Martin W Kevorkian

Instructor: Kevorkian, M

Unique #: 36035

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: Enrollment in or completion of at least one honors section of an English course, admission to the English Honors Program, and consent of the honors adviser.

Description: According to the Honors Thesis Manual, a thesis is “a sustained examination of a central idea or question, developed in a professional and mature manner under the guidance of a faculty supervisor and a second reader.” That sounds easy enough, but how does one get there from here? This course offers a roadmap. Over the course of the term we will examineliterary criticism from the “inside out” and hone skills essential to a successful honors thesis. Much of the activity of the course will be driven by the interests that you bring to the table, as we iterate on your ideas to develop your research question; we will also make collective use of a limited number of “common texts” to read together in conjunction with models of scholarly inquiry.

Along the way, we will address a number of questions, both practical—How do I use the MLA Bibliography? What’s the difference between MLA and Chicago Style?—and theoretical—What does it mean to make an argument about literature? Who has authority in an act of interpretation? This course will: first and foremost prepare students to write an honors thesis; interrogate methods of literary and cultural interpretation; consider what it means to make literary arguments and conduct literary research to enter into a scholarly conversation; help students to improve their research, critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Eric Hayot, The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities (Columbia, 2014); Selected “common texts,” TBD; brief additional readings to be distributed.

Requirements & Grading: (assignment logistics, rationales, and approaches will be discussed at length during class)GRADESwill be based on your participation (20%) and the successful completion of your Project Description and Bibliography (20%), Close Reading (20%), Critical Encounter and Critical Landscape (20%), and Partial Thesis Draft of twenty pages (20%).

Required:On-time attendance (note: every absence beginning with #4 will reduce grade; NC at #9)

Required:On-time completion of reading, written exercises, research, & peer feedback assignments

Plus/minus grades will be assigned for the final grade of the course. The university does not recognize the grade of A+. Evaluation percentages approximate & subject to minor change.

E 368H  l  Honors Tutorial Course I

Instructor:  Kevorkian, M

Unique #:  36589

Semester:  Fall 2021

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites:  Enrollment in or completion of at least one honors section of an English course, admission to the English Honors Program, and consent of the honors adviser.

Description:  According to the Honors Thesis Manual, a thesis is “a sustained examination of a central idea or question, developed in a professional and mature manner under the guidance of a faculty supervisor and a second reader.”  That sounds easy enough, but how does one get there from here?  This course offers a roadmap.  Over the course of the term we will examine literary criticism from the “inside out” and hone skills essential to a successful honors thesis.  Much of the activity of the course will be driven by the interests that you bring to the table, as we iterate on your ideas to develop your research question; we will also make collective use of a limited number of “common texts” to read together in conjunction with models of scholarly inquiry.

Along the way, we will address a number of questions, both practical—How do I use the MLA Bibliography? What’s the difference between MLA and Chicago Style?—and theoretical—What does it mean to make an argument about literature? Who has authority in an act of interpretation?  This course will:  first and foremost prepare students to write an honors thesis; interrogate methods of literary and cultural interpretation; consider what it means to make literary arguments and conduct literary research to enter into a scholarly conversation; help students to improve their research, critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts:  Eric Hayot, The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities (Columbia, 2014); Selected “common texts,” TBD; brief additional readings to be distributed.

Requirements & Grading: (assignment logistics, rationales, and approaches will be discussed at length during class)

Final Thesis Prospectus (4-6 pp.) & Annotated Bibliography (20-25+ items): 40%

Writing Sample (15-20 pp. section or sections of your actual thesis): 30%

Participation (quality & consistency of discussion, formal and informal writing exercises, and peer feedback): 30%

Required: On-time attendance (note: every absence beginning with #4 will reduce grade; NC at #9)

Required: On-time completion of reading, written exercises, research, & peer feedback assignments

Plus/minus grades will be assigned for the final grade of the course.  The university does not recognize the grade of A+.  Evaluation percentages approximate & subject to minor change.

E 340  l  The American Novel Before 1920

Instructor:  Kevorkian, M

Unique #:  34919

Semester:  Fall 2020

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  In our readings of earlier American novels, we will pay attention to religion as a thematic element as well as a structuring principle.  For example, while reading early instances of the sentimental, the gothic, and the picaresque, we will conduct a speculative inquiry into how these novelistic genres might express some of the tendencies of conversion morphologies, including Puritan-approved and antinomian varieties.  Our exploration of the American Gothic will feature sustained attention to the works of Charles Brockden Brown, often referred to as the first professional American novelist.  The tradition of the captivity narrative, which often overlaps with conversion narrative, will also play a part in our account, in particular as it intersects with novels by Brockden Brown and Melville.  Although the question of religion as such will not command our entire focus, we will attempt to sustain a consistent concern with the interplay between narrative, genre, and conversion.

Texts:  William Hill Brown, The Power of Sympathy (1789) (in dual Penguin Classics edition with Foster, below) • Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette (1797) (0140434682)( ISBN-13: 978-0140434682) • Charles Brockden Brown, Charles Brockden Brown: Three Gothic Novels, Library of America edition (1883011574)( ISBN-13: 978-1883011574); includes Wieland (1798), Arthur Mervyn (1799), and Edgar Huntly (1799) • Herman Melville, Typee (1846) (0140434887)( ISBN-13: 978-0140434880).

