Dr. Neil Jumonville
Florida State University
AMS-3810/AMS-5815
Spring 2000

READING LIST

Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950). [ISBN: 0674939557]

John William Ward, Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (NY: Oxford University Press, 1955). [ISBN: 0195006992]

David Potter, People of Plenty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958). [ISBN: 0226676331]

John Stilgoe, Metropolitan Corridor (New Haven: Yale, 1983). [ISBN: 0300034814]

Annette Kolodny, The Land Before Her (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1984). [ISBN: 0807841110]

Janice Radway, Reading the Romance (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1991). [ISBN: 0807843490]

Warren Susman, Culture as History (NY: Pantheon, 1985). [ISBN: 0394721616]

David Marc, Comic Visions (Malden: Blackwell, 1997). [ISBN: 1577180038]

* All readings preceded by an asterisk (*) in the class schedule below are photocopied and available to be purchased from TARGET COPY on Tennessee Street.

INTENTIONS OF THE COURSE: To give those interested in American studies a working knowledge of the history, tradition, and important texts of the American studies movement. Students will also become familiar with the identity crisis and other problems the movement has encountered in the past several decades.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS Read these requirements closely, because they tell you most of what you need to know about the operation of the class and the requirements for your paper. Don't read these once and then forget them, because you'll be judged on the basis of them.

ATTENDANCE: Because each of these classes represents one week's worth of the course, it is important not to miss any of them, except under the most unavoidable circumstances. Part of your discussion grade is also a grade for attendance--which means showing up for class on time. If you're someone who makes a habit of walking in after class begins, then you'll feel the impact quite significantly in your semester grade.

READING: All students must complete the reading for the course. Weekly assignments are indicated in the syllabus. It is important for you to do the reading in time to participate in the discussions.

DISCUSSIONS: As much as possible, the discussions will be a friendly exchange of ideas, but part of your grade for the semester will be based on your active participation in the dialogues.

PAPERS: There will be one research paper due in class on MONDAY APRIL 17. Undergraduate papers are to be exactly 10 pages of text (with normal margins) not counting endnotes. Graduate papers are to be exactly 15 pages of text (with normal margins) not counting endnotes. Please use endnotes rather than footnotes. All papers must be double-spaced and either typewritten or printed by computer. No extensions on written assignments, even in the event of a nuclear war. For every day the paper is late, it will drop a full grade (for example, from a B+ to a C+).

These are to be research papers, but that doesn't mean they're to be without ideas. Research should augment the ideas in your paper, not replace them. The papers will be graded on the strength of their ideas; the breadth, depth, and originality of their research; the originality, intelligence, and power of their thesis or interpretation; and the grace and clarity of their writing (their use of language, spelling, punctuation, and syntax). Naturally, any plagiarism (having someone write the paper for you, or copying it from another source) will result in an immediate failure of the entire course.

Where should you go for research? You should look for books in LUIS, or find articles in indexes such as Reader's Guide, Academic Index, America: History and Life, or the MLA Index. Reviews of books that you might be using can be found in Book Review Digest. The New York Times Index will lead you to newspaper articles on the figure or issue you are writing about. All of these indexes can be located through the "Databases and Gateways" link on the WebLuis website. The reference librarians or I would be happy to show you where these indexes are and how they work.

You should construct a bibliography, listing the sources you used, and put it at the end of the paper. You should also put a list of endnotes at the end of your paper (between the text and the bibliography). These endnotes are citations of a specific work and page number that you have quoted or drawn from in your text. If in a paragraph of yours you quote from someone or draw prominently from their ideas, use an endnote to cite the appropriate page number of their work. If you don't cite someone else's work when you use it in your own, technically that is an act of plagiarism.

You should write on one of the suggestions below.

First, you can write about one of the figures in the movement who we have or have not discussed. You could write on any of the early figures we don't talk much about, such as Howard Mumford Jones, Kenneth Murdock, Robert Spiller, Merle Curti, or Tremaine McDowell. A few of the myth-symbol writers we won't talk about include Richard W.B. Lewis, The American Adam (1955); Leo Marx, Machine in the Garden (1964); and Alan Trachtenberg, Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol (1965). Or you could write about one of the American character writers we haven't analyzed, figures such as Perry Miller, Errand into the Wilderness (1956); Wilbur Cash, The Mind of the South (1941); F.O. Matthiessen, The American Renaissance (1941); Denis Brogan, The American Character (1944); Henry Steele Commager, The American Mind (1950); Daniel Boorstin, The Genius of American Politics (1953); Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (1955); Daniel Aaron, Men of Good Hope (1951); and Allen Guttmann, The Wound in the Heart (1962). What would you write about them? Write about the features of their work that make them an American studies writer rather than simply a historian or literary critic. What themes, outlooks, or "schools" that we have studied are they connected to?

Second, you could write about one of the subtopics of American studies that we've discussed. For example cultural geography, or gender, or African-Americans, and suggest how the field of American Studies might look at the subject differently (for example, in a more interdisciplinary way) than a historian or a literary critic might. the South, the cities, conservatism--or whatever. Or you could write on some battle in the American Studies movement--such as the identity crisis in the 1970s, or about American Studies Association's uncomfortable relation to popular culture and its interactions with Ray Browne and his Popular Culture Association at Bowling Green University.

You are welcome to ask me about the topic you choose, but you are not required to do so.

RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS: On the final day of class students will give a five-minute presentation of their research paper to the rest of the group, and will field questions on it.

