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Junior Pro-Seminar English 396A | Spring 2008 Prof. Roxanne Mountford Updated March 27, 2008 |
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Junior Pro-Seminar English 396A | Spring 2008 Prof. Roxanne Mountford Updated March 27, 2008 |
ML 369 | Hours: T 10:00-12:00 & by appt. | roxanne@u.arizona.edu | 621-7402Course Description | Required Materials | Course Requirements | Assignments | Grading Policy | Daily Syllabus | Other Works by Hurston | Selected Bibliography | Helpful Links | Course Essays Online | Student Blogs | Return to Homepage
In this junior pro-seminar for English majors, you will read, research, and write about the dynamic, enigmatic work of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most important American writers of the early twentieth century. A member of the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston was trained as an anthropologist, collected folklore in Florida and the Caribbean, and wrote novels, plays, and short stories alongside her scholarly books and articles on the folktales and songs of New World Africans. Despite success during her lifetime, she died in obscurity. Hurston's work was recuperated in the 1970s after Alice Walker stumbled upon one of her novels. The revival of Hurston's work is still unfolding. There is a national conference on Hurston each year, a play about her life, and most recently, the discovery of several unpublished dramas in the Library of Congress rare manuscript collection, one of which we will read.
You will read several of Hurston's primary works, including her famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as early reviews and contemporary scholarship. In addition, you will learn how to conduct effective library research and write original papers on Hurston. I will provide an environment in which you and your classmates will feel safe to learn. It will be your job to participate in discussions with good will and basic respect for others' views, stay motivated, and speak up when anything we do seems unclear to you. One of the objectives of this course is to develop your own research and critical thinking skills, development that occurs only with practice. So be prepared to work hard.
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Available at Antigone Books on 4th Avenue (792-3715). If you buy from another bookseller, please check to make sure you are ordering the same edition, which is required, by checking the ISBN:
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003. (ISBN: 0873529863)
Hurston, Zora Neale. Jonah's Gourd Vine. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. (ISBN: 0060916516)
---. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998. (ISBN: 0060931418)
---. Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, & Other Writings. Ed. Cheryl Wall. New York: Library of America, 1995. (ISBN: 0940450844)
Course Essays Online, to be read in pdf using Adobe Acrobat Reader (shareware). Password to be announced in class. To download Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here.
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Attendance and Participation. Regular attendance and productive participation in class discussions are basic requirements of a seminar. If you have more than three unexcused absences in total for any reason, you will be dropped from the class. Depending on the time in the semester, being dropped from a course may result in an "E" for the semester. I will assume that you will be prepared for class, on time, and offer productive discussion of the daily readings. To receive an "A" for participation, you must be prepared each day, participate productively in all discussions, come to class on time, and offer insightful reviews of their peers' papers. I will lower your final participation grade to an "E" if chronic lateness or lack of preparation become a problem. Enjoyable, scholarly discussion occurs when all students come to class with interesting questions and comments about the readings. As you read, be aware that it is more difficult to "read with" an author (that is, understand the author's purpose, audience, context for writing, basic assumptions and overall place in the tradition) than to "read against" him/her (which requires only that one maintain a single theoretical view against which to read all texts). Criticism involves both processes. I look forward to hearing your analysis of the readings and expect to learn something from you.
Extensions. Major projects must be turned in at the beginning of class on the day they are due, even if you are ill. Send your paper to class with a classmate, or as an attachment via email. You may take advantage of one two-day extension sometime in the semester on any assignment except the draft of the final paper. This extension must be cleared with me in advance (in the case of a true emergency, that can mean meeting me at the door of the classroom). However, you STILL must bring a rough draft to Peer Review for Paper #1 & #2. I give incomplete grades only to students with a family emergency or grave illness (documentation required). Missing even one deadline for written work in this course may result in a reduction of the final grade for the course, since late papers are not accepted. It is always better to turn in what you believe to be a rough draft, because I can give you points, than earning a "O" for a late assignment.
The most common reason that I am offered for late assignments is computer disk failure, theft, or printer error. Here are the ways to guard against these common problems. Always back up your written work by printing out a copy of your draft, backing it up on a server, and backing it up on flashdrive or other hardware. For a quick solution, you can email yourself a copy of your paper. A good practice is to maintain a non-UA email account, such as yahoo!, and email yourself a copy of important work to an external account. I keep back-up copies of important papers on a server at UA and backup all my documents periodically on an external drive.
Responsibilities to Peers. Participate as an editor and fellow scholar in the drafting process (substantive and timely comments will be assumed). You may not be absent on a Peer Review Day (unless you have documentation); those who are absent without documentation on a Peer Review Day will receive a one-letter-grade reduction in their participation grade. Even if you take your one two-day extension, you still must bring a rough draft of your paper (with a beginning, middle, and end) to your group for a Peer Review. Peers will review each other for the final participation grade.
