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. 

Prof's Stuff

Web Links

The Old South and Its Legacy to the Contemporary South

Jan 10

Course Introduction

After class tonight, go to the three sites to the right:

--browse around the Jim Crow site

--read the second selection--"Time and Frontiers," an excerpt from a classic book on Southern history, The Mind of the South, written by W.J. Cash--at the "On Being Southern" site  (the photos are not in Cash's actual book; the website author included them for their evocativeness)

--read my timeline

South Timeline

Jim Crow

"On Being Southern"

THE ABOVE SITE MAY NOT BE WORKING.  IF SO TRY THE DIRECT LINK TO THE ESSAY BELOW
 

#2"On Being Southern--Time and Frontiers" direct link"

Jan 17
No class

MLK Day Holiday
 
Try this week to get started on Faulkner's Light in August, which is long (500 pages).  If you complete the 1st half (the Jan. 24th assignment) early and want to submit the response paper this week, email it to me.  See the Faulkner link below.

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

 

Racial Relations and Versions of Southern Manhood

Jan 24**
Prof's Query

Faulkner: Light in August (1st half--Chapters 1-11)  prof query to the left

Faulkner website-slow loading

Jan 31

Light in August continued (2nd half--Chapters 12-to end)

Light in August criticism: for practice finding literary criticism go to one of the main electronic databases,  JSTOR, located within the FIU library A-Z electronic resources list.  If you do this on campus, you can get access to the database directly.  If you do it at home, you need to enter your Panther ID.  Here is the link to the A-Z list.  Once you get to JSTOR, do a search for "Light in August".  Tip, as with Google searches you should use the quote marks; otherwise you will get references to lightbulbs and months.  Scroll down four or five entries and find "Gender, Race, and Language in Light in August". Spend a few minutes reading the first several pages and ponder what you said about Lena in your response paper (if you wrote on Lena).  You will not be tested on this, but please do it as a dutiful student!

THEORY OPTION STUDENTS:  I realize buying the theory book is an additional expense.  I  will have on hand a couple of copies which some of you can borrow.

Faulkner summary

Sample Good response papers to Light in August
 

Feb 7**

Prof's Query: Select any key passage or episode in BB and address its significance.

Wright: Black Boy (Part One on the South--about 250 pages but reads very rapidly)

Faulkner summary available above in Prof. Stuff

Black Boy Review

Richard Wright Bio.

Another History of Jim Crow Site--Not required

Southern Women and Folk Communities

Feb 14**
Prof's Query:

Select the MOST key/revelatory passage in the entire novel, and argue briefly why it is.

Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Paper Writing Guidelines

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 Light in August’s conclusion, does Lena finally hook-up with the man who abandoned her?  Whose house is Joe Christmas killed in?  Briefly explain what Christmas’s problem is (this calls for interpretation, and could be answered in lots of different ways)?

Hurston Reading Guide Now Available


Sample Good response paper for Hurston

Hurston Bio.

Feb 21

Smith: Fair and Tender Ladies  (1st half, but try to read all)

Note schedule changes below.  I have to be at University Park next Monday, and so that night will be cancelled with McCuller's Heart shifted to the end of the semester.  This will work out well from your perspective, as it will give you a reading break to concentrate on your essays.

Midterm (includes 1st half of Smith)        

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

Lee Smith Biography

Above Bio. Link Comes from this General Smith site--you are not responsible for this bigger site, but browse around: read about the story of her son Josh.

Feb 28
Class cancelled

If you email me, I can email back your midterm grade.


I will be giving a lecture at Univ. Park this night.  Stay home and work on your essays due next week.  We'll complete the 2nd half of Fair and Tender Ladies next week, and move McCuller's Heart to the end of the semester.

Note sample response paper for Hurston two dates above.

Remember to notify me if you will be turning the paper in late because of other competing assignments (see top of Paper Guidelines).

MAKE UP EXAM WILL BE NEXT WEEK, 20 MINUTES BEFORE OR AFTER CLASS.

