Fall 2008
AMS 2341.001 CV
Tues. & Thurs. 4:00 - 5:15 p.m.
SOM 2.804
American Studies for the Twenty-First Century
This course
introduces students to reading, writing, and discussion about American
literary and historical texts from the 18th century to the
present. The course surveys some of the most exciting recent work in 5
major areas: religion and politics; transnationalism; gender and
sexuality; class, labor, and consumption; race and ethnicity. Students will learn: (1) to situate
contemporary debates on these issues in larger historical and theoretical
contexts; (2) to evaluate arguments and evidence critically; and (3) to be
close readers of historical, literary and visual texts.
Learning
Objectives:
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Students will
be able to analyze works of American literature closely.
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Students will be able to describe the history behind contemporary
social, political, and cultural debates, and become educated
participants in those debates.
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Students will be able to explain the ways
race/ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality shape individuals,
institutions, and culture.
Texts:
| Hannah
Foster, The Coquette (1797) |
| James Weldon
Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912, 1927) |
| Bruce
Barton, The Man Nobody Knows (1925) (edited by Richard Fried) |
| Olive Higgins Prouty,
Now, Voyager (1941) |
| Maxine Hong
Kingston, Woman Warrior (1975) |
| Walter La
Feber, Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism (2002) |
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| Method of
Evaluation: |
Class attendance and
participation |
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Reading quizzes
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Class presentation |
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6 one-page reading
question write-ups |
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2 short (5-page)
papers |
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Midterm and final
exams |
Course Schedule:
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Thurs. 21 Aug. |
Intro. to Course -- What is a citizen? |
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Gender and Sexuality in the Early Republic and Beyond |
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Tues. 26 Aug. |
Linda
Kerber, “The Republican Mother: Women and the Enlightenment—An American
Perspective” American Quarterly 28.2 (summer 1976): 187-205
(e-reserve)
Cathy
Davidson, chap. 4, “Literacy, Education, and the Reader” in
Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America (New
York: Oxford UP, 1986): 55-79 (e-reserve)
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Thurs. 28 Aug.
** |
Foster,
The Coquette, pp. 1-114 (finish it, if you can--it's short)
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Tues. 2 Sept. |
Foster,
The Coquette, pp. 114-end |
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Thurs. 4 Sept. |
Carroll
Smith-Rosenberg, “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations
Between Women in Nineteenth-Century America,” rpt. in The Signs
Reader: Women, Gender and Scholarship, ed. Elizabeth Abel and Emily
K Abel. (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1983): 27-55 (e-reserve)
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Religion / Politics / Commerce |
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Tues. 9 Sept. |
Gail
Bederman, “’The Men Have Had Charge of the Church Work Long Enough’:
The Men and Religion Forward Movement of 1911-1912 and the
Masculinization of Middle-Class Protestantism,” American Quarterly
41.3 (Sept. 1989): 432-65 (e-reserve) |
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Thurs. 11 Sept. |
Roland
Marchand, “Men of the People: the New Professionals” in Advertising
the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940 (Berkeley:
U of California P, 1985): 25-51 (e-reserve) |
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Tues. 16 Sept. ** |
Barton,
Man Nobody Knows, introduction , chap. 1-4 (pp. vii-58) |
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Thurs. 18 Sept. |
Barton,
Man Nobody Knows, chap. 5-7 (pp. 59-102)
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Tues. 23 Sept. |
Susan
Faludi, chap. 5, “Where am I in the Kingdom?: a Christian Quest for
Manhood” in Stiffed: the Betrayal of the American Male (New
York: Harper, 1999): 224-88 (e-reserve).
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Thurs. 25 Sept.
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Colleen
McDannell, chap. 6, “Christian Kitsch and the Rhetoric of Bad Taste” in
Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America
(New Haven: Yale UP, 1995): 163-97 (e-reserve)
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Race
and Ethnicity
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Tues. 30 Sept. |
David
Levering Lewis, chap. 4, “Enter the New Negro,” When Harlem Was in
Vogue (New York: Oxford UP, 1981): 88-118 (e-reserve)
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Thurs. 2 Oct.
** |
Johnson,
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, chap. I-VIII (pp. 1-91) |
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Tues. 7 Oct. |
Johnson,
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, chap. IX-XI (pp. 92-154)
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Thurs. 9 Oct. |
MIDTERM EXAM -- Bring a Blue Book |
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Tues. 14 Oct. |
Museum Review Paper
Handout
Kimberly
Lamm, “Reinventing Empire, Celebrating Commerce: Two Lewis and Clark
Bicentennial Exhibitions,” American Quarterly 58.1 (March 2006):
181-203 (e-reserve) |
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Thurs. 16 Oct. |
Jacobson, chap. 2, "Anglo-Saxons and Others, 1840-1924" in Whiteness
of a Different Color, 39-90 |
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Tues. 21 Oct. |
Jacobson, chap. 3, "Becoming Caucasian, 1924-1965" in Whiteness of a
Different Color, 91-135 |
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Thurs. 23 Oct. ** |
Kingston, Woman Warrior ("No Name Woman"; "White Tigers";
"Shaman")
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Tues. 28 Oct.
