Engl 2110 American Lit
1, O'Donnell, ETSU, Fall 2023
[ Policies ]
[ Calendar ]
Calendar
last update: December 2, 2023
- Class meets on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from10:30 to 11:25am in Burleson 302.
- Note: Due to my
daughter's school schedule I have cancelled four Friday class meetings this
semester. Those meeting dates are Sep 1; Sep 15; Oct 13; and Oct 27.
- See
"Policies" link, above, for a calendar overview.
WEEK 1
Wednesday, Aug 30
Read "My Kinsman,
Major Molineaux", the short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, on p308 of the
2nd volume of the 10th edition of the Norton Anthology of American Lit.
Friday, Sep 1: Class cancelled.
WEEK 2
Monday, Sep 4: Labor day.
Wednesday, Sep 6:
Read "The Author's Account of Himself," from The
Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, by Washington Irving (p27-28). And read
"Rip Van Winkle" (p29), also by Irving.
Also read James Fenimore Cooper,
excerpt from Chapter III of Volume II of The Pioneers [The Slaughter of
the Pigeons] (p72).
Friday, Sep 8
Read Edgar Allan Poe, "Ligeia" and "The Black
Cat." (I will not necessarily provide page numbers for reading
assignments, from here on out. Use the index, in the back of the anthology, to
find page numbers for the readings.)
Read "The Humbug:
Edgar Allan Poe and the economy of horror." By Jill Lepore. The New
Yorker, April 27, 2009, here online: www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/04/27/090427crat_atlarge_lepore.
(Click here for a cached
version.)
Reading response due: Respond to Poe's short stories.
Do you enjoy the stories? Do they creep you out? What effects do the stories
have on you, and why? Describe the narrators. Describe the settings. 1-2 typed
pages. Bring a hard copy of your response to class, and be prepared to pass it
around to other students.
WEEK 3
Monday, Sep 11: Read Frederick Douglass, Narrative of
the Life...[1845]; the headnotes, preface and chapters 1-9.
Wednesday, Sep 13: Read Douglass chapters 10-11, and the
appendix.
Friday, Sep 15: Class cancelled.
WEEK 4
Monday, Sep 18
Read headnotes for
Harriet Beecher Stowe (p760-762), and read these 4 chapters from Volume I of
Stowe's 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin: Chapters I, III, VII, and
IX; pages 762-794.
Also read "Did a
book start the Civil War? 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is a testament to the power of
culture." By David Reynolds. New York Daily News, Monday,
April 11, 2011. www.nydailynews.com/opinion/book-start-civil-war-uncle-tom-cabin-testament-power-culture-article-1.112605
Wednesday, Sep 20
Continuing Volume I of
Stowe's novel, read chapters XII, XIII, and XIV.
Friday, Sep 22
From Volume II of
Stowe's novel, read chapters XXXI, XXXIV and XL; pages 843-859.
Reading response due: Compare Douglass's nonfiction
account of American slavery in the decades before the Civil War with H. B.
Stowe's fictional account of the same general subject matter. How are these
accounts similar? How are they different?
WEEK 5
Monday, Sep 25
Read "The Cherokee
Leader Who Paved the Way for MLK." By Steve Inskeep. The Washington
Post, May 29, 2015. Click here: faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/inskeep_cherokee_leader.pdf
Read Elias Boudinot --
headnote, and excerpt from the first edition of the Cherokee Phoenix,
Feb 21, 1828; pages 287-291.
Wednesday, Sep 27
Read "The Cherokee
Memorials," headnote and Memorial of the Cherokee Council dated Nov 5,
1829; pages 292-297.
Friday, Sep 29
Read the letter from R.
W. Emerson to Martin Van Buren, April 23, 1838; pages 301-304.
WEEK 6
Monday, Oct 2
Read Ralph Waldo
Emerson's poem, "Brahma," here online: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45868/brahma-56d225936127b
Read Herman Melville's
poem, "The Portent," page 1422.
Read Thoreau, excerpt
from "A Plea for Captain John Brown;" pages 1060-1064.
Wednesday, Oct 4
Read, from Thoreau's Walden,
at least one chapter of your choosing, from 8 chapters that are included in our
anthology (chaps 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18), on pages 947 to 1049. Be
prepared to present the chapter you choose, in class. Be prepared to discuss
why you chose that chapter, explain what the chapter is about, and select a
good passage to read aloud in class.
Friday, Oct 6
Read Ralph Waldo
Emerson, "The Divinity School Address;" pages 203-216.
WEEK 7
Monday, Oct 9
Read the first 3
chapters -- pages 406-419 -- of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel, The
Scarlet Letter.
Wednesday, Oct 11
Exam 1, in class today.
Friday, Oct 13: Class cancelled.
WEEK 8
Monday, Oct 16: Fall break. No class.
Wednesday, Oct 18:
Extra credit event: Poetry Hoot at the Down Home,
300 W. Main Street, 7-9pm.
Friday, Oct 20
Read chapters 4, 5 and 6
-- pages 419-435 -- of The Scarlet Letter.
WEEK 9
Monday, Oct 23
Read chapters 7 through
15 -- pages 435-480 -- of The Scarlet Letter.
Wednesday, Oct 25
Read chapters 16 through
24 -- pages 480-523 -- of The Scarlet Letter.
Extra credit event: Author
Jeff VanderMeer speaks, Brown Hall Auditorium, 7pm.
Friday, Oct 27: Class cancelled.
WEEK 10
Monday, Oct 30
Read Lincoln's
Gettysburg address and 2nd inaugural address, in volume B of the Norton
anthology.
Wednesday, Nov 1
Read "When Lilacs
Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" by Whitman, pages 1382-1388 in volume B of
the Norton anthology.
Friday, Nov 3
Read three poems that
George Moses Horton published in 1865, on pages 1618-1621 of volume B of the
Norton.
Read five poems that H.
Melville published in 1866, on pages 1422-1425.
WEEK 11
Monday, Nov 6
In volume A of the
Norton anthology, read the following by Anne Bradstreet -- "To the Memory
of My Dear and Ever Honored Father ..." p218; "To Her Father..."
p220; "The Author to Her Book" and "Before the Birth..."
p230; "To My Dear and Loving Husband" p237. Also read the
5 poems on p234-238, and the letter which appear on pages 241-249.
Reading response due: Respond to Bradstreet's poems.
What do they tell you about Puritan experience, and the Puritan mindset? Do you
feel any connection to Bradstreet? Focus on one or two poems, and quote a
passage or two.
Wednesday, Nov 8
Read, in volume A of the
Norton anthology, the following poems by Phillis Wheatley -- "On
Being Brought..." p715; "To the Right Honourable William..."
p715; "To S.M., a Young African Painter..." p721; "To His Excellency
General Washington" p722.
Friday, Nov 10: Class cancelled.
WEEK 12
Monday, Nov 13
Read from the
Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson, volume A, p622-628 (wherein he discusses the
drafting of the Declaration). Read excerpts from "Notes on the State
of Virginia," p629-639.
Wednesday, Nov 15
Read "President
Tom’s Cabin: Jefferson, Hemings, and a disclaimed lineage," by Jill
Lepore, The New Yorker, September 22, 2008: www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/02/22/president-toms-cabin (click
here for a
cached version).
Also read "The
Monster of Monticello" [on Jefferson's views of race]. By Paul
Finkelman. New York Times, November 30, 2012. www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/opinion/the-real-thomas-jefferson.html
Extra credit event: Author
Jim Minick speaks, Rogers-Stout 102, 4pm.
Extra credit event: Poetry Hoot at the Down Home,
300 W. Main Street, 7-9pm.
Friday, Nov 17
Read, here online:
"Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black
Americans have fought to make them true." By Nikole Hannah-Jones. The 1619
Project. The New York Times, August 14, 2019. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html
. If that link is behind a paywall, try this
link; or click
here for a cached version.
Reading response due: Respond to Nikole Hannah-Jones
article. Write a few paragraphs. Bring what you've read by Thomas Jefferson
into your discussion.
WEEK 13
Monday, Nov 20
Read Thomas Paine,
"The Crisis, No. 1," p607-613 of volume A of the Norton; and Chapters
I and II from "The Age of Reason," p613-616.
Wednesday and Friday,
Nov 22 and 24: Thanksgiving
holiday.
WEEK 14
Monday, Nov 27
Read Ben Franklin,
excerpts from Part Two of his autobiography -- including the prefatory short
letters by James and Vaughan, respectively -- on pages 504-520 in volume A of
the Norton Anthology. Also read Franklin's "The Way to
Wealth."
Wednesday, Nov 29
Read, here online,
"The Creed: What Poor Richard cost Benjamin Franklin," by good
ol' Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, Jan 28, 2008: www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/01/28/the-creed (click
here for a
cached version).
Friday, Dec 1
Read the 25 poems by
Emily Dickinson that appear from page 1512 through the top of page 1525, in
volume B of the Norton anthology.
Reading response due: Write a couple of paragraphs
about one of those 25 Dickinson poems that you read for the assignment today.
Consider: Why did you choose to write about this particular the poem? What is
the poem about? What effect does the poem have on you? What do you think were
Dickinson's intentions, in writing the poem?
WEEK 15
Monday, Dec 4
Skim the Dickinson poems
on pages 1525 to 1544 of volume B of the Norton anthology. Pick 2 poems to read
out loud, on your own time. Then come to class prepared to present and discuss
the 2 poems that you have selected.
Wednesday, Dec 6
In-class review
for exam 2.
Friday, Dec 8: Class cancelled.
Exam
2 is held during the final exam period: Weds Dec 13, 8-10am