LITR 221 AMU Syllabus American Literature from Civil War to Present

LITR 221 AMU Syllabus American Literature from Civil War to Present

1.Course Description

This course examines the rapid social and technological changes that have taken place in American culture during the mid-to-late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and how these upheavals have been expressed in our nation’s literature. (Prerequisite: ENGL101)

2. Course Scope

In this course, we will explore American literature from the Civil War to the present. The literature selected is diverse and represents the vast tracts of America’s culture. Timely issues and traditions are studied in their historical, social, political, and economic context. With the passage of time, these issues and dilemmas multiplied, as did the philosophic, economic, and cultural assumptions that helped frame our country. Frank Norris, an American Naturalist author, stated, “The function of a novelist . . . is to comment upon life as he sees it.”

3.Course Objectives

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to

• LO-1: Categorize the major authors of American literature since the Civil War by both genre and movement.

• LO-2: Analyze the elements of specific literary genres, including poetry, prose, and biographical accounts.

• LO-3: Compare and contrast different periods and movements of American literature.

• LO-4: Apply knowledge of literary concepts to determine where a given piece fits into the American literary canon.

• LO-5: Distinguish the characteristics that make a literary work uniquely American.

4. Course Delivery Method

American Literature Since the Civil War is delivered via distance learning. It will enable students to complete academic work in a flexible manner, completely online. Course materials and access to an online learning management system will be made available to each student. Assignments for this class include written assignments and forum assignments. Finally, in the course project the learner will be required to relate these movements, periods, and authors together in order to assert a general conclusion about American literature. Throughout the course, the learner’s writing and documentation skills will prove essential to demonstrate comprehension of the material and his/her mastery of the art of academic analysis. The instructor will support students throughout the duration of this course.

5.Course Materials

Required Texts:

All readings are linked within each unit. A textbook is not used.

Copyright Alert Electronic Materials are provided under licensing or in keeping with Fair Use exemptions for your educational use only. You may quote and utilize this material for this, other APUS courses, and related scholarly pursuits. Unless the materials are in the Public Domain or specific written arrangements are made with the Copyright holders, you may not sell, share or otherwise distribute these documents for personal or other use without the likelihood of violating Copyright Law.

6.Evaluation Procedures

Weekly Forums (a minimum of 3 weekly posts required, over at least three separate days to be eligible for a maximum C graded. Four posts over three days to be eligible for a maximum grade of B and Five posts over three days to be eligible for a grade of A) Please see weekly lessons and forums to view a detailed rubric.

Essays:

Three essays, 100 points each

2

Your final grade will be based on the following:

Grade Instruments

Percent to

Grade

Intro Forum

Forums (8) Essays 1 & 2 Essay 3 TOTAL

5% 30% 40% 25% 100%

Table of Contents

Grading Scale

Please see the Student Handbook (click here) to reference the University’s grading scale.

Table of Contents

8 – Week Course Outline

Week	Topic	Learning	Readings	Assignments and
Objectives	Forums
Introduction to	LO-1
Reading(s) Assignment	Introduction Forum
Introduction/American	Week 1 Forum
the course
Literature Post Civil War
LO-2
1. Emily Dickinson,” I’m Nobody! Who
Meeting your
Are You?”
classmates and
2. Emily Dickinson Biography
instructor
3. Walt Whitman: author biography and
literary analysis “The Good Gray Poet”
Course
4. Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
expectations	5. Walt Whitman, “A Noiseless Patient
Spider”
1
Writing about
Poetry
View the following videos from
the Favorite Poem Project:
Identity in
Literature
“I’m Nobody”
Reader
“Song of Myself”
Response
criticism
LO-1	Reading(s) Assignment
2
LO-2	Social Realism
Week 2 Forum
LO-4

