American Lit COURSE CALENDAR ◌ FALL 2020
KEY
All reading responses, the midterm, and the essay are due on or before 11:59 p.m. on the Sunday following the week the assignment is indicated. For instance, a reading response listed under the week August 30-September 5 would be due on or before 11:59 p.m. on September 6 (the Sunday—and first day—of the following week). The final exam must be completed on or before 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, December 15. The assigned readings that require reading responses are indicated in fuchsia semibold italics. EXAMS AND THE ESSAY ARE INDICATED IN ALL CAPS IN BLUE BOLD ITALICS. THE WEEK OF THE FALL BREAK IS INDICATED IN ALL CAPS IN BLACK BOLD. Also, don’t get confused when you see a hyphen followed by my initials—“-ALW”—at the end of a sentence or under several sentences. It’s a weird habit I started years ago to show that I had actually written something instead of a work-study student, an assistant, a secretary, etc.
CALENDAR
AUGUST 24-29 · Introduction to the class. · Complete course agreement. AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 5 · “The Storm” (C544) by Kate Chopin · “The Other Two” (C857) by Edith Wharton
Allen Loibner-Waitkus
SEPTEMBER 6-12 · “[I died for Beauty - but was scarce]” (C100), “[Because I could not stop for Death -]” (C101), & “[I heard a fly buzz - when I died -]” by Emily Dickinson · “The Yellow Wallpaper” (C844) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman SEPTEMBER 13-19 · “The Road Not Taken” (D230) & “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (D233) by Robert Frost · “Sweat” (D517) by Zora Neale Hurston SEPTEMBER 20-26 · “Winter Dreams” (D630) by F. Scott Fitzgerald · “Barn Burning” (D771) by William Faulkner SEPTEMBER 27-OCTOBER 3 · “Hills Like White Elephants” (803) by Ernest Hemingway · “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (D835), “Mother to Son” (D835), & “Theme for English B” (D844) by Langston Hughes · “Yet Do I Marvel” (D854) by Countee Cullen OCTOBER 4-10 · “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” (D958) by Richard Wright · “I Have Been Called a Luddite” (Instructor-provided Readings 32) by Kurt Vonnegut · “Drowning with Others” (E362), “The Leap” (Instructor-provided Readings 15), & “Adultery (Instructor-provided Readings 17) by James Dickey OCTOBER 11-17 · “Going to Meet the Man” (E392) by James Baldwin · “Good Country People” (E435) & “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (E449) by Flannery O’Connor MIDTERM EXAM OCTOBER 18-24 · “Howl” (E487) & “Footnote to Howl” (E495) by Allen Ginsberg · “Sylvia’s Death” (E551) by Anne Sexton · “Ariel” (E625) & “Daddy” (626) by Sylvia Plath OCTOBER 25-31 · “The Woman Thing” (E685) by Audre Lorde · “Entropy” (E731) by Thomas Pynchon · “Sex Without Love” (E857) by Sharon Olds
NOVEMBER 1-7 · “Everyday Use” (E913) by Alice Walker · “Living Like Weasels” (Instructor-provided Readings 22) & “From For the Time Being” (Instructor-provided Readings 30) by Annie Dillard NOVEMBER 8-14 · “Lullaby” (E1042) by Leslie Marmon Silko · “Woman Hollering Creek” (E1101) by Sandra Cisneros NOVEMBER 15-21 · Heart of a Dog* (Video and Downloadable MP4 in “Course Content”) by Laurie Anderson NOVEMBER 22-28 FALL BREAK—NO CLASSES NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 5 · A Streetcar Named Desire* (E76) by Tennessee Williams DECEMBER 6-12 FINAL (and ONLY) ESSAY DUE DECEMBER 13-15 FINAL EXAM
*Two things: First, the reading responses for Heart of a Dog and A Streetcar Named Desire will be worth two points (as opposed to the single point all other reading responses are worth) because they are longer works. Also, I just wanted to point out that longer works, like Heart of a Dog (a film) and A Streetcar Named Desire (a play) are normally italicized, as they are in this footnote. You may, however, notice that they aren’t in italics in the calendar. That’s because—like all other titles and page numbers that require reading responses to be written on them—are in fuchsia italics. When you are using italics within italics, you actually do the opposite and not italicize the part that should be in italics that is placed inside italics for another purpose. -ALW