HUM470: American Autobiography

HUM 470-01

American Auto/Biography

Spring 2012

T/Th 9.35-10.50       Room # HUM 286

Instructor: Sean Connelly

email: connelly@sfsu.edu

Office Hours: HUM 336 T/Th 11-12 and by appt.

Course Blog: analepsis.wordpress.com

The Proposition:

HUM 470 focuses on auto/biographical writing by and about people identified as American in order to 1) explore the generic limits and ethical commitments of life writing 2) undertake a philosophical inquiry into the “self” 3) examine the relationships between personal, group (racial, gender, class) and national identity-formation and 4) gain a degree of critical fluency in the social, cultural and intellectual history of the United States from the antebellum period to the late 20th century.

Protocol/Decorum/Ettiquette:

It’s expected that students will arrive on time having completed the assigned work and in possession of the appropriate text for the class meeting. With the exception of the midterm and in-class work, all assignments should be typed with name/date/course. Turn off all electronic devices. In the interests of basic courtesy, please do not text, sleep, or surf in class.

Academic Integrity:

Cheating/plagiarism will be met with the full force of academic sanction– an F for the semester– and could result in expulsion from SFSU. see http://www.sfsu.edu/~vpsa/judicial/titlev.html

Accessibility:

If you have particular needs or challenges that you think I should know about, please discuss them with me at the beginning of the semester and I’ll do my best to accommodate you. See also: Disability Resource Center (338-2472 or dprc@sfsu.edu).

Work and Grading Rubric:

Attendance (More than 4 absences will result in a “no-pass” for this portion of the final grade) 10%

Midterm (a short set of identifications and definitions) 15%

Final Exam (identifications and definitions) 20%

Two 5-page papers. Paper 1 = 15% and Paper 2 = 20% for a total of 35%

Class Work (participation, random pop quizzes, in-class writing) 20%

Paper Assignments

Minimum 5 FULL pages

MLA format (see: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ ) including a works cited page (works must be CITED– i.e., quoted– to be on this page)

No cover page/ 1” margins/ 12 pt. font (no courier)/ Double-spaced

2 SCHOLARLY secondary sources (no wikipedia, etc.) such as encyclopedia articles, books, documentaries, etc.

Paper One: Due 2/21  in class (hard copy). An electronic copy should be submitted to turnitin.com on 2/21 by noon.

Prompt: Write a life narrative using Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself as your point of departure. Focus on some of the following themes: literacy, identity (national or otherwise), subjectivity, memory, truth, experience, history, geography, and the body. In addition to Douglass’s Narrative, use two of the texts we’ve read thus far (up to the due date). Your assignment is hybrid in nature: an essay that is personal, yet which possesses a scholarly component. To that end, be sure to use MLA format, including a works cited page. The following link may help you to get started:

http://analepsis.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/critical-categories-for-life-narrative-pt-1-hum470/

Paper Two: Due 5/17 in class (hard copy). An electronic copy should be submitted to turnitin.com on 5/17 by noon.

Prompts: (use the same guidelines as above)

1. The compare/contrast topic. Take two texts we’ve read so far this semester (at least one since the midterm) and weigh them in relation to one another in terms of their narrative strategies, major themes, and in light of some of the key concepts we’ve discussed in class (ex. affect, memory, chronotope, experience, etc.)

2. The text-to-context topic. Relate one of the autobiographies we’ve read since the midterm to its historical moment. In what sense does the text represent its context through the lens of the personal? How do individual and collective identity intersect? For example, you could discuss Living My Life in terms of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era or Prime Green in terms of the long 60s.

3. The open topic. All that is required is the use of at least one primary source (LML, PG, 5FD) two secondary sources (as indicated above) and several (more than two min.) key concepts. Some emphasis on formal analysis would be best.

4. An auto/biography. This assignment should run at least 10 pages and demonstrate a critical awareness of the formal and thematic concerns of life writing. In other words, it should evince some degree of self-reflexivity– i.e. indicate that you know what you’re up to. You can think of this prompt as a more developed version of the 1st paper.

Turnitin.com: Go to the link provided above. You will need to sign up in order to submit your paper. The class id# is 4800092. In order to enroll in the class use this password: amauto.

