UT Dallas Syllabus for husl6304.001.08s taught by Erin Smith (erins)

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Course Syllabus
Course Information Spring 2008 HUSL 6304.001 American Popular Literature Wed. 12:30 – 3:15 JO 4.708

Professor Contact Information Prof. Erin Smith Office: Green 2.208 Phone: (972) 883-2338 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.utdallas.edu/~erins Office Hours: Tues. 1 – 2:15 pm Wed. 3:30 – 5 p.m. And by appointment

Course Description This course is both a historical survey of American popular literature from the colonial period to the present and an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of reading, literacy, and history of the book. Historians of the book study texts as both sign systems and material artifacts. That is to say that a book’s meanings arise not only from the words on the page, but also from the contexts in which it is produced, distributed, and read. Consequently, we will read a variety of popular texts—Puritan Indian captivity narratives, novels of the early Republic, nineteenth-century women’s sentimental fiction, dime novels, pulp magazines, turn-of-the-century Westerns, and contemporary romances, horror, and Christian fiction—along side studies of the institutions that shaped their production and the readers for whom they were important. These texts offer clues to the preoccupations of ordinary people, ways of reconstructing popular world-views. What kind of “equipment for living” did these texts offer women and men, recent immigrants and the native-born, slaves and free, the rich and the working classes? Do ordinary readers uncritically consume these texts, or are they “resisting readers?” What is the relationship between popular texts and the institutions that produce, market, and distribute them? How do

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changes in levels of education and religious beliefs influence popular literature? How do gender, race, and class shape what texts we read and how we make sense of them?

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes 1. Students will be able to describe major genres of American popular literature and the major issues and questions in scholarship about them. 2. Students will be able to analyze and evaluate arguments made by scholars in the field. 3. Students will research and write a literary or literary historical argument about some aspect of American popular writing.

Required Textbooks and Materials Vaughan & Clark, ed., Puritans Among the Indians (1676-1724) Hannah Foster, The Coquette (1797) Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) Henry Louis Gates, ed., Classic Slave Narratives (1845, 1861) Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick (1866) Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (1930) Stephen King, Carrie (1974) Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days (1996) Harlequin romance novel Cathy Davidson, ed., Reading in America All texts except the Harlequin romance and Left Behind available at Off-Campus Books or the UTD bookstore Secondary readings available on e-reserve at http://utdallas.docutek.com/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=382

Assignments & Academic Calendar Wed. 9 Jan. Intro. to Course / Books as Artifacts

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Paradigms for Studying the "Popular" Wed. 16 Jan. Stuart Hall, “Cultural studies: two paradigms” in Media, Culture and Society 1980 (2): 57-72 (e-reserve). Stuart Hall, "Notes on Deconstructing 'the Popular'" in People's History and Socialist Theory, ed. Raphael Samuel (Boston: Routledge, 1981): 227-39 (e-reserve). Fredric Jameson, "Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture," Social Text 1 (Winter 1979): 130-48 (e-reserve). Michael Denning, "The End of Mass Culture," International Labor and Working-Class History 37 (Spring 1990): 4-18 (e-reserve). Tony Bennett, "Introduction: Popular Culture and 'the turn to Gramsci'" in Popular Culture & Social Relations, eds. Tony Bennett, Colin Mercer & Janet Woollacott (Philadelphia: Open UP, 1986): xi-xix (e-reserve). On Popular Reading Wed. 23 Jan. Michel de Certeau, chap. 12, “Reading as Poaching” in Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven F. Rendall (Los Angeles: U of California P, 1984): 165-76 (e-reserve). Roger Chartier, chap. 1, "Communities of Readers" in The Order of Books (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1994): 1-23 (e-reserve). Robert Darnton, chap. 7, “Communication Networks” in The Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (NY: Norton, 1995): 181-97 (e-reserve). Pierre Bourdieu, "The aristocracy of culture," Media, Culture & Society 2 (1980): 225-254 (e-reserve). Janice Radway, "The Book-of-the-Month Club and the General Reader: The Uses of 'Serious' Fiction," in Reading in America, 259-85.