[supplementary readings will be made available online]

Requirements & Grading:  Three essays (of 3-5 pages) will make up the bulk of the final grade.  Papers will be graded on a “portfolio” basis to afford opportunity and incentive for revisions.  Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences and tardiness will affect your grade.  Brief focused response writings will be a regular feature of the course, to be used as catalysts for discussion and the generation of essay ideas; the response writings will be due in class each Tuesday, except during weeks when a formal essay falls due.  Also, on some occasions you may be asked to facilitate the leading of discussion.

Attendance and participation, 25%; paper 1, 25%; paper 2, 25%; paper 3, 25%.

Papers are due in class no later than the date listed on the syllabus.  Late papers will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per class meeting.

E 372L  l  The American Renaissance

Instructor:  Kevorkian, M

Unique #:  35200

Semester:  Fall 2019

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: In the 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson began issuing his proclamation that "the need was never greater of new revelation than now."  Emerson called upon his audiences to declare themselves “newborn bard[s] of the Holy Ghost"--to produce American scriptures for the nineteenth century.  In the body of antebellum texts that has come to be known as the "American Renaissance," authors including Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Thoreau, and Douglass variously answered a call to prophecy--whether Emerson's or their own.  Predominantly focusing on what might more properly be called a "New England Renaissance," our course will nevertheless attend to prophetic voices, and American needs for prophecy, arising both inside and outside of Concord.

Texts: Self-Reliance and other Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson; also, please see www.rwe.org; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,FrederickDouglass; Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller; The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne; Moby-Dick, Herman Melville; Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; Walden, Henry David Thoreau.

[Supplementary readings will be made available in class or via Canvas during the semester.]

Requirements & Grading:  Two short (3-5 page) papers and one slightly longer (6-8 page) term paper will make up the bulk of the final grade.  Papers will be graded on a “portfolio” basis to afford opportunity and incentive for revisions.

Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade.  Weekly brief focused response writings, to be supplemented by reading quizzes, will be a regular feature of the course, to be used as catalysts for discussion and the development of paper topics.  Also, you may be asked to take a turn in facilitating class discussion.

Attendance and participation, 30%; Paper 1, 20%; Paper 2, 20%; Paper 3, 30%.

Papers are due in class no later than the date listed on the syllabus.  Late papers will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per class meeting.  Plagiarism = Failure.  For guidelines on Academic Integrity, please see http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/conduct/academicintegrity.php.

Re-authorizing the American Renaissance

Ah, “The American Renaissance”: our curriculum’s most comforting literary thing-in-itself and our profession’s most contested scholarly construction.  “It” has been reconfigured, reconstructed, repositioned, and subjected to a battery of vigorous revisionary interventions. The undergrad who signs on for a chance to read Moby-Dick has pretty good odds of encountering the Whale; the one who hopes to avoid reading The Scarlet Letter once again may well be out of luck.  But that leaves plenty of syllabus space to negotiate.

The so-called “New Americanists” were particularly vociferous on this channel.  Now it’s up to you, the newest Americanists, to weigh in on various canons old and new (including the new-old – some New Americanists still read Emerson, Hawthorne, and Melville – and the old-new – Tompkins’ Stowe is no longer a newcomer, and Douglass no longer lacks champions, curricular or scholarly). 

More traditional authors will be re-read in view of some of the more recent scholarship (and from scholars who have taken into account the institutional history of the criticism).  And we’ll be reading some of the later-nominated works alongside selections from the nominating criticism:  for example, “The Confessions of Nat Turner” and Eric Sundquist’s “Signs of Power” from To Wake the Nations; Sheppard Lee as introduced by Christopher Looby, and, most recently, The Killers, as introduced by Matt Cohen and Edlie L. Wong.  

Proposed Texts:

 Self-Reliance and other Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sheppard Lee, Robert Montgomery Bird

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,FrederickDouglass

Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller

The Killers: A Narrative of Real Life in Philadelphia, George Lippard

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne (possibly with The Salem Belle, Ebenezer Wheelwright)

Moby-Dick, Herman Melville

Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, John Rollin Ridge

Walden, Henry David Thoreau

Ruth Hall, Fanny Fern

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs 

Requirements:

In addition to (and usually on the way to) producing a term paper, each seminar participant will be asked to introduce one class meeting with a conference-style paper.  Also, each student should bring to the attention of the seminar one bibliographic “wild card”: some secondary or primary text useful to the aims of the course.

Instructor:  Hutchison, C

Unique #:  35745

Semester:  Fall 2018

Cross-lists:  LAH 350

Restrictions:  English Honors & Plan I Honors

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisite:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  This course studies two iconic writers of the U.S. South, William Faulkner (1897-1962) and Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964).  In doing so, it pays particular attention to the ways these writers used the literature of place to both celebrate and critique their native region.  Over the course of the term, we will read a handful of Faulkner’s stories and three major “Yoknapatawpha” novels.  In turn, we will read nearly all of O’Connor’s fiction.  The resulting back and forth will find us considering questions of race and religion; charting the confluence of history, memory, and myth; putting pressure on the terms “high modernism,” “regional writing,” and “southern gothic”; and, above all else, tending to the often-vexed relationship between individual faith and collective allegiance.

Course Objectives:  This course will: study in depth the work of two of the most challenging and influential figures in American literature; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; and help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts:  William Faulkner, Selected Short Stories (Modern Library; 978-0679424789); As I Lay Dying (Vintage; 978-0679732259); The Sound and the Fury (Vintage; 978-0679732242); Absalom, Absalom! (Vintage; 978-0679732181).

Flannery O’Connor, Collected Works (Library of America; 978-0940450370)

Requirements & Grading:  Students will produce a 4- to 6-page close reading (worth 30% of the final grade for the course) and a 10- to 12-page final project (worth 40% of the final grade for the course).  NB: There will be an opportunity to revise the close reading.  The remaining 30% of the final grade for the course will be based on participation in in-class and electronic discussions, including a presentation and weekly Canvas posts.

