Stephen Crane, Maggie, Girl of the Streets
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland and Selected Stories
Henry James, The American
Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs
Frank Norris, The Octopus
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Edith Wharton, House of Mirth
Cynthia Griffin Woolf, ed., Four Stories by American Women

In addition to these primary texts, I will be handing out xeroxes of secondary literature covering topics of discussion periodically during the term. These are equally required reading. For the most part I have spread discussion of longer novels over two weeks, but remember, a literary work's beginning is often especially significant in terms of its end. Keep up!

Prospects:

In this course, you will read literature by mostly major figures written between the Civil War and World War I. During this period, the United States underwent enormous transformations in religion, science, technology, and culture, the last of which-especially literary culture-seems most often to have served in this period to smooth over the difficulties brought by changes in the others. Thus the last word you should expect linked with the kind of "realism" we will study this term is "hard-nosed." What kind of "realism" we do find, and why or how we can (or should?) call it "realism" today will be one of our main focuses throughout the course.

As you may glean from this brief introduction, our primary concern (though certainly not our only concern) this term will be to discover the ways in which "history"-variously defined-actively shapes literature, and the way literature in effect "talks back" to history, giving the subjects of late ninteenth and early twentieth-century culture a new way of seeing their contemporary life in ideological terms. In all cases "presentism" should be resisted; rather, our primary (again, not our only) critical goal will be to attain a kind of 'immanent' understanding of these texts in terms of their particular American cultural milieu.

Class Schedule:

January 14 Introduction: "Realism," Ideology and History
January 21 Life in the Iron Mills (Woolf edition)
January 28 The American
February 4 The American
February 11 A Connecticut Yankee
February 18 A Connecticut Yankee
February 25 The Country of the Pointed Firs
FIRST PAPER DUE
March 4 The Octopus
March 11 The Octopus
March 18 Herland
SPRING BREAK
April 1 Maggie, Girl of the Streets
April 8 Sister Carrie
April 15 Sister Carrie
April 22 The House of Mirth
April 29 OPEN
SECOND PAPER DUE
FINAL EXAM Wednesday, May 5, 8:00 pm!

Writing Assignments

1. Throughout the course, you will enrich your understanding of the texts and our discussion by writing about them. From time to time I will give you 15 minutes at the start of class to write something on a subject both a propos and impromptu. These writings will serve our class discussion, but they will also be handed in at the end of the term and graded (to continue the irritating pattern of foreign words in this paragraph) ensemble. Make a folder for them.

2. A short essay (750-1200 words) is due February 25. The topic of this paper is up to you, but it MUST INVOLVE A CLOSE READING OF ONE OF THE TEXTS discussed thus far in the course.

3. As soon as you get your bearings over the first few weeks, you should start thinking about topics for a research paper of 1500 words (6 pages) or more, due at the end of the term (April 29). Topics, along with a five item (or more) bibliography MUST BE APPROVED, by me, by April 6 at the very latest.

Class Participation:

This course (like every other) requires your active participation. This can be accomplished in two ways: 1) In-class participation. This does not mean students MUST speak in class, but it does mean active listening. As I look out into the classroom, if I don't hear your voice I should at least see your eyebrows go up and down every so often. 2) Network dialogue. On the first day of class, I will subscribe all students to Amlit-L, a listserv through which we can conduct discussions beyond class-time. SINCE THIS CLASS MEETS ONLY ONCE A WEEK, A CONTINUED LISTSERV DIALOGUE (more writing, folks) WILL BE ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO YOUR SUCCESS AND THE SUCCESS OF THE CLASS.

Grades:

Short essay 20%,
In-class writing portfolio 25%,
Long Essay 30%,
Final Exam 25%

FYI:

My office is 2001, Classroom Building. E-mail: t-scherman@neiu.edu
Office hours, Mondays and Wednesdays: 10-11:30 am, Thursdays 3:00-4:30 pm or by appointment @x2724.