General Course Materials

Tips for Scanning Poetry
Report Evaluation Guidelines
Citing Sources
Key to Comments

Assigned Works Online
(Note: Check the American Authors page for links to all authors and works.)

From the Household Book of Poetry
Maria Cristina Mena, "The Vine-Leaf"
Kate Chopin, "Desiree's Baby"
Selections from Matthew Arnold's "Hebraism and Hellenism" (Culture and Anarchy)
Howells on Realism
The Realism War [Works best in Internet Explorer]

Information on Authors

Notes on Whitman
Emily Dickinson: Critical Perspectives
Emily Dickson: Suggestions for Reading

You can find the links to the Irish cartoons discussed in class at this link:

http://harpweek.com/09Cartoon/SelectThemeReturn.asp?Theme=Theme&TopicID=119&Topic=Irish%20Americans

17 November. You can find the presentation from Wednesday's class on our main site: In web format (viewable as a web page): http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/powerpoint/aesthetic.htm In PowerPoint format: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/powerpoint/aesthetic.ppt

1 November.You can find the two stories for November 2 at these links (from the Literary Gothic site via our Mary Wilkins Freeman page):

"Luella Miller"

"The Southwest Chamber"

30 October.

• The prospectus for Paper 2 is due tomorrow.
• Also, Wednesday's class will be taught by Shanna Knight. Your attendance that day will count as two days' worth: in addition to counting you as present that day, I'll erase one absence if you attend.
• There is NO CLASS on Friday, November 4.

24 October. The assignment page for Paper 2 is now available.

10 October

Results of vote on syllabus change for Papers 1 and 2

Of 32 ballots cast:

• 14 votes for "No, I would like to keep the weights of the assignments as they are now (20% and 25%)"
• 18 votes for "Yes, I would like to put less weight on Paper 1 and more on Paper 2 (15% and 30%)"

7 October. Weblog post #4 is due today.

Two of the reading assignments for next week are online:

Maria Cristina Mena, "The Vine-Leaf"
Kate Chopin, "Desiree's Baby"

30 September. Assignments for Monday:

"Editha" ("Editha" in Word format)
"Howells on Realism"
The Realism War (PowerPoint or Web version [works best in IE]. You can click on the links within the slides to read the actual publications online. [Here is a longer version that includes the realism and romance material we talked about a few days ago.]

You can check the gradebook in WebCT to see if I've received your e-version of Paper 1. If you sent it to me but you see a 0, please resend it and FORWARD YOUR ORIGINAL MESSAGE so that it won't be marked as late.

Remember, even if you turned in a paper version, the paper version will not be graded until the e-version is received.

28 September. You can find reading and discussion questions for Daisy Miller here.

Henry James

21 September. Here are two of the works mentioned today in class:

Twain's translation of the French version of "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

"The Awful German Language"

Mark Twain on the French: It appears that at last census that every man in France over 16 years of age & under 116, has at least 1 wife to whom he has never been married. French novels, talk, drama & newspaper bring daily & overwhelming proofs that the most of the married ladies have paramours. This makes a good deal of what we call crime, and the French call sociability.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

19 September.Link to more information about Southwestern humor.

14 September. Here's a link to more interpretations of "My Life had Stood-- a Loaded Gun."

9 September. Grades for Quiz 1 are available in WebCT.

Reminder: Weblog post #2 is due today by 6 p.m.

Discussion groups for analyzing Dickinson's poetry
Critical Perspectives
Paper 1
Reading Dickinson's Poetry

6 September. This is the doctored picture of Emily Dickinson I mentioned in class on Friday. Do you notice any differences between this picture and the authentic one?

5 September. You can see the credit you received (0 or 1) for your weblog posts by looking in WebCT. If you posted to your weblog, you should see a "1"; if you didn't post or didn't sign up for a report or weblog, you'll see a 0.

2 September. Here's the link to our Emily Dickinson page; there's a link to the portrait I showed you on that page.

The assignment page for paper 1 is now available.

Also, please take a minute to read my post on comment spam.

1 September. First weblog post is due by 6 p.m. on Friday, September 2.

By now, you should have signed up for a report or a weblog. Please check the report schedule and the blogroll at the right. If you don't see your name, contact me.

The poems from the Household Book of Poetry are available online for those who didn't receive the handout. You can find most of the handouts for this course in the Archive or Handouts links (which are the same).

24 August. Today's 1class: Here is the presentation from today's class. The short version is the one I used. If you want to look at the web files, they work best in Internet Explorer instead of Firefox.

Walt Whitman (PowerPoint) (short version)
Walt Whitman (Web page) (short version)
Walt Whitman (PowerPoint) (long version)
Walt Whitman (Web page) (long version)

You might also want to see the links to Whitman resources on our page: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/whitman.htm

22 August. If you already know that you'd like to keep a weblog this semester (as described in class), you don't have to wait for Friday's signup sheet; you can e-mail me the address of your weblog and I'll add it to the list at the right.

21 August. Welcome to English 381! You'll receive a syllabus in class, but you can also consult the syllabus online (see link to the left), print a version, or download a version to your iPod or PDA.

• Printable version (in .pdf format) of the syllabus.
• Plain text version for iPod or PDA download.