Project Descriptions

19th Century American Literature

Assumption College

During the first two-thirds of the semester you will be learning how to interpret literary texts by reading them in connection with other primary and secondary texts from the same period. In the final third of the semester, you will use the topic you found most interesting in your previous work as the starting-point for an independent research project. In the process of developing your interpretation, you will bring together and use your own collection of nineteenth and twentieth primary and secondary sources.

Regular Schedule for Our Work:

We will typically be spending two weeks on each of the main texts for the course.

You should read 100 pages before each Tuesday class meeting (unless an alternate assignment has been made); you should read at least fifty pages before each Thursday class. You should complete your reading of the text before the fourth (and final) class discussion of the work.

You should submit a reading log by e-mail to lyceum@eve.assumption.edu before the first Tuesday on which a text is discussed; you should submit a research log before the second Tuesday's meeting.
Late logs will not normally be accepted. If there are extraordinary circumstances, please consult with the professor as soon as possible.

Reading Logs:

These logs are intended to help you make sense of your reading.

In each log you will quote and discuss two or more passages in the text which relate to a single theme. In some cases, you will be expected to discover themes in the course of your reading; in other cases suggestions will be provided in the syllabus. However, even if options are offered you should always feel free to pursue any theme you find particularly interesting.

Once you have transcribed the quotations you have selected, discuss what you can learn by looking at these quotations as a group? What topic do these statements seem to touch on, what do they suggest about that topic, and why does this seem to matter?

You do not need to offer a definitive interpretation of the theme in your log; instead, you may want to use your log as a place in which you can offer preliminary hypotheses about meaning and raise questions for future consideration. You can even feel free to explain why you find particular elements of the quotations confusing.

When you offer an explanation or raise a question, be sure to base your discussion on specific words or phrases from the quotations you have cited.

You should not offer the same quotations and explanation which have already been posted by another member of the class. Instead, if a previous message focuses on the same quotations you have selected, comment and expand upon the other interpretation.

You may, if you wish, choose to respond in a substantive way to a previous posting instead of writing a log. Be sure, however, that your response offers a significant revision or expansion of the message on which you are commenting.

Research Logs:

The research logs are intended to help you make sense of your reading. However, they should also enable you to begin developing ideas and collecting materials for the project you will construct at the end of the semester. Typically, the syllabus will provide you with topics and resources you can use as starting-point for your research logs. However, feel free to follow your own interests.

Each entry in your research log should use primary and/or secondary resources to develop an explanation of a literary text. You should use the connections between these texts to offer your reader a deeper understanding of some element of nineteenth century life.

TIPS:

Be sure that each entry includes direct quotes from both the literary text and outside resources.

Be sure always to offer a clear explanation of the signficance of each quotation--in other words, tell us how this quotation contributes to our understanding of the text and topic.

All of the topics proposed below follow the same formula. They ask you to connect several texts as a way of talking about a topic. Usually, you will: summarize the "supplementary" text or topic; describe how the literary text offers a similar or different comment on that topic; and explain how these texts, taken together, contribute to our understanding of some aspect of nineteenth century America.

The Final Project

1. Each student (or group of students) will construct a substantial COURSE PROJECT which offers a well-developed analysis of a single author or significant theme in nineteenth century American literature. You may wish to propose a course project which builds upon one of your previous reading/research logs. The project should offer an expanded discussion of the topic which includes appropriate references to both primary source materials from the nineteenth century and twentieth century critical essays.

2. A brief PROJECT PROPOSAL will be due on March 24. The proposal should include three components:

A one-page description of the topic and its importance (i.e. why would a deeper understanding of this topic help someone have a better insight into nineteenth century America and its literaure?).

A brief description of the biographical or historical background for your topic. If a good summary is already available, you are welcome to submit a copy. For example, if you are writing about a specific author, you may choose to submit the xerox of his/her entry from the Dictionary of Literary Biography. If you are writing about a particular issue or theme and can find a brief summary of the pertinent information on that topic, you may choose to submit a copy instead of drafting your own summary.