Wed. 30 Jan. -- Captivity Narratives Puritans Among the Indians: Mary Rowlandson (29-75); Quentin Stockwell (77-91); Hannah Swarton (145-158); and Hannah Dustan (159-65)

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David D. Hall, chap. 1, "The Uses of Literacy," in Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1989): 21-70 (e-reserve). E. Jennifer Monaghan, "Literacy Instruction and Gender in Colonial New England" in Reading in America, 53-81. Wed. 6 Feb. -- The Novel in the Early Republic Hannah Foster, The Coquette Cathy Davidson, chap. 3, "Ideology and Genre" (38-54) and chap. 4, "Literacy, Education and the Reader" (55-82) in Revolution and the Word (New York: Oxford UP, 1986) (e-reserve). Wed. 13 Feb. -- Slave Narratives Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (243-332) in Classic Slave Narratives Dana Nelson Salvino, "The Word in Black and White: Ideologies of Race and Literacy in Antebellum America" in Reading in America, 140156. Wed. 20 Feb. – Slave Narratives – ctd. Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (335-515) in Classic Slave Narratives Elizabeth McHenry, Introduction, “In Search of Black Readers” in Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies (Durham: Duke UP, 2002): 1-21 (e-reserve). Wed. 27 Feb. – Sentimental Fiction (*no student presentation) Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (chap. 1-20)

Wed. 5 Mar. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (finish) Jane P. Tompkins, "Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Politics of Literary History" in The New Feminist Criticism, ed. Elaine Showalter (NY: Pantheon, 1985): 81-104 (e-reserve).

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Amy Kaplan, “Manifest Domesticity,” American Literature 70.3 (1988): 581-606 (e-reserve). Sicherman, Barbara, "Sense and Sensibility: A Case Study of Women's Reading in Late-Victorian America" in Reading in America, 201-225. Spring Break – no Class Wed. 12 Mar. Wed. 19 Mar. – Dime Novels / 3-page prospectus and bibliography due Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick Michael Denning, chap. 2, "Fiction Factories: The Production of Dime Novels" (17-26) and chap. 3, "'The Unknown Public': Dime Novels and Working Class Readers" (27-56) in Mechanic Accents (New York: Verso, 1987) (e-reserve). Marcus Klein, chap. 3, "The Imposters" in Easterns, Westerns, and Private Eyes (Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1994): 53-64 (e-reserve). Wed. 26 Mar. -- Westerns Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage Marcus Klein, "The Westerner: Origins of the Myth" in Gender, Language, and Myth, ed. Glenwood Irons (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1992): 65-82 (e-reserve). Jane Tompkins, "West of Everything," South Atlantic Quarterly 86.4 (fall 1987): 357-77 (e-reserve). Wed. 2 Apr. -- Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon Erin Smith, chap. 2, “The Adman on the Shop Floor: Workers, Consumer Culture, and the Pulps” in Hard-Boiled: Working-Class Readers and Pulp Magazines (Temple UP, 2000): 43-73 (e-reserve). Wed. 9 Apr. -- Horror Stephen King, Carrie Carol Clover, “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film,” Representations 20 (fall 1987): 187-228 (e-reserve).

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Wed. 16 Apr. – Christian Fiction Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind Amy Johnson Frykholm, chap. 2, “Networks of Readers, Networks of Meaning” (39-66) and chap. 7, “Witness to the Apocalypse” (153-174) in Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America (New York: Oxford UP, 2004) (e-reserve). Wed. 23 Apr. – Romances (*no student presentation) Harlequin romance Tania Modleski, chap. 2, "The Disappearing Act: Harlequin Romances" in Gender, Language and Myth, 20-45 (e-reserve). Janice Radway, chap. 4, "The Ideal Romance: The Promise of Patriarchy" in Reading the Romance (Chapel Hill: UNC P, 1991), 11957 (e-reserve).

