Course Syllabus

Course Information
HUSL 6304.001
Spring 2011
Southern Literature
JO 4.312
Monday 4-6:45 p.m.
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Professor Contact Information
Betty Wiesepape
Office: JO 5.205
972-883-6352
Bet@utdallas.edu
Office hours: Monday 3 to 4
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Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions
No prerequisites are required, but students entering this class must be enrolled in the graduate program.
Proficiency in the English language and a knowledge of the fundamental rules of grammar are assumed.
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Course Description
The American South’s legacy of defeat, failure, and guilt has spawned an exceptional body of literature. In this class
we will examine that body of literature and the historical events and cultural elements that precipitated it. We will
trace the gothic and grotesque traditions in Southern literature from the antebellum period through the literary
awakening that has become known as the Southern Renaissance to the present, and we will examine how these
traditions have changed. Our study will be concentrated upon writing techniques employed by authors from the
American South as well as upon the content of their work.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

Through discussion and application, students will demonstrate their understanding of the literary movement known
as the Southern Renaissance.

Students will be able to recognize, analyze and evaluate works of Southern literature in a variety of forms and
genres.

Students will conduct and present independent, interdisciplinary research of subjects related to the Southern
literature.
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Required Textbooks and Materials
W. J. Cash, The Mind of the South
Clyde Edgerton, In Memory of Junior
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Ernest Gaines, Of Love and Dust
Barry Hannah, Ray
Carson McCullers, Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners
Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
E. D. E. N. Southworth, The Hidden Hand
Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
AND short stories and poems by Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Goyen, Bobbie Ann Mason,
Flannery O’Connor, Katherine Ann Porter, Eudora Welty, John Crow Ransom, Allen Tate, and Robert Penn
Warren.
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Assignments & Academic Calendar
JANUARY 10:
INTRODUCTION: Discuss the historical events that set the American South apart from the rest of
the country.
READ: As you have time, read Cash, The Mind of the South.
JANUARY 17: SCHOOL HOLIDAY—NO CLASS
JANUARY 24
READ: Hawthorne, “My Kinsman Major Molineux” & “The Birthmark”; ½ of Southworth, The Hidden
Hand.
IN-CLASS: Discuss Southern history, culture & literary influences.
JANUARY 31
READ: Cash, The Mind of the South; Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”& “The Pit and the Pendulum” & finish
Southworth, The Hidden Hand.
IN-CLASS: Discuss literary influences, particularly the traditions of gothic romance in Southern literature.
ASSIGNMENT DUE: 2 page reaction paper on the The Hidden Hand.
FEBRUARY 7
READ: Cash, The Mind of the South ; The following poems: John Crowe Ransom, “Bells for John
Whiteside’s Daughter”; Robert Penn Warren, “There’s a Grandfather’s Clock in the Hall”; Allen Tate,
“Ode to the Confederate Dead,” & ½ of Warren, All the King’s Men.
DISCUSS: Historical events that ignited the literary movement that became known as the Southern
Renaissance (Fugitive Poets, Agrarians, & New Critics.)
FEBRUARY 14
READ: Cash, The Mind of the South ; Finish All the King’s Men.
DISCUSS: Honor and the heroic in southern culture and southern literature.
ASSIGNMENT DUE: 2 page reaction paper on All the Kings Men.
FEBRUARY 21
READ: Faulkner, As I Lay Dying & O’Connor, “The Fiction Writer and His Country.”
DISCUSS: The family saga in Southern literature.
ASSIGNMENT DUE: 2 page reaction paper on Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.
FEBRUARY 28
READ: “The Church and the Fiction Writer”; Porter, “Old Mortality,” “The Grave,” “Pale Horse, Pale
Rider”; Goyen, “The Faces of Blood Kindred.”
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Reaction paper on assigned short stories.
MARCH 7
READ: O’Connor, “Writing Short Stories” & “On Her Own Work”; Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O”;
O’Connor, “Revelation” & “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
DISCUSS: The comic and the tragic in Southern writing.
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Reaction paper to assigned short stories. Also, reaction to Cash, Mind of the South
should be turned in on or before this date.
MARCH 14: SPRING BREAK—NO CLASS
MARCH 21
READ: McCullers, “Ballad of the Sad Café” O’Connor, “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern
literature.”
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Reaction paper on assigned reading.
MARCH 28
READ: ½ of Walker, The Moviegoer”; “The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South.”
DISCUSS: Existentialism in Southern writing.
APRIL 4
READ: Finish Walker, The Moviegoer; O’Connor, “The Teaching of Literature.”
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Reaction paper on The Moviegoer.
APRIL 11
READ: ½ of Gaines, Of Love and Dust; O’Connor, “The Nature and Aim of Fiction.”
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Final draft of seminar paper.
APRIL 18
READ: Finish Gaines, Of Love and Dust; Bobbie Ann Mason, “Ocean” & “Shiloh.”
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Reaction paper on Love and Dust.
APRIL 25
 READ: Edgerton, In Memory of Junior.
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Reaction paper to In Memory of Junior.
MAY 2
READ: Cormac McCarthy, The Road.
ASSIGNMENT DUE: Reaction paper to The Road.
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Grading Policy
Grades will be based upon attendance, classroom citizenship, and participation in class discussions—20%, reaction
papers to reading assignments—20%; seminar paper—40%; report on southern author—20%; Grades on pop
quizzes may be figured into students’ grades, if such quizzes are deemed appropriate by the professor. The professor
will use the newly instituted grading system that includes plus and minus along with all letter grades except A+.

Course & Instructor Policies

Students will be expected to read all assigned materials and to be prepared to discuss these readings in class. Failure
to perform reading assignments will have a negative effect upon the student’s class participation grade. (See above)

NOTE: Seminar papers written in previous classes may not be submitted to fulfill the requirements of this course.

All written assignments must be typed, double spaced, and legible. Work submitted after the due date will be
accepted, but the grade on the assignment will be lowered one full letter grade, and the professor will not make
editorial comments on late work.

The professor will not accept handwritten work or work submitted by email.

Class attendance and participation in class discussions are mandatory. Attendance will be taken each week, and a
student who misses more than 3 classes should not expect to receive a passing grade in the course. (3 absences in
this class are equivalent to 9 absences in a course that meets for one hour 3 times a week.) NOTE: No make-up
work will be assigned; no extra credit projects will be offered, no absences will be excused except those mandated
by the administration of this university.

The use of cell phones, recorders, and other communication devices will not be permitted in this class. Please turn
these devices off before entering the classroom.

NOTE: Descriptions and timelines in this syllabus are subject to change at the
discretion of the professor.

NOTE: The University of Texas at Dallas syllabus-policies can be accessed at:

http://go.utdallas.edu/syllabus-policies