Instructor:  Kevorkian, M

Unique #:  35850

Semester:  Fall 2018

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  In the 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson began issuing his proclamation that "the need was never greater of new revelation than now."  Emerson called upon his audiences to declare themselves “newborn bard[s] of the Holy Ghost"--to produce American scriptures for the nineteenth century.  In the body of antebellum texts that has come to be known as the "American Renaissance," authors including Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Thoreau, and Douglass variously answered a call to prophecy--whether Emerson's or their own.  Predominantly focusing on what might more properly be called a "New England Renaissance," our course will nevertheless attend to prophetic voices, and American needs for prophecy, arising both inside and outside of Concord.

Texts:  Self-Reliance and other Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson; also, please see www.rwe.org; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,FrederickDouglass; Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller; The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne; Moby-Dick, Herman Melville; Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; Walden, Henry David Thoreau.

[Supplementary readings will be made available in class or via Canvas during the semester.]

Requirements & Grading:  Two short (3-5 page) papers and one slightly longer (6-8 page) term paper will make up the bulk of the final grade.  Papers will be graded on a “portfolio” basis to afford opportunity and incentive for revisions.

Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade.  Weekly brief focused response writings, to be supplemented by reading quizzes, will be a regular feature of the course, to be used as catalysts for discussion and the development of paper topics.  Also, you may be asked to take a turn in facilitating class discussion.

Attendance and participation, 30%; Paper 1, 20%; Paper 2, 20%; Paper 3, 30%.

Papers are due in class no later than the date listed on the syllabus.  Late papers will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per class meeting.  Plagiarism = Failure.  For guidelines on Academic Integrity, please see http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/conduct/academicintegrity.php.

Description:

Beginning with a meditation on Aristotle’s dictum that humans “differ from the other animals as the most imitative of all,” we will consider mimesis as both a descriptive and generative principle for literature.  Taking inspiration from both the formalist philology of Erich Auerbach and the interdisciplinary aspirations of Rene Girard, and like these scholars paying particular attention to the development of the novel from Miguel de Cervantes to Virginia Woolf, we will read primarily in a great tradition of modernity, especially as that tradition was crystallized in the modern era by works like Auerbach’s Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946) and institutionalized through events like the founding of Plan II (1935).

Texts:

(please purchase the editions specified by ISBN, as ordered for the bookstore  - we recommend waiting until the start of the fall semester to purchase any books as the list below is tentative and subject to change)

Don Quixote (1605,1615), Cervantes                                                                                     0060934344

The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), Goethe                                                                         014044503X

Notes from Underground (1864), Dostoevsky                                                                         067973452X

The Magic Mountain (1912-1924), Mann                                                                                0679772871

The Man Without Qualities, vol. 1 (1921-1930), Musil                                                           0679767878

The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), Adichie                                                                        0307455912

To the Lighthouse (1927), Woolf                                                                                        9780156030472

(optional) Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Auerbach       9780691113364

(optional) Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure, Girard              0801818303

Supplemental readings may be posted to Canvas.

Assignments:

Reading responses (two per week); four short essays (2-3 pages), two of them peer-edited; a final essay (5-7 pages).  Papers will be graded on a “portfolio” basis to afford opportunity and incentive for revisions.  Late work will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per class period; extensions are available upon request.  Plagiarism = Failure.  Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade.  The regular focused responses to reading should be useful as catalysts for discussion and development of paper topics.  Also, periodically you may be asked to facilitate discussion, for example by providing a question of the day or word of the day.  
                          


About the Professor:

Martin Kevorkian earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in English from UCLA.  He is the author of “Color Monitors: The Black Face of Technology in America” (Cornell Univ. Press, 2006) and articles on Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett, and John Ashbery.  Kevorkian is currently completing a book on the literary and spiritual aftermath of the American Renaissance, and he also maintains research interests in cultural representations of technology.

E 340  l  The American Novel before 1920-HONORS

Instructor:  Kevorkian, M

Unique #:  34465

Semester:  Fall 2015

Cross-lists:  LAH 350

Flags:  n/a

Restrictions:  English Honors; Liberal Arts Honors

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: In our readings of earlier American novels, we will pay attention to religion as a thematic element as well as a structuring principle. For example, while reading early instances of the sentimental, the gothic, and the picaresque, we will conduct a speculative inquiry into how these novelistic genres might express some of the tendencies of conversion morphologies, including Puritan-approved and antinomian varieties. The tradition of the captivity narrative, which often overlaps with conversion narrative, will also play a part in our account. Although the question of religion as such will not command our entire focus, we will attempt to sustain a consistent concern with the interplay between narrative, genre, and conversion.

Texts: Brown, The Power of Sympathy (online and in dual Penguin Classics edition with Foster, below) • Foster, The Coquette (0140434682) • Brown, Wieland (0140390790) • Melville, Typee (0140434887) • Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (0312256930; Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, 2nd ed., used) • Fern, Ruth Hall (0140436405)

Recommended secondary text:

Cathy N. Davidson, Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America (0195148231; Expanded Edition, 2004)

[supplementary readings – “selections” on the schedule – will be handed out in class during the semester, and/or made available online]

Requirements & Grading: Two short (4-5 page) papers and one slightly longer (6-8 page) term paper will make up the bulk of the final grade. At least one of these papers (the third) will include research drawn from secondary sources (such as articles to be found using the MLA International Bibliography). Papers will be graded on a “portfolio” basis to afford opportunity and incentive for revisions. Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences and tardiness will affect your grade. Brief focused response writings will be a regular feature of the course, to be used as catalysts for discussion and the generation of essay ideas; the response writings will be due in class each Tuesday, except during weeks when a formal essay falls due. Also, on some occasions you may be asked to facilitate discussion be preparing a “question of the day / word of the day.”