Final Papers Due in my office by 4:00 on Wed. 7 May

Grading Policy COURSE REQUIREMENTS/EVALUATION CRITERIA: *seminar attendance, preparation and participation *class presentation (including 1-page handout of 4-6 questions for discussion) *Final Project *prospectus (3 pages) and bibliography due Wed. 19 Mar. *final paper (20 pages) due Wed. 7 May Course & Instructor Policies 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. Presentation -- You and (maybe) a partner are responsible for getting discussion of the day’s primary and secondary 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. Your job is to give us an overview of what scholars have said about this in the past and to identify the central

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questions/issues/concerns in that scholarship. Presentations will be (MAX) 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 4-6 questions for us to address at the start of class. 1. Look up the text in the MLA on-line bibliography. How many citations come up? Any patterns (lots of recent scholarship, lots of scholarship from the early 1980s and little since, etc.)? What kinds of journals are these articles/essays published in (feminist, AfricanAmerican, those focused on a particular genre or time period, bigname journals or smaller, specialized ones)? 2. Skim the titles of the citations. What are the 3-5 major themes/issues/questions scholarship on this book is concerned with? 3. Pick 3-4 of these articles that look interesting and read them. Mine them for insights to share in your presentation or to add to discussion of your questions. 4. Be sure to include questions that allow us to discuss the secondary reading assigned for that day, as well. Prospectus (3 pages plus bibliography) – detailed hand-out available on my website. Final Paper (20 pages of so plus bibliography) – detailed hand-out available on my website.

Technical Support
If you experience any problems with your UTD account you may send an email to: [email protected] or call the UTD Computer Helpdesk at 972-883-2911.

Field Trip Policies Off-campus Instruction and Course Activities
Off-campus, out-of-state, and foreign instruction and activities are subject to state law and University policies and procedures regarding travel and risk-related activities. Information regarding these rules and regulations may be found at the website address http://www.utdallas.edu/BusinessAffairs/Travel_Risk_Activities.htm. Additional information is available from the office of the school dean. Below is a description of any travel and/or riskrelated activity associated with this course.

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Student Conduct & Discipline
The University of Texas System and The University of Texas at Dallas have rules and regulations for the orderly and efficient conduct of their business. It is the responsibility of each student and each student organization to be knowledgeable about the rules and regulations which govern student conduct and activities. General information on student conduct and discipline is contained in the UTD printed publication, A to Z Guide, which is provided to all registered students each academic year. The University of Texas at Dallas administers student discipline within the procedures of recognized and established due process. Procedures are defined and described in the Rules and Regulations, Series 50000, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System, and in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures. Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations (SU 1.602, 972/883-6391) and online at http://www.utdallas.edu/judicialaffairs/UTDJudicialAffairs-HOPV.html A student at the university neither loses the rights nor escapes the responsibilities of citizenship. He or she is expected to obey federal, state, and local laws as well as the Regents’ Rules, university regulations, and administrative rules. Students are subject to discipline for violating the standards of conduct whether such conduct takes place on or off campus, or whether civil or criminal penalties are also imposed for such conduct.

Academic Integrity
The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and academic honesty. Because the value of an academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work done by the student for that degree, it is imperative that a student demonstrate a high standard of individual honor in his or her scholastic work. Scholastic Dishonesty, any student who commits an act of scholastic dishonesty is subject to discipline. Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts. Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, and from any other source is unacceptable and will be dealt with under the university’s policy on plagiarism (see general catalog for details). This course will use the resources of turnitin.com, which searches the web for possible plagiarism and is over 90% effective.

Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials, including music and software. Copying, displaying, reproducing, or distributing copyrighted works may infringe the copyright owner’s rights and such infringement is subject to appropriate disciplinary action as well as criminal penalties provided by federal law. Usage of such material is only appropriate when that

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usage constitutes “fair use” under the Copyright Act. As a UT Dallas student, you are required to follow the institution’s copyright policy (Policy Memorandum 84-I.3-46). For more information about the fair use exemption, see http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm

Email Use
The University of Texas at Dallas recognizes the value and efficiency of communication between faculty/staff and students through electronic mail. At the same time, email raises some issues concerning security and the identity of each individual in an email exchange. The university encourages all official student email correspondence be sent only to a student’s U.T. Dallas email address and that faculty and staff consider email from students official only if it originates from a UTD student account. This allows the university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all individual corresponding and the security of the transmitted information. UTD furnishes each student with a free email account that is to be used in all communication with university personnel. The Department of Information Resources at U.T. Dallas provides a method for students to have their U.T. Dallas mail forwarded to other accounts.

