Course
RequirementsMark Twain and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were two of the most prolific and influential American writers at the turn of the twentieth century. Along with major works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Women and Economics, through which they addressed the paramount issues of their day concerning racial, economic, and gender equality, Twain and Gilman also authored an astounding variety of lesser-known imaginative material. They penned mystery and detective yarns, juvenile stories, parables about the Garden of Eden, science fiction and fantasy, utopian novels, political satire and more. This seminar will allow students to explore these two writers' lives and writings intensively, and to engage in primary research. After opening sessions focusing on biographical and autobiographical writings, personal letters, and family histories, we will spend several weeks in common readings from Twain and Gilman's oeuvre. Then, the last month will be devoted to individual student projects.
To succeed, a seminar requires unusual independence, discipline, and motivation from all members; sophomores and non-majors should probably check with me before enrolling. Students should be ready to engage in class actively; in-class presentations will be required, as well as short reflective essays leading to the final project. American Studies minors especially welcome. Student papers from this course are eligible for the English Department prize in American literature and culture.
Course
Requirements
Books You Will Need
I have ordered many different Twain and Gilman
works, all of which should be in the BC Bookstore, and some of which are
on-line.
We will be reading the following works virtually in their entirety. Many of them are found at almost any bookstore, and often used:
In other words, you should wait until
attending the seminar before purchasing any of these texts, since our
calendar
may well be revised. All these
books
will also be on Reserve in O'Neill Library. Whatever books you choose to
purchase, you should always bring your text to class on the discussion
days. If you choose to use a reserve reading, please bring a xerox to
class.
September
4 Opening Day Introduction and Syllabus / A Look at Images and Obits
11
Due
to the 9/11 Commemoration on this day, we will MEET IN MCGUINN 315 FROM
7-9 PM. (If you weren't in
class
on the 4th, please email me promptlY.) If you weren't
in class, or need help with the readings below, click here
Readings
for this week: John Lauber, The Making of Mark
Twain, Chapters 1 and 2 ("Little Sam" and "Tom Sawyer Days"
(R)
Jeffrey Steinbrink, "How Mark Twain Survived Sam Clemens's Reformation"
the first chapter in his Getting to Be Mark Twain (R)
(In some editions, this chapter one is just titled "Surviving the
Reformation")
Mark Twain, Roughing It, chapters 63, 64, 66, 71-72
(R)
Mark
Twain, The Autobiography, chapters 37-41, 66
Please also take the Virtual
Tour of Mark Twain's House in Hartford
If you'd like to read Twain's autobiography (but
with different chapter headings) on line, you can see a different version
here. If you do read on line, the
chapters you should read here are 3, 4, 5 & 6 (not
the ones listed above in the print version). You can access it
by clicking here
18: Charlotte Perkins
Gilman,
The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman
25 Twain, The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
If you'd like to see a copy of "Sociable Jimmy"
and an explanation of its context, click here
October
2 Gilman, Women and
Economics, selections (Chapters I-V, or to page 98; pp. 218-224
on love and home; and Chpter XV, 318-340).
Ellen Rothman
essay on Victorian courtship. This is available either on my office door,
or you can download it by clicking here
9 Twain, A Connecticut
Yankee
In King Arthur's Court
This week, you should also view Hal Holbook's
reproduction of Twain's Platform lectures, "Mark Twain Tonite".
This
is in O'Neill Media Reserves under "Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain
Tonite!"
Highly Recommended:
Justin
Kaplan's account of Twain's obsession with the Paige typesetter machine,
in his Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, on reserve: See Chapter
14: "The Yankee and the Machine"
16 Gilman, Short Fiction: "The
Yellow Wall-Paper" (again), "If I Were a Man," "The Unexpected,"
And I will ask each of you to run
through The Forerunner on Reserve in O'Neill, and pick a short
story
or long poem or essay you want to read on your own. This is meant
to introduce you to one source of possible research.