Primary Texts:

It is vital that students purchase the correct editions of the assigned texts.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (NL) by Frederick Douglass 9780872865273

Thousand Pieces of Gold (TPG) by Ruthanne Lum McCunn 9780807083819

Living My Life (LML) by Emma Goldman 9780142437858

Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties (PG) by Robert Stone 9780060957773

Five-Finger Discount (FFD) by Helene Stapinksi 9780375758706

Recommended:

Autobiography (pdf) by Linda Anderson NOTE: this is a small book.

An eReader: 

Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography (excerpts): Smith:Watson

Berry, “Personal Politics”: PersPolPDF

Nelson, “The Psychological and Social Origins of Autobiographical Memory”: Nelson-Childhood Memory

Fearing, Poems: Fearing

Gray, The Confessions of Nat Turner: Confessions Turner

Hay, “Blues What I Am”: BluesWhatIAm

Belsey, “Constructing the Subject, Deconstructing the Text”: belseysubject

Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire”: lieuxdememoire

Hazlett, “Generationalism and Collective Autobiography”: MyGeneration

Couser, “Genre Matters: Form, Force, and Filiation”:

Films

Becoming American, Chinese in the Frontier West, Thousand Pieces of Gold, Feel Like Going Home, The Anarchist Guest, The Wobblies, Magic Trip, Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property, Emma Goldman, Weather Underground, Clara Lemlich: A Strike Leader’s Diary

A Note on Reading: Ideally, students will complete a text as quickly as possible rather than reading only as much as has been assigned. Competent critical reading is a skill that develops over time. I advise you to look up unfamiliar words and take reading notes. Don’t be afraid to mark significant passages.

Schedule:

Week One 1/24-1/26

Jan. 24: Course Introduction I

Bruce Springsteen, “Johnny 99“

assignment for Thursday: read Smith and Watson, “Life Narrative: Definitions and Distinctions” and Berry, ”Personal Politics: American Autobiography”

Jan. 26: Course Introduction II

assignment for Tue: read Smith and Watson, “Life Narrative in Historical Perspective”; “The Psychological and Social Origins of Autobiographical Memory”; Fearing poems

Week Two 1/31-2/2

Jan. 31:

assignment: read pages 1-84 in Douglass’s Narrative of the Life

Feb. 2:

assignment: complete NL

Feb. 3: LAST DAY TO DROP CLASSES

Week Three 2/7-2/9

Feb. 7:

assignment: The Confessions of Nat Turner

Feb. 9:

screening: Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property

assignment: “Blues What I Am”

Week Four 2/14-2/16

Feb. 14: Blues Music:  Sweet Home Chicago; Hellhound on My Train; Love in Vain; Devil Got My Woman; Black, Brown, and White; You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had;  I’m Goin’ With You Babe (remix); Poor Black Mattie; Smokestack Lightin; Whiskey and Women; TV Mama; Catfish Blues; Rolled and Tumbled; Cheaper to Keep Her; Dirty South.

Feb. 16:

assignment: TPG (part 1) and “Constructing the Subject, Deconstructing the Text”

Week Five 2/21-2/23

Feb. 21: Paper One Due

assignment: TPG (part 2)

screening: Chinese in the Frontier West

Feb. 23:

assignment: TPG (parts 3 and 4);

Week Six 2/28-3/1

Feb. 28:

assignment: complete TPG

Mar. 1:

Week Seven 3/6-3/8

Mar. 6:

assignment: “Between Memory and Forgetting”

Mar. 8:

Week Eight 3/13-3/15

Mar. 13:

Mar. 15: MIDTERM

Week Nine 3/20-3/22

SPRING BREAK

assignment: Living My Life

Week Ten 3/27-3/29

Mar. 27:

Mar. 29:

Week Eleven 4/3-4/5

Apr. 3:

Apr. 5:

Assignment:

Week Twelve 4/10-4/12

Apr. 10:

assignment: “Generationalism and Collective Autobiography”; Begin Prime Green

Apr. 12:

assignment: Prime Green

Week Thirteen 4/17-4/19

Apr. 17

Apr. 19:

Assignment:

Week Fourteen 4/24-4/26

Apr. 24:

assignment: Five-finger Discount

Apr. 26:

assignment: “Genre Matters: Form, Force and Filiation”

Week Fifteen 5/1-5/3

May 1:

May 3:

Week Sixteen 5/8-5/10

May 8:

May 10: 

Week 17

MAY 17:

Final Paper Due

FINAL EXAM at 8-10:30