Attendance and participation, 30%; paper 1, 20%; paper 2, 20%; paper 3, 30%

Papers are due in class no later than the date listed on the syllabus. Late papers will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per class meeting.

Instructor:  Kevorkian, M            Areas:  I / H

Unique #:  35820            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2013            Restrictions:  English Honors, Plan I Honors

Cross-lists:  LAH 350            Computer Instruction:  n/a

Prerequisites: Six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Description: This course offers an opportunity to read the major poetic works of Dante Alighieri, and focuses upon American attempts, from the nineteenth century to the present, to render these literary achievements into English poetry. From Emerson and Longfellow to Pinsky and Merwin, we will consider (and compare) the efforts of noted poets to translate Dante’s own daringly living language into their own vernaculars. While the primary focus will be on the poetry, we will consider also the importance of Dante in establishing and sustaining the academic study and teaching of modern languages.

Texts: Required: Vita Nuova, Trans. Ralph Waldo Emerson; Vita Nuova,Trans. Barbara Reynolds; The Divine Comedy, Trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Inferno, Trans. Robert Pinsky; Puurgatorio, Trans. W.S. Merwin; Paradiso, Trans. Anthony Esolen.

Optional: Dante: The Poetics of Conversion, John Freccero.

Requirements & Grading: Three essays (5-6 pages each, at 250 words per page) will make up the bulk of the final grade. Papers will be graded on a “portfolio” basis to afford opportunity for revisions. Peer feedback will assist in the revision process, and the attention that you offer to your peers’ writing should help you to become a better editor of your own work as well.

Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences and tardiness will affect your grade. Weekly brief focused response writings (due each Tuesday on weeks when no formal essay falls due), to be supplemented by reading quizzes, will be a regular feature of the course, to be used as catalysts for discussion and the development of paper topics.  Also, you may be asked to take a turn in facilitating class discussion.

Attendance and participation, 25 %; paper 1, 25 %; paper 2, 25 %; paper 3, 25 %.

Melville and Earlier American Literature

Michael Davitt Bell has argued that "to dismiss detailed examination of the trajectories of individual careers as somehow irrelevant to 'culture' is to leave 'culture' itself precisely nowhere. It is not that 'culture' is located in the individuals themselves; it exists in, rather (and is sustained and transformed by), the structures of relation and interaction that make individual careers possible, that allow them to take their distinctive shapes."

We will take the distinctive shape of Melville's career as the organizing principle of our inquiry, which will consider Melville's relation to existing American literary structures. A chronological reading of some of Melville's major works will thus provide the backbone for selected readings from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century.  The course title, “Melville and Earlier American Literature,” though naming a reverse chronology in terms of the literature to be studied, in another sense gives a true sequence of the reception of these works within the academy.  That is, The Melville Revival precedes the institutionalization of the study of American Literature, as, to adapt Paul Lauter’s formulation, Melville climbed the canon before most earlier works managed to do so; to read Melville as a gateway to his predecessors is in some sense to recapitulate one early history of the field.

Possible Texts:

• Typee
• Rowlandson, “Narrative of the Captivity”
• Child, Hobomok
• “Hawthorne and His Mosses”
• Irving (selections)
• Moby-Dick
• Pierre
• The Piazza Tales
• Sedgwick (selections)
• Cooper,The Red Rover
• Israel Potter
• Franklin (selections)
• Mather, C. (selections)

We will read selected scholarship on most of the primary texts; on the Melville side, we will pay particular attention to scholars who have attempted to account for how Melville became Melville.

Requirements:

In addition to (and usually on the way to) producing a term paper, each seminar participant will be asked to introduce one class meeting with a conference-style paper.  Presenters should make this paper (approx. 8 pp double-spaced) available to the seminar no later than five p.m. on the day before the presentation. Blackboard (courses.utexas.edu) provides a simple means of email distribution.

Also, each student should bring to the attention of the seminar one bibliographic “wild card”: some secondary or primary text useful to the aims of the course.

Instructor:  Kevorkian, M            Areas:  II / F

Unique #:  35630            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: In the 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson began issuing his proclamation that "the need was never greater of new revelation than now." Emerson called upon his audiences to declare themselves “newborn bard[s] of the Holy Ghost"--to produce American scriptures for the nineteenth century. In the body of antebellum texts that has come to be known as the "American Renaissance," authors including Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Thoreau, and Douglass variously answered a call to prophecy--whether Emerson's or their own. Predominantly focusing on what might more properly be called a "New England Renaissance," our course will nevertheless attend to prophetic voices, and American needs for prophecy, arising both inside and outside of Concord.

Texts: Self-Reliance and other Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson; also, please see www.rwe.org; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass; Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller; The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne; Moby-Dick, Herman Melville; Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; Walden, Henry David Thoreau.

[Supplementary readings will be handed out in class during the semester.]

Requirements & Grading: Two short (5-6 page) papers and one slightly longer (6-8 page) term paper will make up the bulk of the final grade. Papers will be graded on a “portfolio” basis to afford opportunity for revisions.

Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. Weekly brief focused response writings, to be supplemented by reading quizzes, will be a regular feature of the course, to be used as catalysts for discussion and the development of paper topics. Also, you may be asked to take a turn in facilitating class discussion.

