English 685-001
Honors Seminar: American Migrations: The Fiction of Steinbeck, Hurston, and Cather
Instr: Hamilton, Kristie
Office: CRT 478; 229-5959
e-mail: kgh2@uwm.edu
Office hours: TBA
Course Information: TR; 12:30-1:45pm; CRT 284
Course Description
In this course we will read extraordinary stories about ordinary people for whom migrations from "old worlds" to new frontiers in search of work, a new beginning, a home, or a newly realized selfhood is the stuff of which dreams, tragedies and survival are made. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an increase in the immigration of Europeans to the United States and in the migration of diverse working-class Americans from rural to urban areas and from urban centers to agricultural regions. Thus, mobility, place, and displacement became central themes in American fiction of this period. Though seldom studied together, the novels of John Steinbeck, Zora Neale Hurston and Willa Cather vividly portray the passions, the laughter, the love and the sorrows of migrating peoples and members of immigrant communities.
In O Pioneers! Willa Cather describes two of the most powerful forces at work in the fiction we will study: "The great fact was the land itself" and "The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman." We will discover how Steinbeck, Cather, and Hurston write histories of hearts on the move, of the land that sustains or overpowers men and women and of the desires that move characters and communities to seek a place to stop and stay. Short stories, African American folk tales, and novels of this period incorporate these themes with a mixture of social realism, myth and history. We'll investigate the way literary form expresses and gives shape to the experience of people within migratory and immigrant communities, and ponder the struggles and victories of migrant workers, of small-town families, and of pioneers. Such clichés as "America is a nation on the move" and such metaphors as "America, the great melting pot" will come under our scrutiny and will take on new meaning. We will learn not only about the literary histories of realism, regionalism, and modernism but also about ourselves and our own intertwining histories.
Student Work: Four sets of written discussion questions (of no more than 100 words) to be presented orally in class, one 1-page report on a critical or historical essay, and three interpretive essays (two 5 pages, one 8 pages in length). Two of the essays will be revised in formal drafts, the first with instructor comments and the second after peer review. Students will attend class regularly and participate in class discussion. Further, all students will lead a class discussion and orally report on their research.
Required Texts: (Will Be Available at Peoples' Books, 2122 E. Locust Street-near corner of Maryland Avenue and Locust, 962-0575)
Cather, Willa, A Lost Lady, Vintage
Cather, Willa, My Antonia, Houghton Mifflin
Cather, Willa, O Pioneers!, Signet Classic
Hurston, Zora Neale, Jonah's Gourd Vine, HarperCollins
Hurston, Zora Neale, Their Eyes Were Watching God, HarperPerennial
Steinbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath, Penguin
Steinbeck, John, Of Mice and Men, Penguin
Steinbeck, John, The Pearl, Penguin
At Clark Graphics after semester begins: Hurston's short story "Sweat," Steinbeck's "Chrysanthemums," and Cather's "Paul's Case."
Two literary critical essays will be placed on reserve at the Golda Meier Library.
