and ProjectMuse. The google site--www.scholar.google.com--also is useful.. Encyclopedia-style resources, online or in the library, do not qualify as serious scholarship. For this assignment, you need only locate and skim six books and/or articles, and in one or two sentences describe their relevance to the topic focus in your paper above. The emphasis is on finding relevant research materials efficiently. I will provide very little feedback other than a letter grade: "A"=complete (six listings) and correct bibliographical format and lucid writing; "B"=good faith effort apparent, but some glitches in phrasing; "C"=half-hearted, less than six listings, and sloppy prose; "D"=less than six listings and listings don't seen very relevant to your topic along with poor prose; "F"=not submitted.

Summary of the articles: Summarize--not evaluate--three of the above. This assignment requires that you read the secondary materials closely, noting main points of the argument in each. Your job is to summarize accurately and concisely. The entire summary should be one-to-two pages long, single-spaced.

Expansion of interpretive paper: The ten-page research paper involves, potentially, a total rethinking and reworking of your initial essay, not merely an additional four pages and a few citations. My goal is to have you write a graceful, sophisticated paper that would, for example, serve you well if you planned to apply to my department's MA program or a MA/Ph.D. program elsewhere.

The following requirements are for those who select the theory option:

Buy this book (or check out of a library if available): Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. This theory introduction is suitable especially for English majors pondering graduate school or for any student interested in the intersections of literature, psychology, philosophy, and cultural criticism. Read it and consult my online lectures and links for my graduate theory course (I will show you where to go, online, down-the-road).

Two-summaries: You first submit a one-to-two page single-spaced reflection on how several of the theories reviewed in the Barry volume might apply to the book you wrote your six-page essay on; and then you write an additional mini-reading, one-to-two pages and single-spaced, using a specific theory, on a specific portion of the book.

Final Exam: The in-class final exam, for those who select the non-research or theory option, will be semi-comprehensive and consist of short answers and paragraph responses to significant quotes from our texts. Instructions will be handed out later. All course material--our main texts, my "Prof's Stuff," and "Web Link"--will be fair game for the final.

Incompletes: These can only be granted if you have a health or family emergency.

Plagiarism: Don't do it. Plagiarism is easy to detect, and the consequences for being found guilty of it can be devastating for your FIU career (besides being ethically nasty). If you do not know FIU's policies on plagiarism, learn them.

Conferences, Email, etc.: I am always happy to meet with you during office hours to talk more about the readings or other course matters. For brief questions or to set up a conference outside of my regular office hours (earlier in the day, for example), you may call me at my home number, leave a message on my office phone (305-919-5254), or email me at harveyb@fiu.edu. I almost always return email messages within the same day I receive them, so if you don't get a reply within a day, you should assume I didn't get the original message. Because this is a night class, and many of you are night students, you may need to make special arrangements to see me. Feel free to ask me how we can set up a time if my office hours do not work for you.