Attendance and participation, 30%; Paper 1, 20%; Paper 2, 20%; Paper 3, 30%.

Papers are due in class no later than the date listed on the syllabus. Late papers will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per class meeting. Plagiarism = Failure.  For guidelines, see <http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/academicintegrity.html#plagiarism>.

Course Description: According to the Honors Thesis Manual, a thesis is “a sustained examination of a central idea or question, developed in a professional and mature manner under the guidance of a faculty supervisor and a second reader.” That sounds easy enough, but how does one get there from here? This course offers something of a roadmap. Over the course of the term we will examine literary criticism from the “inside out” and hone skills essential to a successful honors thesis. Along the way, we will address a number of questions, both practical—How do I use the MLA Bibliography? How do I produce annotated bibliographies that will be useful for writing the thesis?—and theoretical—What does it mean to make an argument about literature? How does a scholar enter into an existing critical conversation?

Course Objectives: This course will: first and foremost prepare students to write an honors thesis; interrogate methods of literary and cultural interpretation; consider what it means to make literary arguments and conduct literary research; help students to improve their research, critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Course Requirements and Evaluation Method

Participation (15% of final grade)

Needless to say, students are expected to be active participants in both class discussions and thesis reading group meetings. (This is, after all, an honors seminar.) Attendance is mandatory; please let us know in advance if you need to miss a class meeting.

Bibliographies, Annotations, and Critical Review (30% of final grade)

One of the most important functions of this course will be to introduce you to the scholarly conversation that attends your thesis topic. Over the course of the term you will: produce three bibliographies of secondary texts useful to your thesis (totaling at least 30 references); provide annotations for at least 10 of these texts; and write a 3 to 5-page review of the text that seems most useful for helping you to position your own project within.    

Thesis Prospectus (25% of final grade)

In early November you will submit to your reading group, thesis director, second reader, and tutorial professors a 4 to 6-page thesis prospectus.

Symposium Presentation (30% of final grade)

This course will culminate in a day-long symposium at which you will make a fifteen- to twenty-minute presentation (i.e., 6-8 double-spaced pages) from your thesis-in-progress. The first part of the presentation (i.e., ~ 250 words) will be a précis of your thesis project.  The pages used in the presentation should be selected from a 15-20 page chapter of your thesis.  A 45-60 page thesis will typically consist of about three chapters of 15-20 pages each.  Thus, one expectation of the course will be to produce a draft of at least one such major segment of your thesis, to be submitted to your director.  As a successful thesis will be a revised thesis, you should plan to continue producing such segments on a regular basis once the course ends (winter “break” is prime writing time!) so that you will have a complete draft to show to your director well in advance of the April defense.  Two chapters drafted by January, and three chapters by February, would good targets for progress towards a successful revised and defensible thesis by April and polished final version by May.

Course Texts

 Required Core Texts

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Russ McDonald, A.R. Braunmuller, Stephen Orgel, eds. (Penguin Classics, 2000)

# 978-0140714555

 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (W.W. Norton, 1996)

#978-0393964585

 Required Secondary Texts

Wayne Booth, et al, The Craft of Research (Third Edition) (University Of Chicago Press, 2008)

#978-0226065663

 Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Norton, 2005)

            # 978-0393924091

 Marjorie Garber, A Manifesto for Literary Studies (University of Washington Press, 2003)

#978-0295983448

 Recommended Text

 Eviatar Zerubavel,The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books (Harvard, 1999)

#978-0674135864

 All additional materials will be placed on our course Blackboard site (Bb).

Instructor: Hutchison, C

Unique #: 36040

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English 303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.

Description: F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance(1941) helped define American literature for generations of students and scholars. This course revisits and re-imagines the “extraordinarily concentrated moment of expression” that Matthiessen called the “first maturity” of American art and culture: 1845-1855. We will read the canon of “past masterpieces” defined by Matthiessen (i.e., Emerson’s essays, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass)but we will read it alongside lesser-known, neglected, and “popular” texts of the period (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and tales, Frederick Douglass’s narrative,Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig).In doingsowe will consider the formation and function of literary canons and engage a series of issues central to the literature of the antebellum United States: slavery and social reform; nationalism and empire; gender and sexuality; individuality and community; originality and emulation.In sum, this course will: offer a survey of American literature, 1845-1855; consider the uses (and misuses) of literary canons; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(Yale UP; 978-0300204711); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natureand Selected Essays(Penguin; 978-0142437629);Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century(Dover; 978-0486406626);Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin; 978-0143107668);Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Parker and Harrison, eds. (Norton; 978-0393285000);Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings. Thompson, ed. (Norton; 978-0393972856);Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings. Rossi, ed. (Norton; 978-0393930900);Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855) (Penguin; 978-0140421996);Harriet E Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. (Vintage; 978-0307477453)

Requirements & Grading:

Attendance and Discussion Participation (20%of final grade for the course)--Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. You are expected to log into Zoom before class begins, with text in or at hand, ready to discuss and think about the reading for the day. Contributions to discussions will be measured by, among other things, quality of insights, familiarity with the material, responsiveness to the ideas and comments of classmates, and willingness to take intellectual risks.If necessary, reading quizzes will be used to evaluate preparedness for class.

Canvas Posts: “In the Open Air” (20% of final grade for the course)--Each week, between 2:30 pm on Wednesdayand 1 pmon Sunday, students will post toCanvas brief responses to the previous week’s reading. These responses should pose a critical question, offer an interpretation of a passage, or rebut something said in discussion. Alternatively, youmay use yourresponse to reply to another student’s question, interpretation, or rebuttal. Responses should be several sentences in length; formal writing is required. Needless to say, you may post to Canvasmore than once per week. NB: You are responsible for checking our Canvascourse site regularly; please be sure to read through each weekend’s discussion board postings before class on Monday: https://canvas.utexas.edu/.