Withdrawal from Class
The administration of this institution has set deadlines for withdrawal of any college-level courses. These dates and times are published in that semester's course catalog. Administration procedures must be followed. It is the student's responsibility to handle withdrawal requirements from any class. In other words, I cannot drop or withdraw any student. You must do the proper paperwork to ensure that you will not receive a final grade of "F" in a course if you choose not to attend the class once you are enrolled.

Student Grievance Procedures
Procedures for student grievances are found in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities, of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures. In attempting to resolve any student grievance regarding grades, evaluations, or other fulfillments of academic responsibility, it is the obligation of the student first to make a serious effort to resolve the matter with the instructor, supervisor, administrator, or committee with whom the grievance originates (hereafter called “the respondent”). Individual faculty members retain primary responsibility for assigning grades and evaluations. If the matter cannot be resolved at that level, the grievance must be submitted in writing to the respondent with a copy of the respondent’s School Dean. If the matter is not resolved by the written response provided by the respondent, the student may submit a written appeal to the School Dean. If the grievance is not resolved by the School Dean’s decision, the student may make a written appeal to the Dean of Graduate or Undergraduate Education, and the deal will appoint and convene an Academic Appeals Panel. The decision of the Academic Appeals Panel is final. The results of the academic appeals process will be distributed to all involved parties. Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations.

Incomplete Grade Policy

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As per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only for work unavoidably missed at the semester’s end and only if 70% of the course work has been completed. An incomplete grade must be resolved within eight (8) weeks from the first day of the subsequent long semester. If the required work to complete the course and to remove the incomplete grade is not submitted by the specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed automatically to a grade of F.

Disability Services
The goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities educational opportunities equal to those of their non-disabled peers. Disability Services is located in room 1.610 in the Student Union. Office hours are Monday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The contact information for the Office of Disability Services is: The University of Texas at Dallas, SU 22 PO Box 830688 Richardson, Texas 75083-0688 (972) 883-2098 (voice or TTY) [email protected] If you anticipate issues related to the format or requirements of this course, please meet with the Coordinator of Disability Services. The Coordinator is available to discuss ways to ensure your full participation in the course. If you determine that formal, disability-related accommodations are necessary, it is very important that you be registered with Disability Services to notify them of your eligibility for reasonable accommodations. Disability Services can then plan how best to coordinate your accommodations. It is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors of the need for such an accommodation. Disability Services provides students with letters to present to faculty members to verify that the student has a disability and needs accommodations. Individuals requiring special accommodation should contact the professor after class or during office hours.

Religious Holy Days
The University of Texas at Dallas will excuse a student from class or other required activities for the travel to and observance of a religious holy day for a religion whose places of worship are exempt from property tax under Section 11.20, Tax Code, Texas Code Annotated. The student is encouraged to notify the instructor or activity sponsor as soon as possible regarding the absence, preferably in advance of the assignment. The student, so excused, will be allowed to take the exam or complete the assignment within a reasonable time after the absence: a period equal to the length of the absence, up to a maximum of one week. A student who notifies the instructor and completes any missed exam or assignment may not be penalized for the absence. A student who fails to complete the exam or assignment within the prescribed period may receive a failing grade for that exam or assignment. If a student or an instructor disagrees about the nature of the absence [i.e., for the purpose of observing a religious holy day] or if there is similar disagreement about whether the student has been given a reasonable time to complete any missed assignments or examinations, either the student or the instructor may request a ruling from the chief executive officer of the institution, or his or her designee. The chief executive officer or designee must take into account the legislative intent of TEC 51.911(b), and the student and instructor will abide by the decision of the chief executive officer or designee.

These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor.

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