|
http://www.fiu.edu/~harveyb/bruceharvey http://www.turnitin.com
course I.D. =3040210 password = columbus AML 4213—Journeys to America (Early American Literature) Prof. Bruce Harvey Office Phone: 305-919-5254 harveyb@fiu.edu Key concepts about this country's national identity took shape as European travelers explored and then settled upon the continent. In this course, we'll read travel narratives, autobiographies, political-religious treatises, novels, and other literary works to examine how the new nation, ideologically and psycho-culturally, came into being. Our readings will especially focus on pre-1830 cross-cultural encounters and clashes from a variety of perspectives (native American, European, and African).
I will give occasional lectures to fill in historical or cultural or theoretical context, but the bulk of class time will be devoted to discussion. Besides introducing you to a fascinating area and era of study, a major goal of this course is to improve your analytical abilities--specifically, your ability to see how texts work rhetorically, aesthetically, and culturally. Another major goal is to develop your skill and pleasure in communicating ideas, both in class and on paper. |
|
|
|
Shakespeare, The Tempest (Pelican) Sagely, imperialistic-minded Prospero vs. the sly, lyrical, beastly Caliban: this late play of the Bard presents the key issues that later define the New World experience.
This volume includes an autobiography of a demur Puritan woman, Mary Rowlandson, who learns to survive in the Indian “wilderness”; and the memoir of a Quaker woman who recalls her rebellious escape from paternal and cultural tyranny to carve out a space of independence in the New World.
From village in Africa, to slave ship, to the Americas and middle-class success: Equiano’s life-story captures the early tensions of African-American identity in elegant and stirring prose.
|
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.
Response Papers: Response papers help make sure you are on "top" of the readings and prepared for discussion (in lieu of quizzes or exams!) and help you develop the habit of intense scrutiny. There will be ten of them, each worth ten points; grades will be based on a standard grade scale (i.e., A- =9, B- = 8, etc.). There will be two catch-up responses towards the end of the semester (to replace 0/F grades or lackluster ones), but otherwise they will be due, via Turnitin, on the designated dates on the syllabus. Usually, you’ll be asked to respond to a passage in a work we’re about to discuss, or you’ll be asked to select a significant passage on your own and justify/explain its significance; sometimes the cues may be more open-ended. I’ll give the response paper cue at least one week in advance; they must be submitted before the class meeting they are associated with. I’m not a word counter, but you should try for about 250 words for each response. A decent style, solid grammar, and clarity and insight are expected. Please submit them via Turnitin in single-space format. Feedback will not be lavish, but I will try to direct your attention to poor prose habits and potential seed ideas (in anticipation of the Essay below).
Essay: Topics will be given for this ten-page paper; I encourage you, however, to develop your own. A handout for topics and essay-writing tips will be provided down-the-road. 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 a grade for each class period submitted late, and only emergencies will allow you to submit your essay late without a penalty. Revisions will be accepted up to two weeks after you get your paper assessed on Turnitin; please review your paper with me in conference before you revise it. The revision grade replaces the original grade; however, my standards for revision are very high, so casual revising (fixing a problem here and there) will not earn you a better grade. Submit the revised paper directly to me via email (not Turnitin).
Take-home Final Synthesis Exam:
You will be given three broad and comprehensive questions roughly two weeks
before the due date of the exam (the otherwise date for an in-class exam, if
there were one). You will choose one of the questions, leading you to
discuss an issue/theme/etc. in four or five of our main authors. Instructions
will be provided down-the-road. As this essay is at the end of the
semester, revisions will not be possible. Incompletes: These can only be granted if you have a health or family emergency.
Plagiarism:
Don't do it. Plagiarism is easy to detect (especially by the Turnitin
site), 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. If you get desperate/stressed
in your course work, it’s better to talk to your professor than to passively
not turn in work or cheat.
|
|
SYLLABUS CALENDAR
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