Essays (70% of final grade)--You will produce two essays this semester. The first will offer a 4-to 5-page close reading and constitute 25% of the final grade for the course. NB: There will be an opportunity to revise and resubmit this essay. The second essay will be longer (i.e., 6 to 8 pages) and constitute 35% of the final grade for the course.Essay assignments will follow shortly.

Instructor: Hutchison, C

Unique #: 36040

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English 303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.

Description: F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance(1941) helped define American literature for generations of students and scholars. This course revisits and re-imagines the “extraordinarily concentrated moment of expression” that Matthiessen called the “first maturity” of American art and culture: 1845-1855. We will read the canon of “past masterpieces” defined by Matthiessen (i.e., Emerson’s essays, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass)but we will read it alongside lesser-known, neglected, and “popular” texts of the period (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and tales, Frederick Douglass’s narrative,Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig).In doingsowe will consider the formation and function of literary canons and engage a series of issues central to the literature of the antebellum United States: slavery and social reform; nationalism and empire; gender and sexuality; individuality and community; originality and emulation.In sum, this course will: offer a survey of American literature, 1845-1855; consider the uses (and misuses) of literary canons; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(Yale UP; 978-0300204711); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natureand Selected Essays(Penguin; 978-0142437629);Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century(Dover; 978-0486406626);Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin; 978-0143107668);Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Parker and Harrison, eds. (Norton; 978-0393285000);Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings. Thompson, ed. (Norton; 978-0393972856);Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings. Rossi, ed. (Norton; 978-0393930900);Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855) (Penguin; 978-0140421996);Harriet E Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. (Vintage; 978-0307477453)

Requirements & Grading:

Attendance and Discussion Participation (20%of final grade for the course)--Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. You are expected to log into Zoom before class begins, with text in or at hand, ready to discuss and think about the reading for the day. Contributions to discussions will be measured by, among other things, quality of insights, familiarity with the material, responsiveness to the ideas and comments of classmates, and willingness to take intellectual risks.If necessary, reading quizzes will be used to evaluate preparedness for class.

Canvas Posts: “In the Open Air” (20% of final grade for the course)--Each week, between 2:30 pm on Wednesdayand 1 pmon Sunday, students will post toCanvas brief responses to the previous week’s reading. These responses should pose a critical question, offer an interpretation of a passage, or rebut something said in discussion. Alternatively, youmay use yourresponse to reply to another student’s question, interpretation, or rebuttal. Responses should be several sentences in length; formal writing is required. Needless to say, you may post to Canvasmore than once per week. NB: You are responsible for checking our Canvascourse site regularly; please be sure to read through each weekend’s discussion board postings before class on Monday: https://canvas.utexas.edu/.

Essays (70% of final grade)--You will produce two essays this semester. The first will offer a 4-to 5-page close reading and constitute 25% of the final grade for the course. NB: There will be an opportunity to revise and resubmit this essay. The second essay will be longer (i.e., 6 to 8 pages) and constitute 35% of the final grade for the course.Essay assignments will follow shortly.

Instructor: Hutchison, C

Unique #: 36040

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English 303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.

Description: F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance(1941) helped define American literature for generations of students and scholars. This course revisits and re-imagines the “extraordinarily concentrated moment of expression” that Matthiessen called the “first maturity” of American art and culture: 1845-1855. We will read the canon of “past masterpieces” defined by Matthiessen (i.e., Emerson’s essays, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass)but we will read it alongside lesser-known, neglected, and “popular” texts of the period (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and tales, Frederick Douglass’s narrative,Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig).In doingsowe will consider the formation and function of literary canons and engage a series of issues central to the literature of the antebellum United States: slavery and social reform; nationalism and empire; gender and sexuality; individuality and community; originality and emulation.In sum, this course will: offer a survey of American literature, 1845-1855; consider the uses (and misuses) of literary canons; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(Yale UP; 978-0300204711); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natureand Selected Essays(Penguin; 978-0142437629);Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century(Dover; 978-0486406626);Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin; 978-0143107668);Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Parker and Harrison, eds. (Norton; 978-0393285000);Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings. Thompson, ed. (Norton; 978-0393972856);Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings. Rossi, ed. (Norton; 978-0393930900);Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855) (Penguin; 978-0140421996);Harriet E Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. (Vintage; 978-0307477453)

Requirements & Grading:

Attendance and Discussion Participation (20%of final grade for the course)--Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. You are expected to log into Zoom before class begins, with text in or at hand, ready to discuss and think about the reading for the day. Contributions to discussions will be measured by, among other things, quality of insights, familiarity with the material, responsiveness to the ideas and comments of classmates, and willingness to take intellectual risks.If necessary, reading quizzes will be used to evaluate preparedness for class.

Canvas Posts: “In the Open Air” (20% of final grade for the course)--Each week, between 2:30 pm on Wednesdayand 1 pmon Sunday, students will post toCanvas brief responses to the previous week’s reading. These responses should pose a critical question, offer an interpretation of a passage, or rebut something said in discussion. Alternatively, youmay use yourresponse to reply to another student’s question, interpretation, or rebuttal. Responses should be several sentences in length; formal writing is required. Needless to say, you may post to Canvasmore than once per week. NB: You are responsible for checking our Canvascourse site regularly; please be sure to read through each weekend’s discussion board postings before class on Monday: https://canvas.utexas.edu/.