Major Assignments. Your major work for the semester will be an original research study that you conduct throughout the semester. The first assignment will be a seven-page double-spaced, typewritten paper that presents part of your research. The second assignment will be the literature review for your project. The final project will be a 15-page double-spaced, typewritten paper that presents your research for the semester. The papers are designed to build on each other, so that the literature review will become a part of the final project, and the analysis you present in the first paper may become a subsection of the final paper. In preparing your bibliographies and in attributing sources you must follow the MLA Guide, 6th edition. You will also be asked to keep an online journal of notes on and responses to your reading for the semester (one entry due for each reading assignment, except for peer review or the MLA Guide). I will comment on your online journal periodically. Plagiarism is professional suicide both here at UA and "out there" in the publishing world. Please see me if you have questions about how to attribute ideas or words to others.
Weblogs (Blogs) for the Course.
Anderson, Samantha
sanders2
sanders@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/samanthaanderson396Barnett, Laurie
laurieb
laurieb@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/lauriebarnett396Clark, Martin
mmclark
mmclark@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/martinclark396Cook, Tara
tlcook
tlcook@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/taracook396Delmar, Josselyn
jmdelmar
jmdelmar@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/josselyndelmar396Dominy, Julie
jdominy
jdominy@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/juliedominy396Flamm, Marc
mflamm
mflamm@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/marcflamm396Hickman, Amy
amyh2
amyh2@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/amyhickman396Jennings, Andrew
ajj1
ajj1@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/andrewjennings396Martin, Sarah
slmartin
slmartin@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/sarahmartin396Mcdonnell, Kate
kbmcd
kbmcd@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/katemcdonnell396Mcghee, Andrew
amcghee
amcghee@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/andrewmcghee396Reece, Kalinda
kreece
kreece@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/kalindareece396Salzbrenner, Evan
evansalz
evansalz@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/evansalzbrenner396Specht, Sarah
specht
specht@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/sarahspecht396Tesch, Katherine
katcelt
katcelt@email.arizona.edu
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/katherinetesch396
Assignment #1: Analysis Paper
It has been my experience as a writer and graduate faculty member that earlier deadlines produce richer and more well-researched final seminar papers. In the quiet, early weeks of the semester there is time to find the books, read, and think. In addition, the process of writing an early paper can offer valuable insight into the project as a whole.
Therefore, your first assignment will be an analysis paper in which you identify and analyze a problem or issue central to your research for the semester. The paper must have a thesis and draw on outside sources. Your research for the semester must in some way address or be informed by the work we will examine this semester. The paper should be at least seven pages in length (double-spaced, typewritten, 1" margins, 12-point font). Prepare the bibliography and citations using the 5th edition of the MLA Guide, 6th ed. Bring double-sided, single-spaced copies of the draft of this assignment for members of your peer review group.
Assignment #2: Annotated Bibliography
Your second assignment for this class will be an annotated bibliography with one-page single-spaced introductory essay. The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to compile sources for and to (re)define your research question for your classmates and me. In your one-page essay (single-spaced, typewritten, 1" margins, 12-point font), your goal will be to make a space in the field for your own research. That means that you should how your work relates to the literature compiled in the annotated bibliography literature. For example, you may argue that your work extends the findings of other researchers. Or you may argue that there has been no work like yours, but that you are guided by similar work in another area. Or you might argue that your work refutes the work of others. Your annotated bibliography must contain at least 10 scholarly sources (no primary sources). After each bibliographic entry, write at least four sentences summarizing the key insight in this work.
All research begins with a literature review. A literature review is provided at the beginning of any research report or proposal to explain what problem in the literature the researcher proposes to address and/or what methods he or she will use. The review links the researcher's work with the work of others in the field. At the heart of the literature review are two rhetorical functions: establishing that the author is joining an ongoing conversation in the field and establishing that the author is not repeating what has been done before. The sources that I am asking for in the working bibliography will form the substance of the literature review for your final project.
When I begin a new research study, the first task is to "read up" on my subject. I cast a wide net, looking for any published work that can help me. Generally I begin by looking at the bibliographies of articles I already know about. Then I work through the indexes of journals that tend to publish articles on my subject (this is especially necessary with journals that tend not to be indexed in on-line databases). When I have exhausted these avenues, I work through Dissertation Abstracts, the MLA Bibliography, and online databases like FirstSearch (an OCLC database) or ERIC. If all else fails, I post a query to a librarian or ask another scholar. It is important to do your own research before asking others for help.
You must not wait until the first assignment is completed to start the work on the literature review. It can take a week or more to get a library book that is out on loan and up to two weeks to get an article mailed to you from another library. Begin this assignment early in the semester.
