American Literary History:
Inventing American Literature
Dr. Meehan
Final Project
The Web of American Literature: Expanding the Circle
“The eye is the first circle.”
--Emerson, Circles
“I was myself within the circle; so I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear.”
--Douglass, Narrative of the Life
Assignment:
Your final project will combine the creation and publication of your portfolio (the previous writing/scholarship you have worked on—your “links”) with a new essay that will apply your learning to the question of diversity and American society as proposed in the American Experience rubric. This work will be published in digital format, using FrontPage and the web space provided to you by the College. In other words, you will through this final project join the expanding circle (and conversation) of American literary scholarship that is accessible through the web. As you know, this is something the course has been working you towards.
[For a tutorial on using FrontPage to make a web page at Morningside College, connect here: http://www.morningside.edu/morningside/help/students/studentwebs.htm]
Objectives:
There are two objectives related to the American Experience distribution that this course satisfies:
[1] At a foundational level, Morningside students are able to describe the American experience from the viewpoint of at least one minority segment of the American population.
[2] At a foundational level, Morningside students are able to analyze the relationship of diverse population groups to the broader American society.
There are an additional two objectives related to the course overall:
[3] Scholars will demonstrate their understanding of the broader web that links American writers in the 19th Century and beyond
[4] Scholars will explore the links between literary study and digital media and demonstrate the publication competencies required by professionals in the field of literary study.
Requirements:
Your site will contain the following components.
1]Home page: A basic home and introduction to your site, your ‘web.’ This page (as you well know from all your travels in hyper-space) houses the links to the various sections of your web. I suggest that this be the home page for this course, not your personal home page. However you do it, you need to provide links to the other sections of your author web. Note: somewhere on your web space you need to provide the links for the other writings you did during the term (autobiographical, poetry, and research links).
2]American Experience Essay: A 2-3 page essay that takes up, explores, and responds to the following 3 topics: [1] ]Describe Frederick Douglass’ definition of America from his perspective as a minority in 19th century America: what is key to his views of America based on his experience? [2]Compare/contrast Douglass’ perspective with one other author we have read in this course: what is a key similarity or difference between these two writers and their views of America. [3]Compare/contrast Douglass’ perspective with a contemporary figure of your choice: artist, musician, writer, politician, celebrity: How do they compare? What might Douglass say about that figure and why?
3]luminous Links: Post the scholarship you have pursued and produced in this course. I will be looking for links to three documents: your autobiographical essay; your poetry close reading; your research essay on House of the Seven Gables.
4]FAQ: Identify the 5 most important questions/answers (in your view) that anyone who claims to understand something about 19th century American literature would need to know—and therefore, anyone visiting your site would want to know. This can be a short as one page; your answers should provide links to resources where readers can pursue further reading and research [minimum 1 link per question].
Assessment:
This final project is worth approximately 10% of your final grade. Your project should reflect both the effort and insight you bring to this final work as well as the learning you have experienced throughout the course. I will assess how well your web presents an understanding of the larger “web” of American literature (links between and among authors) we have been exploring, specifically with regard to the questions raised for the American Experience essay. The creativity of your reading and writing matters (remember Emerson: ‘there is creative reading as well as creative writing’); the creativity of your presentation can help, but I will not be grading your work specifically for its artistic merit, though I encourage it. Everyone can, without much trouble, develop and post this digital portfolio to the web. At the very least, should you encounter some form of technical difficulty, you can do the project in FrontPage (as I will show you in class) and, as a backup, turn the project in to me on a cd-rom.
Final note on borrowing any material from other sites: any material borrowed or directly copied must be appropriately cited, the same as an article or book. [In the case of an image: it is best to provide a caption that indicates where you got the image and a link for the site.]
90-100: Excellent understanding and presentation—impressive in all aspects. This is a site worth using—a definite bookmark.
80-89: Good understanding is displayed, strong presentation, with room to make improvements for future updates of the site. A site worth checking back with in a few weeks to see what improvements are made—could become a good one.
70-79: Sufficient understanding and presentation—though limited in enough areas as to need improvement in several areas. Site is not effective enough at this point for saving, though it has some potential.
60-69: Insufficient understanding and presentation. Site is frustrating to reader and ineffective in its presentation and limitations. Not worth the click.
Below 60: Not completed as assigned.
Due Date:
Due in class during final exam period.
Bring in your laptop with your web site up and available.
As a back-up: copy and save your final project documents in Word, in addition to posting them on the Web through FrontPage.