Language Arts 8
Spring 2008
Final Project: The American Canon
For the last 200 years, Literature & English academics have contributed to the evolution of the American literary canon, focusing on particular authors and texts that represent major movements or questions within canon formation. Which writers (mostly from New England) dominated the American literary scene from the beginning? Who were their contemporaries in New England and other regions of the country, and what happened to their writings and reputation? How does the canon change as we move through the late nineteenth to the twentieth century? How do events like the World Wars, the Depression, and the Cold War have an impact on American Literature? And, of course, how has the canon changed in the past thirty years, incorporating more literature by ethnic/racial minorities and women? What works/ authors have been discovered/re-discovered as the politics of the nation and the canon have
changed? What authors are being displaced or dropped from the current canon and why? Is the canon infinitely expandable or finite? How will we choose?
As your major project in 8th grade Language Arts, you will research, write, and present on how to answer some of these questions about the American Literature Canon. The first step of this project asks you to consider the question “What is American Literature?” and in answering it, you will provide both a general definition as well as specific readings. So, you will need to come up with a definition of how to best define and describe “America.” From there, you will come up with readings from American authors that support your defnition of what is America and what should be included in the “canon” of American Lit.
STEP 1: What is America?
STEP 2: Using the following categories, select writers that best exemplify your definition of America. You may include any American writer from the categories, and I have offered suggestions to help you get started.
Early America – Pre-1900
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe
20th Century America
Consider including the following: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Nella Larsen, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Gertrude Stein, J.D. Salinger
(More…)
American Philosophers
Consider including the following: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luthin King, Jr., Malcolm X, Gloria Steineim
American Poets
Consider including the following: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn, Brooks, Countee Cullen, E.E. Cummings, Langston Hughes
American Playwrights
Consider including the following: Eugene O’Neil, Arthur Miller, August Wilson, Tony Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet, Thorton Wilder
STEP 3: Research some of the authors that will help support your definition of America and some of the writings that support your thesis. Take notes on notecards.
STEP 4: Organize your material and get ready to write: make a detailed outline. You must include a section of your paper for each of the categories above. A basic outline for this paper looks like this:
I. Introduction
A. General statement about the canon
B. Your thesis/definition of America
C. Main points that support your thesis and authors from the categories above.
II. Background information on the “American Canon Controversy”
A. “White, Christian, Landowning, Men from New England”
B. “Modern” ideas of the controversy
C. Other information about the controversy?
III. Early America
IV. 2oth Century
V. Philosophers
VI. Poets
VII. Playwrights
FOR EACH SECTION ABOVE, EXPLAIN WHICH WRITER HELPS YOU PROVE YOUR THESIS/DEFINITION OF AMERICA. ADD EVIDENCE AND ARGUMENT FOR EACH SECTION.
VIII. Conclusion
(More…)
STEP 5: Write the paper: first draft.
STEP 6: Revise, revise, revise: complete final draft.
Final draft checklist: coversheet with original title, text of paper, bibliography with minimum of 10 sources.
Your final grade on this project will be composed of the following:
Assignments Points Due Date
1. Daily work – use of class time 40 points (Daily)
2. Thesis presentation – explain 10 points May 1
thesis to class
3. Notecards – min. 30 notecards 30 points 10 cards: May 1
10 cards: May 8
10 cards: May 12
4. Research presentation – explain 10 points May 14-15
significant evidence to class
5. Outline for paper – 2-3 page outline 20 points May 21
6. First draft of paper – complete draft 50 points May 26
7. Final draft of paper – coversheet, text, 100 points June 4
& bibliography
8. Presentation - select author for “salon” 40 points June 5 & 6
_____
TOTAL: 300 points