Syllabus, ENLT 274-01      20th Century Literature of Immigration    Fall 2009

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1. Required Reading -- Books.

We will cover these books. They are now in the University Book Store.

Here I list them alphabetically, by last name of the author:

• Thomas Bell. Out Of This Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976: original edition 1941.
• Carlos Bulosan. America is in the Heart. A Personal History. University of Washington Press, 1973; original edition 1946.
• Pietro Di Donato. Christ in Concrete. Penguin - New American Library, 2004; original edition 1939.
• Mike Gold. Jews Without Money. Carroll & Graff, 1996; original edition 1930.
• Frank McCourt. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir. Scribner, 1996.
• Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets. Vintage, 1997; original edition 1967.

Here they are listed chronologically by the date the book was first published:

• 1930 - Gold, Jews Without Money.
• 1939 - Di Donato, Christ in Concrete.
• 1941 - Bell, Out Of This Furnace.
• 1946 - Bulosan, America is in the Heart.
• 1967 - Thomas, Down These Mean Streets.
• 1996 - McCourt, Angela's Ashes.

You must read Di Donato, Christ in Concrete, and have written your paper on it, by Thursday, September 10.

2. Other Required Readings.

• Essays and other writings in digital format -- from the Internet or scanned by me.
• I will distribute handouts from time to time.

These are also required. You should save them in a file folder.

3. Goal of The Course.

Here is the description of this course from the Course Catalog of 2008-9:

ENLT-274 20TH C LIT OF IMMIGRATION
Twentieth Century Literature of Immigration. Prerequisites: ENWR 106 or HONP 101.
The Literature of Immigration examines the experience of immigrants to the United States through the fiction, poetry and drama of writers of varying cultural backgrounds to learn about the customs, religions, mores and assimilative strategies of old and new immigrant groups. Literary strategies used by the writers will be emphasized. Meets the World Languages and Cultures Requirement - World Cultures. 3 hours lecture.

A huge number of books -- novels, poetry, and memoir -- fits this description. No selection of five or six books can do more than introduce the student to this rich and varied literature.

I have chosen these novels and memoirs by surveying similar courses at other colleges and universities and by asking recommendations from specialists in this area.

• No books of poetry are here; I'll provide a few examples digitally.
• I've picked no books by women authors. This reflects my own relative ignorance, which I plan to remedy in future years.

Studying these novels, and paying special attention to these themes and, of course, to other themes that you will notice in the novels, will help us to discuss and think about some important questions, such as:

• How successful are these novels as fiction? How can we make these kinds of judgments? What criteria can we use?
• In what ways are the situations faced by the persons in the novels we read "realistic" -- a more-or-less accurate depiction of problems facing millions of immigrants?
• What are the common experiences of immigrants from otherwise very different societies and cultures?
• What methods are appropriate for us to try to answer these questions?

4. Attendance and Class Participation.

The classes will be mainly discussions of the reading rather than lectures.

Participation by the whole class in discussions is a must if they are to be interesting and worthwhile. In addition, considerable class time will be spent listening to, and commenting upon and discussing, papers written by the students in the class.

A typical class might be divided this way:

1. (sometimes) Instructor's presentation, comments, suggestions.
2. Group Discussions: I will divide the class into 4-6 groups for discussion purposes. I will provide suggested topics for discussion, together with passages from the books.
3. General class discussion of the topic, passages, and related topics and passages.

This order can be varied.

5. Attendance Policy.

I will take attendance in class each day.

Excused and Unexcused Absences

Three unexcused absences will lower the final grade by one grade (e.g. "A" becomes "A-"); five unexcused absences lowers it by one letter (e.g. "A" becomes "B").

If you cannot attend class for whatever reason, I expect you to let me know by email; by phone; or in person before class. If this is impossible, leave a message the same day as the class. If you do this, your absence will be "excused."

If you fail, or forget, to do this, your absence will be "unexcused."