Final Project: Original Research Project
Your final assignment for this class will be an essay on your research for the semester. The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to produce a potentially publishable essay reporting on research that you have conducted this semester. Use the essays in the Gates and Appiah collection as models. The final paper should be at least 15 pages in length (double-spaced, typewritten, 1" margins, 12-point font, and documented using the 6th edition of the MLA Guide).
The draft of this paper must include a recognizable beginning, middle, and end; be proofread carefully; and be at least 12 pages in length.
Participation
10%
Reading Journal
10%
Assignment #1
20%
Assignment #2
10%
Assignment #3
50%
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Daily Syllabus Note: This schedule is tentative. Some of the due dates and topics of discussion outlined here will change. I will post changes to the syllabus on this web site, so you are required to check here before every class.
HFM=Hurston: Folkore, Memoirs, and Other Writings *=Location is ML 412, the COH Collaboratory
Jan. 16
Introduction to course.
In class: Overview of course.
Jan. 21
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
NO CLASS
Jan. 23
Discovering Zora Neale Hurston
Read (2 essays) & Blog about: Washington, "Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman Half in Shadow" and Walker, "Looking for Zora"
In class: discuss essays.
Jan. 28*
Autobiography
Read & Blog: HFM: Dust Tracks, Ch. 1-8.
Jan. 30
Conducting Library Research
Read: MLA Guide, pp. 1-63.
In class: Guest speaker, Jill Newby: seminar on using indexes and other online sources
NOTE: Class meets in the Main Library, Room A315. On the 3rd floor, go to the left all the way to the end and then turn right.
Feb. 4*
Autobiography
Read & Blog: Dust Tracks, Ch. 9-16.
Due: A one-page summary of a scholarly article or book chapter on Dust Tracks you find in the library. Bring a print copy AND post your summary on your Blog.
In class: discuss autobiography; be prepared to give a 5-minute summary of the article or book chapter you discovered
Feb. 6
Autobiography: Criticism
Read (2): Original reviews of Dust Tracks and Lionnet-McCumber, "Autoethnography: The An-Archic Style of Dust Tracks on a Road."
In class: discuss criticism of autobiography
Feb. 11*
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Read & Blog: Foreward-Ch. 9.
In class: Discussion of Jonah's Gourd Vine.
Feb. 13
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Read & Blog: Ch. 10-20.
In class: Discussion of Jonah's Gourd Vine.
Feb. 18*
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Read (3) & Blog: Ch. 21-26
Original reviews of Jonah's Gourd Vine
Sundquist, "'The Drum with the Man Skin': Jonah's Gourd Vine."
In class: Discussion of Jonah's Gourd Vine & Criticism.
Feb. 20
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Read & Blog: Ch. 1-Ch. 8.
In class: Discuss Their Eyes.
Feb. 25*
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Read & Blog: Ch. 9-16.
In class: Discuss Their Eyes.
Due: Abstract of Paper #1, posted on Blog (see email for guidelines).
Feb. 27
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Read (3) & Blog: Ch. 17-20, Foreward & Afterward, and Washington, "'I Love the Way Janie Crawford Left Her Husbands': Emergent Female Hero."
In class: Discuss Their Eyes & criticism.
Mar. 3*
Their Eyes Were Watching God: Criticism
Read (2): Original reviews of Their Eyes
In class: View film version of Their Eyes
Mar. 5
Their Eyes Were Watching God: Interpretation
Read & Blog (2):
Johnson, "Thresholds of Difference," and Carby, "The Politics of History, Anthropology and the Folk."
In class: View film version of Their Eyes. Discuss film and criticsm.
Due: Draft of Paper #1 (bring 1 copy for me, copies for peer review group & post on Blog)
Mar. 10*
Folklore
Read: Mules and Men, HFM 1-92.
In class: Discuss Mules and Men.
Mar. 12
Peer Review
Due: Comments on peers' papers
Mar. 17
Spring Break
NO CLASS
Mar. 19
Spring Break
NO CLASS
Mar. 24*
Documentation
Read: MLA Guide, pp. 139-235
In class: Workshop on preparing Works Cited list.
Due: Final draft of Paper #1
Mar. 26
Folklore: Criticism
Read (3) & Blog: Original reviews of Mules and Men
Wall, "Zora Neale Hurston: Changing Her Own Words" and Willis, "Wandering: Hurston's Search for Self and Method."
In class: Discuss criticism.
Mar. 31*
Interlude: Black Preaching
Listen to & Blog: Rev. Otis Moss III, "How Do You Handle a Public Lynching?"
Barack Obama, "A More Perfect Union"
Apr. 2
Staging Zora
Read & Blog: Spunk, Acts I & II (handout)
In class: Discuss Spunk.