A comprehensive bibliography which includes both printed and web-based resources. If you are writing about a particular author, be sure to include references to both contemporary reviews and articles by twentieth-century critics. If you are writing about a topic, be sure to include nineteenth and twentieth century materials on that issue.

A short statement which lists the primary and secondary sources you expect to use in constructing your final project and explains why you predict those will be the most valuable for your purposes.

3. The completed FINAL PROJECT should be submitted by e-mail the Monday of the last week of class. You should also be prepared to share the results of your inquiry with your classmates that week in the form of a brief in-class presentation.

4. Together, the PROJECT PROPOSAL and the FINAL PROJECT will count as forty percent of the course grade.

THE FINAL PROJECT: AN ALTERNATIVE

Project Description

Instead of writing and presenting a standard research paper, you have the option of preparing a "research archive" on the topic of your choice and using the archive as the basis of a class discussion. A "research archive" would be similar to the author pages which are part of our course web site. (However, composing the project as a web page would be absolutely optional.)

The research archive would include such elements as the following:

An Introductory Overview--this should provide basic background information on the topic and explain why it was a significant issue in nineteenth century American literature and life.

A Short Series of Directed Questions--If someone was interested in learning more about this subject, what specific questions can best guide their thinking and research?

A Collection of Selected and Annotated Source Materials--What primary and secondary materials would lead someone to have a deeper understanding of this topic? You should be able to find a number of useful resources on the web; you can also copy useful materials you locate at local libraries. It is important however, to select only those materials which are relevant and academically worthwhile. For that reason, you should emphasize primary source materials from the nineteenth century and late twentieth century secondary materials composed for an academic audience. Be sure to annotate the materials in your collection so that readers will know the source and significance of the materials listed.

Project Topics:

You may choose either to focus on a particular author or on a particular theme which connects several authors (i.e. "the self-made man," issues of class, attitudes towards religion, reactions to progress, etc.).

If you are choosing an author, you are free to select either an author we have discussed in class or one we have not yet covered.

If you are choosing a theme, you may want to consider selecting a topic related to your own professional or personal interests.

For example, a business or communications major might focus on marketing in nineteeenth century America. How was marketing changing and what techniques were being used? How did these changes reflect and/or effect changes in the society? What was the literary response to this topic? (Consider the discussion of the advertisements painted on rocks in Silas Lapham, or the way Hank uses knights to advertise soap and other products in Connecticut Yankee.) Were the authors celebrating or expressing concerns about marketing and the society of which it was a part?

Evaluation Criteria:

The grade you receive will reflect the extent to which you have met the following goals:

Established the significance of your topic by demonstrating that it can make an important contribution to the understanding of 19th century American literature and life.

Provided the essential background information necessary for an understanding of this topic.

Identified and explained key questions which can be used in developing a deeper understanding of this topic.

Cited relevant quotations from works of literature related to this topic.

Cited primary and/or secondary sources which can provide the basis for significant insights into this topic.

Offered an intelligent critical commentary on the quotations and references cited.

Used all of these materials to construct a substantive analysis of the topic.

The better your analysis and evidence, the better your project will be. So as you proceed, you should be evaluating the quality of your ideas, sources, quotes, explanations, and overall organization. You need to be sure that you are raising the kinds of issues and citing the kinds of materials which characterize the best scholarship on your topic.

If you are doing a traditional research paper, you will have a greater responsibility for developing explanations and arguments.

If you are designing a web page and/or course materials, you will have a greater responsibility for raising appropriate questions and collecting (and reproducing or transcribing) relevant source materials.

However, either kind of project should offer sources in support of an analysis of a significant topic.

Project Schedule:

We could agree to rearrange our work schedule in order to use the two weeks after spring break for workshops on the final projects. If we chose that route, we could use the final projects as a resource as we covered the remaining authors and topics over the rest of the semester. In other words, your final project would probably be due around the first of April, and you would present your project to the class sometime during those final five weeks of the semester.