March 7**

Prof's Query: Respond to whatever interests you, as  long as your response is focused.

Or, you can respond to how she specifically portrays what I referred to as 'grit lit.', the contemporary Southern fiction that emphasizes rural, 'redneck' culture."
 

Smith: Fair and Tender Ladies (2nd half)

Essay due Friday of this week in my mailbox or via email: March 11 

If you email me, I can email back your midterm grade.


MAKE UP EXAM IS TONIGHT, 20 MINUTES BEFORE OR AFTER CLASS.

Fair and Tender Review

Self, Gender, and Family

March 14
 

Dear Students: Only about a third or one-half of you turned in your papers on Friday.  So that means the rest will be writing the paper and trying to read Sound & Fury for Monday night at the same time.  Not! 

SO . . .  tonight will be entirely devoted to work-shopping papers (yes, I encourage revision).  It will be a bit chaotic, because some will have turned in their papers into me; and some will be turning them in.  But we'll figure it all out.  Those planning to do the research option can get started on that in the library after consulting with me.  Quite likely I will present a model essay or two from papers turned in on Friday.

This has the unfortunate--depending on your perspective!--consequence of requiring that we cut a reading at the end of the semester.  See end of syllabus below.
 

Revision/Research Expansion Guidelines

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

Fair and Tender Review

March 21
No class

Spring Break

Feel free to email me during this week if you have a course question.

Revision/Research Expansion Guidelines: If I do not return feedback to you via email by March 25, email me.
 

March 28**

Prof's Query:

Respond as you wish, as long as your response is focused.

Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury (all of it, including Faulkner's appendix, but not the secondary materials in the Norton edition--you'll read some of those the next two nights)

This book is relatively short but must be read twice, the first time just to assemble "what" happens from the fragmented narrative, the second time for interpretive understanding.  Do not worry about understanding the novel on the first reading.  You will be frustrated, but a good faith effort will pay off on the second reading.

You should before you begin, or about mid-way through your first time through the novel, consult the plot/character material in the green link to the far right.

Revision/Research Expansion Guidelines: If I do not return feedback to you via email by March 25, email me.


Research Option--Annotated bibliography due via email to harveyb@fiu.edu the Friday of this week: April 1

Theory Option--Submit three-theory review via email to harveyb@fiu.edu the Friday of this week: April 1

Thematic guide/review to Sound and Fury

Same Faulkner website as at beginning of the course-slow loading



S & F Plot & Character Guide

April 4**

Prof. Query:

Respond as you wish.  But if you cannot think of something different than your previous response, I suggest you answer the question: "What is Quentin's problem?".

Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury (Read Faulkner's Appendix again, and then Sections 1 and 2 again)

Research Option--Summary of articles due via email to harveyb@fiu.edu the Friday of this week: April 8

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

Not required: but check out what other readers say!!!

April 11**

Prof. Query:

Take either of your previous two responses on S& F, and resubmit it, after revising it stylistically and in light of your second reading of the novel. 

 

Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury (Sections 3 and 4 again)

Read in Norton Critical edition:
--Richard King, "Southern Renaissance" (249-55)
--Andre Bleikasten, "The Quest for Eurydice (419-30)

Recommended in Norton Critical edition (these two essays provide good summaries of plot, theme, and character, and so are good for reviewing):

--Olga Vickery: "S&F: A Study in Perspective" (278-89)

--Cleanth Brooks: "Man, Time, and Eternity" (289-97)

April 18**

Prof. Query:

Convince me in two sentences that you have read Cat! (This may be hand written).

The class voted for Cat.  As said,  I'll buy back Heart copies from you, but do consider keeping it as it's a marvelous novel.

McCullers: Heart is a Lonely Hunter

 

Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (read the first Act 3, NOT the "Broadway Version")
Film if time: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"
Review, Wrap-Up, and Class Evaluation

Research Essay or Theory Final Assignment due in-class.

Williams Site

Cat Site

FINAL EXAM:
 

April 25

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

Exam Option--In-Class Exam