GRADES: Class discussion will count 45%. The final research paper will count 45%. The class presentation will count 10%.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Students with disabilities covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act should follow these steps: 1) Provide documentation of your disability to the Office of Disabled Student Services (08 Kellum Hall, 644-9566). 2) Bring a statement from the Office of Disabled Student Services indicating that you have registered with them to your instructor the first week of class. The statement should indicate the special accommodations you require.

OFFICE HOURS: Fridays, 11 am to 12 noon in Bellamy 420.

MON, JAN 10.
WEEK 1: BACKGROUND; AMERICAN CULTURE BEFORE 1945
Organization of the class.
Some remarks on perceptions of American culture before 1945.

MON, JAN 17.
WEEK 2: ML KING HOLIDAY

MON, JAN 24.
WEEK 3: MYTH AND SYMBOL
Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950). Read chapters 1, 5, 8-18.
* Carl Bode, "The Start of the ASA," American Quarterly 31(3):338-406, Bibliography Issue 1979, pp. 345-54.
* Robert Spiller, "American Studies, Past, Present, and Future," in Joseph J. Kwiat and Mary C. Turpie, eds., Studies in American Culture: Dominant Ideas and Images (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1960), pp. 207-20.

MON, JAN 31.
WEEK 4: MYTH AND SYMBOL
John William Ward, Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (NY: Oxford University Press, 1955). Skip chapters 5, 6, and 10.
* John William Ward, "Looking Backward: Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age," in Lewis P. Curtis, Jr., ed., The Historian's Workshop (New York: Knopf, 1970).
* Philip Gleason, "World War II and the Development of American Studies," American Quarterly 36(3):343-58, Bibliography Issue 1984.

MON, FEB 7.
WEEK 5: NATIONAL CHARACTER SCHOOL
David Potter, People of Plenty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958). Skip chapters 1 and 2.

MON, FEB 14.
WEEK 6: FROM MYTH-SYMBOL TO IDENTITY CRISIS
David Potter, People of Plenty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958). Read chapters 1 and 2.
* Gene Wise, "'Paradigm Dramas' in American Studies," American Quarterly 3(1):293-337, Spring 1979.
* Bruce Kuklick, "Myth and Symbol in American Studies," American Quarterly 24(4):435-50, October 1972.
* Neil Jumonville, "The Character and Myth of Historians at Midcentury, 1937-1997," in Henry Steele Commager: Midcentury Liberalism and the History of the Present (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1999), pp. 195-229.

MON, FEB 21.
WEEK 7: CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
John Stilgoe, Metropolitan Corridor (New Haven: Yale, 1983). [ISBN: 0-300-03481-4] Read the preface, introduction, and chapters 3, 5-6, 9, 12-13.
* Craig Lambert, "Safari on a City Street," Harvard Magazine, Jan-Feb 1996, 36-42.
* Peirce Lewis, "Learning from Looking: Geographic and Other Writing About the American Cultural Landscape," American Quarterly 35(3):242-61, Bibliography Issue 1983.

MON, FEB 28.
WEEK 8: ETHNOGRAPHY AND MATERIAL CULTURE
* Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., "The History of Technology and the Study of Material Culture," American Quarterly 35(3):304-15, Bibliography Issue 1983.
* John L. Caughey, "The Ethnography of Everyday Life: Theories and Methods for American Culture Studies," American Quarterly 34(3):222-43, Bibliography Issue 1982.
* Jack Larkin, "The View from New England: Notes on Everyday Life in Rural America to 1850," American Quarterly 34(3):244-61, Bibliography Issue 1982.
* Peter Muller, "Everyday Life in Suburbia: A Review of Changing Social and Economic Forces That Shape Daily Rhythms Within the Outer City," American Quarterly 34(3):262-77, Bibliography Issue 1982.
* Charles Camp, "Foodways in Everyday Life," American Quarterly 34(3):278-89, Bibliography Issue 1982.

MON, MAR 6. SPRING BREAK

MON, MAR 13.
WEEK 9: A RETURN TO MYTH AND SYMBOL?
Annette Kolodny, The Land Before Her (Chapel Hill: UNC, 1984). Read Prologue, chapters 1-2, 5, 7-8, and Epilogue.
* Richard Slotkin, "Dreams and Genocide: The American Myth of Regeneration Through Violence," Journal of Popular Culture 5(1):38-59, Summer 1971.

MON, MAR 20.
WEEK 10: GENDER, RACE AND CULTURAL STUDIES
Janice Radway, Reading the Romance (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1991). Skip the intro and chaps 2-3.
* David Howard-Pitney, "The Enduring Black Jeremiad: The American Jeremiad and Black Protest Rhetoric, From Frederick Douglass to W.E.B. DuBois, 1841-1919," American Quarterly 38(3):481-92, Bibliography Issue 1986.

MON, MAR 27.
WEEK 11: CONSUMPTION AND POPULAR CULTURE
Warren Susman, Culture as History (NY: Pantheon, 1985). Read chapters 7, 8, and 14.
* T. J. Jackson Lears and Richard Wightman Fox, eds, The Culture of Consumption (New York: Pantheon, 1983), Introduction and chapter one.

MON, APR 3.
WEEK 12: POPULAR CULTURE
David Marc, Comic Visions (Malden: Blackwell, 1997). Chapters 1-4, 7.
* Ray Browne, "The ASA and Its Friends," in Jay Mechling, ed., "Some Voices in and Around American Studies," American Quarterly 31(3):338-406, Bibliography Issue 1979, pp. 354-58.

MON, APR 10.
WEEK 13: RESEARCH
No class meeting. Work on your research.

MON, APR 17.
WEEK 14: PRESENTATIONS
Briefly present your research paper in class.