Recommended: The chapter entitled "Martha"
in Mary Hill, Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Making of a Radical
Feminist (R)
23 Gilman,
Unpunished
30 Twain short fiction and
fantasy:
"The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg," and the first six Letters from Satan
(I-VI) in Twain's Letters From the Earth, including the brief
set-up
at the start of the book. You can find Letters from The
Earth
on this website, by clicking here,
and I'll place copies on my door as well. "The Man that Corrupted
Hadleyburg" is in that volume, and in the Complete Short Stories
collection of Twain also on Reserve.
In addition, for this discussion, each class
member
should go on a "paper topic" scouting mission any way that he or she
likes--through
the Web, by looking at the Twain holdings in O'Neill, whatever--and
bring
to class one unusual fact about Mark Twain that might be the basis of a
research paper. That is, find a book you
didn't know he wrote, a friendship that is intriguing, an unusual quirk
in his tastes or his methods--anything at all. You
can email it to me, or bring it to class.This
is an ungraded exercise.
November
6 Gilman,
Herland
13 Twain, No. 44, The Mysterious
Stranger
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY: Conferences
This week on Semester Projects before vacation
December
4 No Class Individual
Conferences on Semester Projects
11 Class Research Projects
Due
We will also have to schedule a final
gathering
for the seminar, on the Wednesday that is the first study day. We
will meet for one hour, at noon.
1. In a seminar, class
attendance
is required every week. Missing two sessions or more can lower your
overall
course grade-- and, in some cases, be grounds for failing the course
altogether.
If there is a good reason why you have had to miss a class, please don't
hesitate to tell me. Medical Excuses should be accompanied by a
doctor's
note.
2. Class
participation
will account for about 25% of your grade. Generally, I try to use your
class participation as a measure of how well you have read and understood
the assignments, though I rarely grade "down" from a written
performance.
However, if your participation reflects strong reading skills,
consideration
for others' viewpoints, and consistent contributions to the flow of
discussion,
your class "average" from your papers can also easily be boosted at the
close of the semester well beyond the weight of this 20%
guideline.
3. When you submit
a paper, it should be neatly typed or word- processed and double-spaced,
preferably on both sides of the paper so that we can save a few
trees.
In addition, you are required to keep a disk or hard copy of your
paper.
That way, if your paper is lost, you can simply re-submit your copy
immediately.
Please do not submit your papers via email (too many viruses out
there).
4. Papers are due
on the assigned dates. My rule is that I allow 24 hours leeway
without
penalty; after that, you will be penalized about 1/3 grade for every part
of 24 hours the paper is late. The idea of this "leeway" period is that
you should never miss a class in order to type a paper; come to class,
and turn the paper in later.
5. Everyone should feel that
office hours are for "hashing out" class discussions, lectures, and the
progress of the course generally. In a seminar, in particular, it's
really expected that our conversations will continue after the set
boundaries
of any given class discussion. It goes without
saying I would also be happy to discuss your writing with you in
conference.
6. As the university regulations on
Academic
Integrity state, "Students at Boston College
are expected to have high standards of integrity. Any student who cheats
or plagiarizes on examinations or assignments is subject to dismissal
from
the College. Cases involving academic integrity shall be adjudicated
according
to the policies and procedures of the appropriate school or
college."
Six
Conventions It's Good to Know For College Writing
Click Here to see the
Correction
Code Used on Your Papers
The Simplified MLA Citation
System We're Using
Some
Tips about Effective Quotation
Suggestions of Mine About
Your Writing
&nb sp; Chapters 1-8, 9 (to page 122 only), and 11.
The
Carl Degler summary essay on Gilman (HO)
Gilman,
Diary Entries and Letters (TBA)
Gilman,
"The Yellow Wall-Paper" in Herland and Other Stories
"Her Housekeeper," "When I Was a Witch," "The
Unnatural Mother", all in Herland and Other Stories. Please
also read the following on-line, by clicking here: The
Giant Wisteria
General Links You Can
Use for Your Papers--and a Few Suggestions
Mark Twain
Links
Course Policies:
It should go without saying, simply as a matter
of fairness to everyone who participates in this class, that I take such
matters quite seriously. All
students
are required to read the university guidelines on integrity at the start
of the course. To see those
guidelines,
click
here.
If you have any comments on this page, please
send them to: wilsonc@bc.edu .