BC 3180 SCHEDULE OF READINGS
Spring 2007
Professor Gordis

NA=The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th edition, volume B

DATE TOPIC AND READING ASSIGNMENT RELATED MATERIALS
January 17 Introduction:  Washington Irving, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819-20): "The Author's Account of Himself" (handout)
January 22 The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., continued: "The Art of Bookmaking" (handout and web), "Christmas Day" (handout and web), "Traits of Indian Character" (handout and web), "Philip of Pokanoket" (handout and web), "Rip Van Winkle" (NA 978-992), "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (NA 992-1013)
January 24 James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
DUE: INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE POSTED TO THE COURSEWORKS DISCUSSION UNDER "MEET THE CLASS"
January 29 Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, continued ; Statements from the Debate on Indian Removal

 

 

 

January 30 screening of "The Last of the Mohicans," 7:30 pm in Milbank 325  
January 31 William Apess, Eulogy on King Philip, as Pronounced at the Odeon, in Federal Street, Boston (1836) (in A Son of the Forest and Other Writings, pages 103-138; also available in On Our Own Ground:  The Complete Writings of William Apess, A Pequot pages 275-310), The Cherokee Memorials, (NA 1029-1039)

 

 

February 5 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (1836) (NA 1103-1134)

EXTENDED CLASS:  CLASS MEETS 11 AM TO 12:45 PM

February 7 Emerson, continued:  The American Scholar (1837) (NA 1135-1147), The Divinity School Address (1838) (NA 1148-1159), "Self-Reliance" (1841) (NA 1160-1176)
February 12 Emerson, continued: "Experience" (1844) (NA 1192-1207), , "The Poet" (1844)  (NA 1177-1191), "Last of the Anti-Slavery Lectures" (1854)  (NA 1207-1216)

EXTENDED CLASS:  CLASS MEETS 11 AM TO 12:45 PM

February 14 Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) (NA 2131-2145), Leaves of Grass "[Song of Myself]" (1855) (NA 2146-2189), "Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson" (1856) (NA 2194-2200)
February 19 Whitman, continued.  
February 21 Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) (NA 1807-1982)

 

February 26 Walden, continued.

DUE:  ESSAY #1

 
February 28 Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845) (NA 2032-2097)

 

 

March 5 Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (3-105)

 

March 7 Edgar Allan Poe, "Sonnet--To Science" (1829, 1845) (NA 1510), "The Raven" (1845) (NA 1518-1521), "Ligeia" (1838) (NA 1525-1534), "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) (NA 1534-1547), "William Wilson. A Tale" (1839) (NA 1547-1561), "The Imp of the Perverse" (1842) (NA 1588-1592)
March 12 * SPRING BREAK--NO CLASS
March 14 * SPRING BREAK--NO CLASS
March 19 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850) (NA 1333-1474)

 

March 21 The Scarlet Letter, continued
March 26 Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851) (Read at least to the end of chapter 42, pp. xxxvii-212 in the Penguin edition.)

EXTENDED CLASS:  CLASS MEETS 11 AM TO 12:45 PM

DUE: MOBY-DICK ASSIGNMENT, CHS. 1-42

March 28 Moby-Dick, continued (Read at least to the end of chapter 82, p. 398 in the Penguin edition.)

DUE: MOBY-DICK ASSIGNMENT, CHS. 43-82

April 2 Moby-Dick, continued (Finish the novel.)


DUE: MOBY-DICK ASSIGNMENT, CHS.  82-EPILOGUE

April 4 * NO CLASS  
April 9 * NO CLASS  
April 11 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) (Read at least to the end of chapter 30, p. 386 in the Barnes & Noble Classics edition.)
April 16 Uncle Tom's Cabin, continued (Finish the novel.); Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
April 18 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, continued
April 23 Emily Dickinson, Poems 49, 67, 131, 148, 185, 214, 216, 258, 285, 303, 305, 312, 314, 315, 324, 441, 448, 501, 505, 528, 593, 632, 650, 664, 709, 939, 986, 1068, 1072, 1126, 1129, 1545, 1601, 1651 (NA 2499-2545) plus selected additional poems (handout)
April 25 Dickinson, continued Poems 199, 249, 280, 326, 328, 341, 348, 435, 449, 465, 488, 510, 520, 536, 547, 712, 732, 754, 1473, 1540, 1581 (NA 2499-2545) plus selected additional poems (handout)

Link to Johnson edition of poems 1-1775

DUE: ESSAY #2

April 30 Conclusion: Whitman, Drum-Taps (1865) (excerpts in NA 2219-2226 plus handout); Melville, Battle Pieces and Aspects of War (1866) (excerpts in NA 2427-2431 plus handout)
May 2 OPTIONAL REVIEW SESSION

 FINAL EXAMINATION scheduled by registrar, currently listed Monday, May 7 at 9 am in Milbank 325.