ENGLISH 285 UP AND DOWN THE LADDER OF SUCCESS SPRING 2013
American Literature
Lecture Sessions MW 11:15-12:05 at Swearingen Engineering Center 1c01
Map
Dr. David S. Shields Office: Welsh 207
Please contact by e-mail, not be telephone
Discussion Group Leaders:
Brandon RushtonSections 001 & 010
Andrew ValenciaSections 002 & 003
Matthew FogartySections 004 & 005
Jordan MarkleySections 006 & 009
Marie-Claire ChurchouseSections 007 & 008
Prospectus
American culture has an enduring obsession with the quest for personal success. From the Puritan agonizing over salvation to the American Idol contestant yearning for celebrity, images of aspiration and stories of failed hopes dominate the nation’s literature. How has success been envisioned? How does one get it? What is the cost (individually, socially, environmentally) of personal triumph? What is the recipe for failure? How glorious can success be, and how abject can failure be? What is the pathology of the quest? English 285 will explore these issues.
Format
English 285 combines lectures with small group discussion. Professor Shields and occasional guest speakers will perform the syllabus of lectures. Your assigned Discussion Group Leader will superintend your further inquiry into the issues raised in the course, assign papers, exercises, and quizzes, and will assess your performance. There will be mid-term and final examinations conducted in the Swearingen lecture hall. Your Discussion Group Leader will have absolute determination of your grade. Prof. Shields will not over-ride a Group Leader’s decision or act as a court of appeals. All communications in this course will be conducted through USC’s Blackboard system. This requires you to have an active e-mail account. Each Discussion Group Leader will post a supplementary syllabus on 285’s blackboard site laying out the graded course assignments, other than the mid term and final, for the semester.
Required Texts:
David S. Shields, ed., Up & Down the Ladder of Success (Pearson Custom Publishing)
William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (SKM Books)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (Vintage/Knopf)
Nathaniel West, Miss Lonelyhearts & the Day of the Locust (New Directions)
Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick (Penguin Classics)
Additional Readings will be linked below to sites on the World Wide Web
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES
January 14Introduction—The Quest for Success
January 16Captain John Smith & the American Dream
Captain John Smith, Advertisements for Experienced Planters, Pearson pp 1-45
January 21Smith on Valor, Class, Rank, Hierarchy
Captain John Smith, Advertisements for Experienced Planters, pp 1-45
January 23Puritan Heroism & the Imitation of Christ
Cotton Mather, “Nehemias Americanus: The Life of John Winthrop” from Magnalia
January 28Puritanism & the Worldly Success
Max Weber, “The Spirit of Capitalism” The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism
pp. 47-78
January 30Benjamin Franklin & The Work of Virtue
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Part 2, Pearson, 58-74
February 4Franklin & the Institutions of Reputation
“the Junto” & other projects rom Autobiography Part 1,
pp. 98-150
February 6The American Artist & the Problem of Success
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Artist of the Beautiful, Pearson Custom, 156-174
February 11Money & Prosperity
Benjamin Franklin, Father Abraham’s Speech, Pearson Custom, 50-57
February 13P. T. Barnum’s “The Art of Money Getting” & the Idea of Risk
February 18Barnum’s Struggles & Triumphs of 40 Years, Chapters 7, 8, 9, & 10
February 25The Confidence Man
William Thompson & the plausible Crook: 1849 newpapers in Blackboard Documents
February 27Midterm Test
March 4Horatio Alger, Pluck & Luck
Ragged Dick
March 6Horatio Alger & a Hand up the Ladder
Ragged Dick
March 18William Dean Howells on Respectability
The Rise of Silas Lapham
March 20William Dean Howells on Fashionability & Marriage
The Rise of Silas Lapham
March 25Beauty & Power
David S. Shields, “The Rise of the Professional Beauty,” Blackboard
March 27Booker T. Washington Limitation
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery, Blackboard
April 1Booker T. Washington Uplift & Improvement
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery, Blackboard
April 3Andrew Carnegie & The Gospel of Wealth
April 8Carnegie’s Autobiography
, pp. 32-148
April 10The Assassins of Wealth
Alexander Berkman, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, Chapters 1-7
April 15Hollywood Dreams, Hollywood Nightmares
Nathaniel West, The Day of the Locust
April 17California, Resort, & Retirement
Nathaniel West, The Day of the Locust
April 22Translating Values Across Cultures
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
April 24Tradition as Obstacle
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
April 29Hero Woman, Loser Man
Bobbie Ann Mason, “Shiloh,” Pearson, 102-130
Final Exam