3

Social Realism	Mark Twain, “War Prayer”	Essay 1
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow
Wallpaper”
Quoting,
Robert Frost: “Mending Wall”
Paraphrasing,
Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Richard
and	Cory”
Summarizing	Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Miniver
Cheevy”
Gendered
Varshika Srivastava “Modernist
Criticism	Exponents in Robert Frost’s Poetry: A
Critical Analysis”
Danny Heitman “Verse and Adverse”
Finding Literary Criticism
Writing About Literature
Thesis Statement Development
LO-1	Reading(s) Assignment
Naturalism/Realism
LO-2	Stephen Crane: Author Bio
Naturalism	Week 3 Forum
Stephen Crane: “The Open Boat”
LO-3
Jack London: Author Bio
Realism	Jack London: “To Build a Fire”
Sarah O. Jewett: “A White Heron”
LO-4
Willa Cather: “Paul’s Case”
Writing about
3	Short Stories	Anthony Channell Hilfer “Nature as a
Protagonist in ‘The Open Boat'”
Marxist
Chapter 5: “The Rise of Realism”
Criticism

4

LO-1	American Modernism (1920-1945)
Chapter 2: The Lost Generation
LO-2
LO-3
“What Is Am American Modernism
Modernism	LO-4	(1920-1945) Chapter 2: The Lost
Week 4 Forum
Generation
New Criticism	Essay 2
“What Is American in Modern American
4
Poetry? A Primer with Poems”
Ernest Hemingway: “The Fight on the
Hilltop,” “The Chauffeurs of Madrid”
F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Babylon Revisited”
John Steinbeck “The
Chrysanthemums”
E.E. Cummings: “In Just,” “Since
Feeling is First,” and “Buffalo Bill’s
Defunct”
T. S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock”

TS Eliot: “The Hollow Men”

Ernest Hemingway: “The Fight on the
Hilltop,” “The Chauffeurs of Madrid”
F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Babylon Revisited”
John Steinbeck “The
Chrysanthemums”
E.E. Cummings: “In Just,” “Since
Feeling is First,” and “Buffalo Bill’s
Defunct”
T. S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock”
LO-1	Reading(s) Assignment TS Eliot: “The Hollow Men”
LO-2	Week 5 Forum
Harlem	LO-3	Harlem Renaissance
Renaissance	LO-4	American Modernism (1920-
1945) Chapter 5: The Harlem
Renaissance
New Historicism

erican in Modern American Poetry? A Primer with Poems”

Langston Hughes: Author Bio Langston Hughes:

“The Negro Speaks of

Rivers”

“Mother to Son” “I, To” “Harlem” Countee Cullen: Author Bio Countee Cullen: “Yet Do I

Marvel”

5

Zora Neale Hurston: Author Bio Zora Neale Hurston: “Spunk”

Langston Hughes: Author Bio
Langston Hughes:
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
5	“Mother to Son”
“I, To”
“Harlem”
Countee Cullen: Author Bio
Countee Cullen: “Yet Do I Marvel”
Zora Neale Hurston: Author Bio
Zora Neale Hurston: “Spunk”

6

LO-	Reading(s) Assignment
1	Post- Modernism
Post-	LO-
Modernis	2
Week 6 Forum
m	LO-
Video: Post-Modernism
3
Flannery O’Connor: Author Bio
LO-
Flannery O’Connor: “Good Country
Psychoanalyti	4
People”
c Criticism	Tim O’Brien: Author interview
Tim O’Brien: from “Going After
6
Cacciato”
Joyce Carol Oates: Author Bio
Joyce Carol Oates: from “Blonde”
Theodore Roethke: “My Papa’s Waltz”

7

LO-	Reading(s) Assignment
1	Post- Modernism continued
LO- John	Grisham: “Somewhere for Everyone”
Reading and
5 Sharon
Olds “First Thanksgiving”
Writing about
Winter” Linda the Happy” Dark? Larry Locate Postmodern from Week
Non- Fiction
“Still Life in Landscape”
7	and Poetry
“After Making Love in
“The Planned Child” Pastan “A Rainy Country” “I am Leaning to Abandon World” “The Obligation to Be
”
Levis: “Signs” “To a Wren on Calvary” “Winter Stars”
and read four poems by a American author of your choice the included list 7 Forum Essay