Apr. 7*
Staging Zora
Read & Blog: Spunk, Acts III (handout)
In class: Discuss Zora Is My Name! and Spunk.
Apr. 9
Harlem Renaissance
Read & Blog: HFM, pp. 826-29; 914-31.
In class: View Without Fear or Shame, 1920-1937.
Due: Draft of Paper #2.
Apr. 14*
Harlem Renaissance
Bring HFM to class.
Due: Paper #2.
In class: Discuss film and Hurston articles.
Apr. 16
Hurston Essays
Read & Blog: HFM, pp. 813-25; 830-54
In class: Discuss essays.
Apr. 21*
Hurston Essays
Read & Blog: HFM, pp. 854-74.
In class: Discuss essays.
Apr. 23
Hurston's Essays
Read: HFM, pp. 875-911.
In class: Discuss essays.
Due: Draft of Paper #3.
Apr. 28*
Peer Review
Due: Comments on drafts of Paper #3
In class: Peer Review.
Apr. 30
Peer Review
In class: Peer Review, continued
May 5
Writing Day: no class.
May 7
Course evaluation, community celebration.
Due: Paper #3
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The Complete Stories. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings. Ed. Pamela Bordelon. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. Folklore collected by Hurston for the WPA.
Moses, Man of the Mountain. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1939.
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life. (With Langston Hughes.) Ed. George Houston Bass and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991.
The Sanctified Church: The Folklore Writings of Zora Neale Hurston. Berkeley, CA: Turtle Island Foundation, 1981.
Seraph on the Suwanee: A Novel. New York : Scribner's Sons, 1948.
Spunk: The Selected Stories. Berkeley, CA: Turtle Island Foundation, 1985.
Spunk: Three Tales. (With George C. Wolfe.) New York : Theatre Communications Group, 1991. (A musical adaptation by Wolfe of three short stories: "Sweat," "Story in Harlem Slang," and "The Gilded Six-Bits.")
Selected Bibliography (includes references to selected course readings)
Cronin, Gloria L., ed. Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Prentice Hall, 1998.
Davis, Rose Parker. Zora Neale Hurston: An Annotated Bibliography and Reference Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.
Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1977. An early biography of Hurston.
Holloway, Karla F. C. The Character of the Word: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1987.
Howard, Lillie P, ed. Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston: The Common Bond. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993.
Kaplan, Carla. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. New York: Doubleday, 2002. Collection of letters from Hurston to a variety of individuals, including Langston Hughes, Carl Sandberg, Alain Locke, family members, and her publishers. Helpful biographical information.
Kawash, Samira. Dislocating the Color Line: Identity, Hybridity, and Singularity in African-American Narrative. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1997.
Konzett, Delia Caparoso. Ethnic Modernisms: Anzia Yezierska, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Rhys, and the Aesthetics of Dislocation. New York: Palgrave, 2002.
Lionnet-McCumber, "Autoethnography: The An-Archic Style of Dust Tracks on a Road."
Meisenhelder, Susan Edwards. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1999.
Harris-Lopez, Trudier. The Power of the Porch: The Storyteller's Craft in Zora Neale Hurston, Gloria Naylor, and Randall Kenan. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1996.
Hill, Lynda Marion. Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale. Washington, DC: Howard UP, 1996.
Stein, Rachel. Shifting the Ground: American Women Writers' Revisions of Nature, Gender, and Race. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1997.
Walker, Alice. "Looking for Zora."
I Love Myself When I am Laughing . . . And Then Again When I'm Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader.
Ed. Alice Walker. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist P, 1979.Wall, Cheryl. Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995.
Washington, Mary Helen. "Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman Half in Shadow."
I Love Myself When I am Laughing . . . And Then Again When I'm Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader.
Ed. Alice Walker. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist P, 1979.---. "'I Love the Way Janie Left Her Husbands': Zora Neale Hurston's Emergent Hero." Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women, 1860-1960. Ed. Mary Helen Washington. Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1987. 237-54.
Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942. Compiled by the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, this site contains sound recordings of songs and stories collected by Zora Neale Hurston when she worked for the WPA. Want to hear Hurston perform these songs? Click here.
Plays of Zora Neale Hurston in Library of Congress. Contains digital copies of the original manuscript pages of the plays (I photocopied our copy of Spunk from this collection when I was at the Library of Congress in 2002). Electronic copies of these plays are also available through our Library online (look up any of these plays by title in our Library online catalog, and you will see the link to "Electronic Resources").
Voices from the Gaps: Zora Neale Hurston. The University of Minnesota's Voices from the Gaps project focuses on the lives and works of North American women writers of color. This page includes an especially nice bibliography of works about Hurston.
Homepage for the Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. An annual event held in Orange County, Florida.