Essays (70% of final grade)--You will produce two essays this semester. The first will offer a 4-to 5-page close reading and constitute 25% of the final grade for the course. NB: There will be an opportunity to revise and resubmit this essay. The second essay will be longer (i.e., 6 to 8 pages) and constitute 35% of the final grade for the course.Essay assignments will follow shortly.

Instructor: Hutchison, C

Unique #: 36040

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English 303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.

Description: F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance(1941) helped define American literature for generations of students and scholars. This course revisits and re-imagines the “extraordinarily concentrated moment of expression” that Matthiessen called the “first maturity” of American art and culture: 1845-1855. We will read the canon of “past masterpieces” defined by Matthiessen (i.e., Emerson’s essays, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass)but we will read it alongside lesser-known, neglected, and “popular” texts of the period (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and tales, Frederick Douglass’s narrative,Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig).In doingsowe will consider the formation and function of literary canons and engage a series of issues central to the literature of the antebellum United States: slavery and social reform; nationalism and empire; gender and sexuality; individuality and community; originality and emulation.In sum, this course will: offer a survey of American literature, 1845-1855; consider the uses (and misuses) of literary canons; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(Yale UP; 978-0300204711); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natureand Selected Essays(Penguin; 978-0142437629);Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century(Dover; 978-0486406626);Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin; 978-0143107668);Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Parker and Harrison, eds. (Norton; 978-0393285000);Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings. Thompson, ed. (Norton; 978-0393972856);Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings. Rossi, ed. (Norton; 978-0393930900);Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855) (Penguin; 978-0140421996);Harriet E Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. (Vintage; 978-0307477453)

Requirements & Grading:

Attendance and Discussion Participation (20%of final grade for the course)--Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. You are expected to log into Zoom before class begins, with text in or at hand, ready to discuss and think about the reading for the day. Contributions to discussions will be measured by, among other things, quality of insights, familiarity with the material, responsiveness to the ideas and comments of classmates, and willingness to take intellectual risks.If necessary, reading quizzes will be used to evaluate preparedness for class.

Canvas Posts: “In the Open Air” (20% of final grade for the course)--Each week, between 2:30 pm on Wednesdayand 1 pmon Sunday, students will post toCanvas brief responses to the previous week’s reading. These responses should pose a critical question, offer an interpretation of a passage, or rebut something said in discussion. Alternatively, youmay use yourresponse to reply to another student’s question, interpretation, or rebuttal. Responses should be several sentences in length; formal writing is required. Needless to say, you may post to Canvasmore than once per week. NB: You are responsible for checking our Canvascourse site regularly; please be sure to read through each weekend’s discussion board postings before class on Monday: https://canvas.utexas.edu/.

Essays (70% of final grade)--You will produce two essays this semester. The first will offer a 4-to 5-page close reading and constitute 25% of the final grade for the course. NB: There will be an opportunity to revise and resubmit this essay. The second essay will be longer (i.e., 6 to 8 pages) and constitute 35% of the final grade for the course.Essay assignments will follow shortly.

Instructor: Hutchison, C

Unique #: 36040

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English 303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.

Description: F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance(1941) helped define American literature for generations of students and scholars. This course revisits and re-imagines the “extraordinarily concentrated moment of expression” that Matthiessen called the “first maturity” of American art and culture: 1845-1855. We will read the canon of “past masterpieces” defined by Matthiessen (i.e., Emerson’s essays, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass)but we will read it alongside lesser-known, neglected, and “popular” texts of the period (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and tales, Frederick Douglass’s narrative,Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig).In doingsowe will consider the formation and function of literary canons and engage a series of issues central to the literature of the antebellum United States: slavery and social reform; nationalism and empire; gender and sexuality; individuality and community; originality and emulation.In sum, this course will: offer a survey of American literature, 1845-1855; consider the uses (and misuses) of literary canons; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(Yale UP; 978-0300204711); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natureand Selected Essays(Penguin; 978-0142437629);Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century(Dover; 978-0486406626);Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin; 978-0143107668);Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Parker and Harrison, eds. (Norton; 978-0393285000);Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings. Thompson, ed. (Norton; 978-0393972856);Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings. Rossi, ed. (Norton; 978-0393930900);Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855) (Penguin; 978-0140421996);Harriet E Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. (Vintage; 978-0307477453)

Requirements & Grading:

Attendance and Discussion Participation (20%of final grade for the course)--Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. You are expected to log into Zoom before class begins, with text in or at hand, ready to discuss and think about the reading for the day. Contributions to discussions will be measured by, among other things, quality of insights, familiarity with the material, responsiveness to the ideas and comments of classmates, and willingness to take intellectual risks.If necessary, reading quizzes will be used to evaluate preparedness for class.

Canvas Posts: “In the Open Air” (20% of final grade for the course)--Each week, between 2:30 pm on Wednesdayand 1 pmon Sunday, students will post toCanvas brief responses to the previous week’s reading. These responses should pose a critical question, offer an interpretation of a passage, or rebut something said in discussion. Alternatively, youmay use yourresponse to reply to another student’s question, interpretation, or rebuttal. Responses should be several sentences in length; formal writing is required. Needless to say, you may post to Canvasmore than once per week. NB: You are responsible for checking our Canvascourse site regularly; please be sure to read through each weekend’s discussion board postings before class on Monday: https://canvas.utexas.edu/.

Essays (70% of final grade)--You will produce two essays this semester. The first will offer a 4-to 5-page close reading and constitute 25% of the final grade for the course. NB: There will be an opportunity to revise and resubmit this essay. The second essay will be longer (i.e., 6 to 8 pages) and constitute 35% of the final grade for the course.Essay assignments will follow shortly.

