Artists of the Floating URL

The American Experience: Summer 2009

Welcome to The American Experience, a class that takes a book-circle approach to great works from the 19th Century to the 21st. NEW: Click here for this class's grading policy.

The aim of this course is to provide each participant (myself included) with a broad experience with the American novel. Each of us will choose our own trio of readings from a list that is broken out chronologically. Through group discussions, journal writing, papers/projects, and lively participation in this blog, we will educate each other about the books we have chosen.

Our focus is the individual's experience with key American values as they fulfill or disappoint: freedom, equality, "the pursuit of happiness," and fair governance, to name a few. We will meet men and woman who are native-born Americans and recent immigrants; black, white, red, and brown; and we will encounter voices from all of America, not only the United States.

The first week of the class will be taught by Mr. Shickler, and Ms. Schamess thereafter.

Supplies & Expectations
1. Please have a spiral-bound or marble composition book for journal entries and freewriting in class
2. It is helpful to have a folder or notebook for handouts
3. In addition to discussion participation and in-class or out-of-class journal entries, you will be expected to log into this blog once each week to comment on the question that I will post on Sunday nights. The earlier you comment, the more credit you will receive.

Our Book List
Please order the following books before June 23:

1. How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines (Paperback)
by Thomas C. Foster
# ISBN-13: 978-0060009427

2. One 19th century book chosen from the following list:
The Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
Walden, Or, Life in the Woods Henry David Thoreau
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Summer, Edith Wharton

3. One early-to-mid 20th century book chosen from the following list:
A Death in the Family James Agee
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
Sweet Thursday John Steinbeck
Native Son Richard Wright

4. One late-20th-early 21st century book chosen from the following list
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Maxine Hong Kingston
100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Marquez
Sula, Toni Morrison
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
When the Emperor Was Divine, Julie Otsuka
Grass Roof, Tin Roof, Dao Strom
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
The Color Midnight Made, Andrew Wine

Please research the plots and themes of your books (Amazon is a good source). You may wish to choose books along a theme (examples are on the next page). We will also examine poetry, essays, and other fiction excerpts along the way (for example: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe; Whitman, Leaves of Grass; Emily Dickinson; Langston Hughes; Dorothy Parker, Derek Walcott, Jamaica Kincaid, etc).

Theme Examples:
What is it to be “native” and what is it to be “other”? How does this affect a character’s quest?
The Deerslayer
Native Son
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Women’s experience of being American:
Summer
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Cat’s Eye, Sula, or any number of other titles by women on the list

African American experience of being American:
Huckleberry Finn
Native Son
Sula or The Color Midnight Made

Immigrant experience of America:
Scarlet Letter
The Great Gatsby or Sweet Thursday
Grass Roof, Tin Roof or The Woman Warrior

Peace and War:
Walden
A Farewell to Arms
Slaughterhouse 5, The Things They Carried, or When the Emperor Was Divine

Americans, Work, and Technology
Walden
Sweet Thursday
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Boundaries and Expansion
Huckleberry Finn
Sweet Thursday
Cat’s Eye or 100 Years of Solitude

A Boy’s Life
Huckleberry Finn
A Death in the Family
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Or The Color Midnight Made

A Girl’s Life
Summer
Their Eyes Were Watching God
How the Garcia Girls… or Woman Warrior, or Sula

There are many more possible themes. Have fun creating them!

posted by lisa schamess @ 6:06 PM