RALPH BAUER
2115 Susquehanna Hall
Department of English
University of Maryland,
College Park, MD 20742

Phone: (301) 405 3797
E-Mail: bauerr@umd.edu
website: "http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/home.html"
ENGL 313 HOMEPAGE | ABOUT THE COURSE | ON-LINE ANTHOLOGY | ON-LINE DISCUSSION FORUM | SCHEDULE | RESOURCES

ENGLISH 313:
AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE PRESENT

 

1. Description:

An overview of American literature from the seventeenth-century to the present, with a focus on major works and key literary movements. Lectures and discussions will consider historical contexts (debates on slavery, race, immigration, imperialism, and so on), along with strategies of close reading and interpretation. Two 5-7 page papers, a number of short "reader response" papers, an on-line reading journal, and a final exam.

2. Texts
(all texts in paperback available at Vertigo Books only; 7346 Baltimore Avenue, College Park, MD 20740; phone: (301) 779-9300; texts on the syllabus not on order in paperback will be made available at the ENGL313 On-line Anthology

  1. Willian Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation McGraw Hill 0075542811
  2. Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography Signet 0451524977
  3. James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans. Penguin 0140390243
  4. Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie. Penguin 0140436766
  5. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter. Houghton Mifflin 0395051533.
  6. Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Sailor and Selected Tales (Oxford World Classics) 0192839039
  7. Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems Dover Thrift Ed. 0486264661
  8. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. Oxford 0192834096
  9. Kate Chopin, The Awakening . Avon. 0380002450
  10. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes were watching God. HarperCollins. 0060916508.
  11. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath. Chelsea House. 0791041220.
  12. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. Barrons Educational Series. 0812034104
  13. James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son. Beacon Press, 0807064319
  14. Richard Wright, Uncle Tom's Children. Harper Perennial 0060812516.
  15. Toni Morrison, Beloved (Penguin) 0 452 26446 4
  16. Maxine Hong Kingston, Woman Warrior. Vintage 0072435194
3. Assignments:
a. Papers
There will be two 5-7 page papers in the class. Paper topics will be given during lectures and discussions.

b. Short Response Papers
There will also be frequent short response papers during lectures and discussions. These papers will not be individually graded but figured in collectively with your participation grade.

c. A collaborative on-line reading journal
You will contribute roughly 500 once a week to a continuous conversation conducted via email with students in your discussion section. These entries are not graded individually but will be assessed collectively. Details will be given in your discussion session.

d. a final exam will be given on finals day. The questions will be selected from a study hand-out, which will be distributed one week before the exam.