Instructor: Hutchison, C

Unique #: 36040

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English 303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.

Description: F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance(1941) helped define American literature for generations of students and scholars. This course revisits and re-imagines the “extraordinarily concentrated moment of expression” that Matthiessen called the “first maturity” of American art and culture: 1845-1855. We will read the canon of “past masterpieces” defined by Matthiessen (i.e., Emerson’s essays, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass)but we will read it alongside lesser-known, neglected, and “popular” texts of the period (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and tales, Frederick Douglass’s narrative,Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig).In doingsowe will consider the formation and function of literary canons and engage a series of issues central to the literature of the antebellum United States: slavery and social reform; nationalism and empire; gender and sexuality; individuality and community; originality and emulation.In sum, this course will: offer a survey of American literature, 1845-1855; consider the uses (and misuses) of literary canons; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(Yale UP; 978-0300204711); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natureand Selected Essays(Penguin; 978-0142437629);Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century(Dover; 978-0486406626);Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin; 978-0143107668);Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Parker and Harrison, eds. (Norton; 978-0393285000);Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings. Thompson, ed. (Norton; 978-0393972856);Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings. Rossi, ed. (Norton; 978-0393930900);Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855) (Penguin; 978-0140421996);Harriet E Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. (Vintage; 978-0307477453)

Requirements & Grading:

Attendance and Discussion Participation (20%of final grade for the course)--Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. You are expected to log into Zoom before class begins, with text in or at hand, ready to discuss and think about the reading for the day. Contributions to discussions will be measured by, among other things, quality of insights, familiarity with the material, responsiveness to the ideas and comments of classmates, and willingness to take intellectual risks.If necessary, reading quizzes will be used to evaluate preparedness for class.

Canvas Posts: “In the Open Air” (20% of final grade for the course)--Each week, between 2:30 pm on Wednesdayand 1 pmon Sunday, students will post toCanvas brief responses to the previous week’s reading. These responses should pose a critical question, offer an interpretation of a passage, or rebut something said in discussion. Alternatively, youmay use yourresponse to reply to another student’s question, interpretation, or rebuttal. Responses should be several sentences in length; formal writing is required. Needless to say, you may post to Canvasmore than once per week. NB: You are responsible for checking our Canvascourse site regularly; please be sure to read through each weekend’s discussion board postings before class on Monday: https://canvas.utexas.edu/.

Essays (70% of final grade)--You will produce two essays this semester. The first will offer a 4-to 5-page close reading and constitute 25% of the final grade for the course. NB: There will be an opportunity to revise and resubmit this essay. The second essay will be longer (i.e., 6 to 8 pages) and constitute 35% of the final grade for the course.Essay assignments will follow shortly.

Instructor: Hutchison, C

Unique #: 36040

Semester: Fall 2022

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisites: One of the following: Comparative Literature 315, English 303D, 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or Tutorial Course 303D.

Description: F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance(1941) helped define American literature for generations of students and scholars. This course revisits and re-imagines the “extraordinarily concentrated moment of expression” that Matthiessen called the “first maturity” of American art and culture: 1845-1855. We will read the canon of “past masterpieces” defined by Matthiessen (i.e., Emerson’s essays, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass)but we will read it alongside lesser-known, neglected, and “popular” texts of the period (e.g., Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and tales, Frederick Douglass’s narrative,Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig).In doingsowe will consider the formation and function of literary canons and engage a series of issues central to the literature of the antebellum United States: slavery and social reform; nationalism and empire; gender and sexuality; individuality and community; originality and emulation.In sum, this course will: offer a survey of American literature, 1845-1855; consider the uses (and misuses) of literary canons; model methods of literary and cultural interpretation; help students to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(Yale UP; 978-0300204711); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natureand Selected Essays(Penguin; 978-0142437629);Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century(Dover; 978-0486406626);Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin; 978-0143107668);Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Parker and Harrison, eds. (Norton; 978-0393285000);Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings. Thompson, ed. (Norton; 978-0393972856);Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Other Writings. Rossi, ed. (Norton; 978-0393930900);Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855) (Penguin; 978-0140421996);Harriet E Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. (Vintage; 978-0307477453)

Requirements & Grading:

Attendance and Discussion Participation (20%of final grade for the course)--Attendance is mandatory; repeated unexcused absences will affect your grade. You are expected to log into Zoom before class begins, with text in or at hand, ready to discuss and think about the reading for the day. Contributions to discussions will be measured by, among other things, quality of insights, familiarity with the material, responsiveness to the ideas and comments of classmates, and willingness to take intellectual risks.If necessary, reading quizzes will be used to evaluate preparedness for class.

Canvas Posts: “In the Open Air” (20% of final grade for the course)--Each week, between 2:30 pm on Wednesdayand 1 pmon Sunday, students will post toCanvas brief responses to the previous week’s reading. These responses should pose a critical question, offer an interpretation of a passage, or rebut something said in discussion. Alternatively, youmay use yourresponse to reply to another student’s question, interpretation, or rebuttal. Responses should be several sentences in length; formal writing is required. Needless to say, you may post to Canvasmore than once per week. NB: You are responsible for checking our Canvascourse site regularly; please be sure to read through each weekend’s discussion board postings before class on Monday: https://canvas.utexas.edu/.

Essays (70% of final grade)--You will produce two essays this semester. The first will offer a 4-to 5-page close reading and constitute 25% of the final grade for the course. NB: There will be an opportunity to revise and resubmit this essay. The second essay will be longer (i.e., 6 to 8 pages) and constitute 35% of the final grade for the course.Essay assignments will follow shortly.