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Kingston, Woman Warrior ("At the Western Palace"; "A Song for a
Barbarian Reed Pipe")
King-Kok
Cheung, “The Woman Warrior versus The Chinaman Pacific: Must a Chinese
American Critic Choose between Feminism and Heroism?” in Conflicts in
Feminism, ed. Marianne Hirsch & Evelyn Fox Keller (New York:
Routledge, 1990): 234-51 (e-reserve) |
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Class, Labor and Consumption |
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Thurs. 30 Oct.
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Tues. 4 Nov. |
NO CLASS -- work on Museum Review
Paper |
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Thurs. 6 Nov. |
Museum Review Paper Due / small-group
presentations
Nan
Enstad, chap. 2, “Ladies of Labor: Fashion, Fiction, and Working
Women’s Culture” in Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure: Working
Women, Popular Culture, and Labor Politics at the Turn of the Twentieth
Century (NY: Columbia UP, 1999): 48-83 (e-reserve)
Kathy
Peiss, "Making Faces: The Cosmetics Industry and the Cultural
Construction of Gender, 1890-1930," in Unequal Sisters: A
Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, ed. Vicki Ruiz and
Ellen Carol DuBois, 2d ed., 372-94 (e-reserve)
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Tues. 11 Nov.
** |
Prouty, Now,
Voyager, foreword, chap. 1-17 (vii-xvi, 1-155)
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Thurs. 13 Nov.
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Prouty, Now, Voyager, chap. 18 - end, afterword (155-284)
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Tues. 18 Nov. |
LaFeber,
Michael Jordan and Global Capitalism, preface, chap. 1-2 (1-74)
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Thurs. 20 Nov. |
LaFeber,
chap. 3, 4, 5 (75-129)
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Tues. 25 Nov. |
LaFeber,
chap. 6-7 (130-88)
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Thurs. 27 Nov. |
Thanksgiving, NO CLASS |
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Tues. 2 Dec. |
Wrap
– Up / Evaluations / Final Exam Questions Out |
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Thurs. 4 Dec. |
Literary Analysis Paper Due / oral presentations |
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Thurs. 11 Dec. |
TAKE-HOME FINAL
EXAM due in my office by 4:00 p.m. |
Course Requirements
Attendance and participation -- You are expected to come to class prepared for
discussion. Your participation includes not only expressing your own ideas, but also the
respect and seriousness with which you treat the ideas of your colleagues.
Quizzes –
brief, unannounced quizzes at the start of class.
Presentation -- You and a partner are responsible for getting
discussion of the day’s reading started once during the semester. You
should meet in advance and plan the background, issues, passages to
examine closely, and questions you want to bring to the class.
Presentations will be the first 10 minutes of class, although discussion
of questions may run much longer. You will distribute to everyone a
single hand-out you jointly produce with 3-5 questions for us to address
at the start of class. Classes available for student presenters are
marked with a ** on the syllabus.
Reading
Questions
– Six times over the course of
the semester, you will hand in a one-page (MAX) typed response to questions
about the reading. Goal is to (1) prove you’ve done
the reading; and (2) show some thoughtful consideration of the issues or
questions it raises. These are reaction papers vs. more formal writing. If
you spend more than 20-30 minutes writing, you are working too hard. I will post prompts on my website
for each day's reading. You may feel free to add thoughts/questions to
these. You must hand in three reading questions by Tues. 14 Oct.
Questions are due on the day we discuss a reading. Late questions will
not be accepted. E-mailed and faxed questions will not be accepted.
I will not accept questions from students not present in class that day.
Midterm and Final Exams --
essay exams designed to
test your mastery of course readings and class discussion, and your ability
to synthesize the material and think critically about it. Midterm is
in-class on Thurs. 9 Oct. Final exam is a take-home exam due in my office at
4:00 p.m. on Thurs. 11 Dec.
Museum Review Paper
(5 pages) – a review of a museum that represents some aspect of American
history and culture. Detailed handout to be provided. Due Thurs.
6 Nov. at the start of
class. Brief presentation in small groups required.
Literary Analysis Paper (5 pages) – a formal analysis of a
literary text we have read together this semester. Detailed handout to
be provided. Due Thurs. 4 Dec. at the start of class. Brief
presentation in small groups required.
Grading Policy -- Your grade will be based on:
| Museum Review Paper |
20% |
| Literary Analysis Paper |
20% |
| Midterm Exam |
15% |
| Final Exam |
15% |
| Presentation |
10% |
| Reading Questions |
10% |
| Reading Quizzes |
10% |
You must complete all course requirements in order to pass the class
(e.g. if you do not hand in a paper, you will fail the class, even if the other grades
average out to a passing grade). Attendance and participation will be reflected in your
grade (i.e. it doesn't matter how well you do on the other things, if you regularly don't
show for class or don't participate). Anyone missing more than 8 classes
(for whatever reason) will fail the course. Habitual lateness, absences or failure to hand in a
paper on time will be reflected in your grade. Please consult me in the event of illness,
emergency, or other extenuating circumstances.
A NOTE ON CELL PHONES AND PAGERS - TURN THEM OFF!!! They are rude,
disruptive, and disrespectful to me and to your classmates.
UNIVERSITY
POLICIES
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