Course meetings: Tuesdays per. 6-8 English Dept. Seminar room

Instructor: Susan Hegeman 392-6650, x 231 or x 227; shegeman@english.ufl.edu

It is almost a truism that much of the social imaginary of the United States is composed of agrarian ideals of a citizenry of farmers and pastoral visions of limitless supplies of exploitable land. Yet by twentieth century the United States was not an agricultural country. Before the Civil War 60% of Americans worked the land; by 1900, this figure dropped to around 33% and it continued to drop throughout the twentieth century. The postwar "green revolution" in particular instigated the loss of millions of rural jobs in the space of a few decades and precipitated new waves of migrations of rural African Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other formerly agricultural laborers from around the world into the urban centers of the U.S.

This course will address the contradiction between the pastoral and agrarian ideals that persisted throughout the twentieth century and the increasing marginality of farming as a way of life. How is the country and its inhabitants imagined from the perspective of the city? How do rural people, in turn, articulate their relationship to modernity and the urban world? The course will be especially relevant to students interested in 20^th century American literature and culture, regional studies, and economic and geographical studies of culture.

Books ordered

All course books are available at the Goering’s textbook store ("Books and Bagels"). There are also additional readings, which I will make available for students to photocopy at a time and place to be arranged.

Course Requirements

1. Attendance and active participation in the seminar is expected. Students will also be asked to lead one or two discussions over the course of the semester.

2. A short assignment (5-10 pps.) This short assignment can be one of two types:

a short paper of 5-10 pages in length on a topic relevant to the course. This short paper may be used as a portion of the final long paper asisgnment.

a prospectus for a project relevant to the course (5-10 pp. In length).  This prospectus may be for the final long paper or for a longer project – either one that you plan to work on or a speculative project. Please see the handout, “Writing a Prospectus” for further hints and directions.

3. A formal paper of publication length (20 to 25 pps.). Please be aware that I will only accept papers that I consider to be relevant to the course topic.  You are encouraged to discuss paper topics with me well in advance of the due date.
 

Due Dates

October 9 – short paper due
December 7 -- last day to turn in your final paper if you want to receive a grade and comments before the winter break

December 12-- last day to turn in your final paper if you want to receive a letter grade for the course for this semester (i.e., if you don’t turn in your paper by this date, you will receive an “I”)

Course policy on Incompletes: I am willing to let students take Incompletes to have more time to complete the final research paper. (I expect the other, far less substantial, requirements of the course to be finished in a timely manner). However, in the interest of not excessively prolonging the work of this course, I will accept seminar papers and grade them for full credit until  May 4, 2002 (the end of the Spring semester). Students who turn in papers after this date will not receive an “A” in the course.
 
 

Introduction
August 28: no readings

The Frontier, the Agrarian Country, and the City
September 4:
Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1894), “The Significance of the Section in American History” (1925)
12 Southerners, “Introduction: A Statement of Principles” from I’ll Take My Stand (1930)
John Crowe Ransom, “Reconstructed but Unregenrate” from I’ll Take My Stand (1930)
 Wendell Berry, "The Unsettling of America" (1977)
 Warren I. Susman, "The City in American Culture" from Culture as History (1984)

The City and the Country
September 11: Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham

The Country and the City
September 18:Norris, The Octopus
September 25: Norris, continued
October 2: Cather, My Antonia

Modernity and the (Rural) Folk
October 9: Whisnant, All That is Native and Fine
October 16 DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
October 23 Arnow, The Dollmaker
October 30 Arnow continued

West of Everything
November 6 Mitchell, Westerns
November 13 film westerns:  Red River, Midnight Cowboy

Contemporary Visions
November 20: Silko, Gardens in the Dunes