“Why Are Your Poems so

8

LO-1
LO-3	Reading(s) Assignment
LO-5	Multi-Culturalism
Jhumpa Lahiri: “The Long Way Home:	Week 8 Forum
MultiCulturalism	Cooking Lessons”
Sherman Alexie: “What You Pawn I Will
Redeem”
Final Thoughts
Sandra Cisneros: “Woman Hollering
Creek”
Alice Walker: “In Search of Our
Mothers’ Gardens”
“Turning Madness Into Flowers #1”
8

LATE ASSIGNMENTS

Students are expected to submit classroom assignments by the posted due date and to complete the course according to the published class schedule. As adults, students, and working professionals, I understand you must manage competing demands on your time. Should you need additional time to complete an assignment, please contact your instructor before the due date so we can discuss the situation and determine an acceptable resolution.

Work posted or submitted after the due date will be reduced by 10% of the potential total score possible for each day late up to a total of five days, including forum posts/replies, quizzes, and assignments. Beginning on the sixth day late through the end of the course, late work, including forum posts/replies, quizzes, and assignments, will be accepted with a grade reduction of 50% of the potential total score earned.

Also, completing all Assignments (under the “Assignments” tab) is paramount to your success in this course. Your final course grade may be withheld if you have not done so.

Netiquette

Online universities promote the advancement of knowledge through positive and constructive debate – both inside and outside the classroom. Forums on the Internet, however, can occasionally degenerate into needless insults and “flaming.” Such activity and the loss of good manners are not acceptable in a university setting – basic academic rules of good behavior and proper “Netiquette” must persist. Remember that you are in a place for the rewards and excitement of learning which does not include descent to personal attacks or student attempts to stifle the Forum of others.

• Technology Limitations: While you should feel free to explore the full-range of creative composition in your formal papers, keep e-mail layouts simple. The Sakai classroom may not fully support MIME or HTML encoded messages, which means that bold face, italics, underlining, and a variety of color-coding or other visual effects will not translate in your e-mail messages.

• Humor Note: Despite the best of intentions, jokes and especially satire can easily get lost or taken seriously. If you feel the need for humor, you may wish to add “emoticons” to

help alert your readers: ;-

Academic Services (Online Library)

The Online Library is available to enrolled students and faculty from inside the electronic campus. This is your starting point for access to online books, subscription periodicals,

1 1 and Web resources that are designed to support your classes and generally not available through search engines on the open Web. In addition, the Online Library provides access to special learning resources, which the University has contracted to assist with your studies. Questions can be directed to librarian@apus.edu.

• Charles Town Library and Inter Library Loan: The University maintains a special library with a limited number of supporting volumes, collection of our professors’ publication, and services to search and borrow research books and articles from other libraries.

• Electronic Books: You can use the online library to uncover and download over 50,000 titles, which have been scan

Electronic Journals: The University provides access to over 12,000 journals, which are available in electronic form and only through limited subscription services.

• Tutor.com: AMU and APU civilian & Coast Guard students are eligible for 10 free hours of tutoring provided by APUS. connects you with a professional tutor online 24/7 to provide help with assignments, studying, test prep, resume writing, and more. is tutoring the way it was meant to be. You get expert tutoring whenever you need help, and you work one-to-one with your tutor in your online classroom on your specific problem until it is done.

Request a Library Guide for your course ( The AMU/APU Library Guides provide access to collections of trusted sites on the Open Web and licensed resources on the Deep Web. The following are specially tailored for academic research at APUS:

• Program Portals contain topical and methodological resources to help launch general research in the degree program. To locate, search by department name, or navigate by school.

• Course Lib-Guides narrow the focus to relevant resources for the corresponding course. To locate, search by class code (e.g., SOCI111), or class name.

If a guide you need is not available yet, please email the APUS Library: