ENLT 2513-02: Race and Performance in American Literature

 

Instructor: Sarah Ingle

Email: sei5j@virginia.edu

Spring 2015

Class Meets: Tuesday and Thursday 3:30-4:45 pm in Shannon House #108

Office Hours: Mon. and Wed. 4-5 pm and by appointment in Dawson’s Row #203

Semester Schedule (subject to change):

 

Tues 1/13: Introduction

Thurs 1/15: Thomas Jefferson, excerpt from Notes on the State of Virginia; essay on race

Tues 1/20: James Fenimore Cooper, Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Thurs 1/22: Cooper, Last of the Mohicans

Tues 1/27: Cooper, Last of the Mohicans; Watch the movie before class.

Thurs 1/29: Read a chapter from Robert Toll’s “Blacking Up” and read/listen to minstrel show materials from the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture” website

Tues 2/3: Herman Melville, “Benito Cereno” (1855)*;

Thurs 2/5: William Wells Brown, The Escape; Or, A Leap for Freedom (1858)

Tues 2/10: Mark Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1896?) [Chapters 1-?]; Kate Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby”* (1893)

Thurs 2/12: Mark Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1896?) [Chapters ?-end].

Tues 2/17: Watch Bamboozled (2000 movie directed by Spike Lee) before class.

Thurs 2/19: Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901)

Tues 2/24: Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901)

Thurs 2/26: Zitkala-Sa, excerpts from American Indian Stories [First Paper Due Today.]

Tues 3/3: Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood (1905)

Thurs 3/5: Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood (1905)

March 7-14: Spring Break. No class.

Tues 3/17: Jean Toomer, Cane (1923) [to page?]

Thurs 3/19: Jean Toomer, Cane (1923) [to page?]

Tues 3/24: Nella Larsen, Passing [chapters 1-?]; Langston Hughes, “Passing,” Countee Cullen, poems??

Thurs 3/26: Nella Larsen, Passing [chapers ?-end]

Tues 3/31: Watch The Jazz Singer (1929 silent movie) before class and read essay.

Thurs 4/2: Long, “Madame Butterfly” (1898); [Paper 2 Due Today!]

Tues 4/7: Otana Watanna, A Japanese Nightingale (1901)

Thurs 4/9: Sui Sin Far, Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912, selected stories)

Tues 4/14: Sui Sin Far, Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912, selected stories)

Thurs 4/16: David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly (198?)

Tues 4/21: David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly (198?). Finish reading the play and watch the movie (with Jeremy Irons) before class.

Thurs 4/23: TBA

Tues 4/28:TBA; [Paper 3 Due Today!]

Final Exam

Assignments:

 

Weekly Reading Responses: Each week you will need to submit a discussion question, comment, or insight to the class email about one of the week’s reading assignments. You may choose which day of the week you want to submit your response and which text or texts you want to consider. These email responses should be brief: at least 3 or 4 sentences but no longer than a couple of paragraphs. Quality matters more than quantity, so don’t feel pressured to share every single insight that you have about the text. Instead, focus on a specific line, word, passage, character, or event that you feel is important or worthy of further discussion and explain why you feel that way. Feel free to comment on aspects of the text that make you feel angry, confused, or frustrated as well as on things that you like. The main purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about (and sharing with one another) questions and issues that you may want to explore in our class discussions or in your essays. The quality of your weekly reading responses will count toward your participation grade, and I will use them as inspiration when I write the final exam. Please submit each week’s reading response by 7 am at the latest so that your classmates and I have time to read it before class.

 

Essays: You will write three short essays (5-7 pages) over the course of the semester. For the first paper, I will distribute prompts; for the others, you will choose your own topics. Successful papers take intellectual risks and demonstrate independent engagement with the text that goes beyond the points made in class. Your second and third papers should include at least one outside source in addition to the primary text.

 

Article Analysis: In the second week of class, you will be asked to sign up for a week when you will be responsible for finding a scholarly article about one of the texts or authors that we are reading. Then, you will need to write a brief summary and analysis of the article’s argument. Your analysis should be about a page long (single-spaced) and should explain what you found compelling or persuasive in the author’s argument and what (if anything) you consider to be its weaknesses or limitations. You should email your article analysis to the class by 11 pm on the night before our class meeting and be prepared to talk about it in class. You do not need to submit a separate reading response for that week.

 

Final Exam: The exam will consist of passage identification questions, several short answer questions, and one long essay, in which you will demonstrate your mastery of the course material and ability to relate the texts to one another.

 

Absences: All students are expected to come to class on time and be prepared for discussion. You will be allowed 3 absences that will not harm your grade. Use them wisely. Except in the case of true emergencies, any further absences will count against your overall grade. Each absence after the first three lowers your final grade by one third of a letter grade.

 

Grading: Your final grade for the course will be calculated according to this scheme:

Essay 1: 15%

Essay 2: 20%

Essay 3: 20%

Participation: 20% (includes weekly reading response emails)

Article Analysis: 5%

Final Exam: 20%