You should email me here. This is the best way to communicate with me. I do not check my voicemail every day.

Lateness Policy.

If you are late for class -- after I have taken attendance - - I will count it as an "unexcused" absence unless you remember to tell me, at the end of that same class, that you came late.

If you forget to do this, your recorded absence will remain. I do this because lateness disrupts the class and group discussions.

The first two times you are late for a class, I will warn you. After that, I will count your lateness as an "unexcused" absence.

Please do not be consistently late.

6. Course Requirements.

• All books must be read by the date on the syllabus. I will distribute this syllabus by the second week of class. It will give the date discussion of each work will begin.
• A short essay, 3-4 pages in length, will be collected from each student on the day class discussion begins (to be listed on the syllabus). This will guarantee that everyone has read the book, and will make good classroom discussion possible. Everyone gets more out of in-class discussion when everyone has read the book.
• Guidelines for the short essay are available here.
• You will email your essays to me (Furr), and also to the other members of your discussion group.
  • After the first day of class on each book, you will be able to read the papers of everyone else in the group. This will help you in discussing the book with the other members of your group -- you can compare and contrast approaches to the novels.

Be sure to "send a copy to yourself" of ALL your homework assignments!

• Completion of the biweekly written assignments.
  • You will generally have two writing assignments every week, one for each class session.
  • Go here to the homework page.

These assignments will be put on our web page after the end of the previous class.

They'll be shorter assignments, typically 150-300 words. In them you'll be asked

• to write about one or two passages in the book we are discussing, and
• to email your assignment both to me and to the other members of your discussion group.

You'll be asked to do this by the previous evening before class so that you can have time the day of the class, but before the class, to access your account and read the assignments from the other members of your group.

This means every student will have both written on the passages to be discussed, AND read the responses from the other members of his/her group. This greatly enriches the discussions!

• Completion of all examinations.
• Participation in class. You cannot receive a passing grade for class participation if you are absent frequently, no matter what the reason is.

7. All writing will be done on-line.

You will use email  very extensively in this course. All writing assignments will be submitted by email.

This will permit you to send your assignments to everyone in your group, and for you to read their assignments. This, in turn, will make group discussions much better!

As outlined above, you will have one essay on each book.

In addition, you will have two shorter writing assignments per week, which you will send me and your group. These will be assigned in advance, and will center on passages which we will discuss at the following class session.

This means that everyone in class will have read the book in its entirety by the time we come to discuss it.

In addition, every student will have reread, and written on, the specific passages under discussion at each class session. This makes class discussions far more fruitful.

8. Examinations and Grading.

A  final exam will be due at the time and place in the Course Schedule Booklet for this semester.

The final grade for the course will be composed of:

• grades for the short papers;
• grades for the biweekly assignments;
• the grade for class participation
• the final examination;
• less penalty for unexcused absences (if any).

9. How to Get In Touch With Me.

It may be easiest for you to email me at my email address.

Remember to put your last name, the letters li (capital letters) and the date the assignment is due -- NOT the date you are sending it to me, on the Subject line of every email to me.

I will return, without grading or counting them, all messages sent to me without a proper Subject Line. See the example on our Home Page.

Sometimes you just have a question or comment that can be handled without seeing me personally. If so, email me and I'll get back to you within 24 hours. I check my email at least once a day, usually twice.

But there will be times you want to see me in person.

• My office hours are Mondays and Thursdays 8:30 - 9:45 a.m. in DI-325 (Dickson Hall).
  I can also be available Thursdays  at 2:30 p.m., after my last class, but only with advance notification from you. Otherwise I may be in my office, but on other business.
• My office phone is (973) 655-7305. But do not leave messages there -- they are very hard to hear, and I don't check them often. Email me instead.

Back to Home Page for Literature of Immigration, Fall 2009.

Go to Schedule of Readings for this course.

Go here to the Homework Page.

http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/li/lisyl09.html | Email me | last modified 31 Aug 09