COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will investigate the conception of heroes in America from the colonial period to the present.
REQUIREMENTS:
Students are required to attend and to participate in class and to complete all reading and writing assignments and exams. All students are required to activate their Loyola e-mail accounts by the second week of the semester unless they have their own account through an ISP. Every student MUST subscribe to the class listserv. Instructions on subscribing to the listserv will be distributed in class.
REQUIRED READINGS:
Kinsella, Shoeless Joe
Weems, Life of Washington
McFeely, Frederick Douglass
Savage, Commies, Cowboys, and Jungle Queens
Additional internet readings will be assigned on a weekly basis. If you do not have a PC, you may use the facilities available on campus, especially the Humanities Lab BO 448.
FILMS (tentative):
JEFFERSON IN PARIS
AMISTAD
MALCOLM X
THE RIGHT STUFF
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Students are required to attend all classes. I will allow four absences. Upon the fifth absence ten points (one letter grade) will be deducted from the student’s final grade with an additional ten point deduction for each further absence. Tardiness will not be tolerated. Students who are habitually late will be informed by me as such after which time their late arrivals will be counted as absences. Students who miss two classes or are tardy more than twice in the first four weeks of the semester will be cited for “irregular attendance” on the early warning rosters that I return to the Dean’s office. Those students or their parents will receive early warning letters from the Dean.
ASSIGNMENTS:
Students will be required to write three short (5-7 pp.) papers based on their assigned readings. These assignments are to be double-spaced typewritten essays based on original work. Periodic in class and e-mail writing exercises based on assigned readings will also be required. Students will also be required to take a final exam (in essay format).
MAKE-UP TESTS AND EXTENSIONS:
Make-up tests and/or extensions will be allowed only in extraordinary circumstances. To receive permission for a make-up test or paper extension, the student must contact me BEFORE the scheduled test or assignment deadline except in cases of emergency.
GRADING:
Grades will be assessed on a standard ten point scale (90-100=A, 87-89=B+, 80 86.9=B, etc., 59 or below = F. The three short papers will be worth 60% (20% each) of your final grade; in-class and e-mail writing assignments together will be worth 10%; the final exam will be worth 25%, and class participation will be worth 5%. The in-class writings and email will receive a check “*” or an “x.” The cumulative number of *’s and x’s will be used to determine your numerical grade for the in-class exercises. My subjective assessment of your class participation will be the basis of that grade.
INTEGRITY OF SCHOLARSHIP AND GRADES:
Please read the “Integrity of Scholarship and Grades” statement on pp. 45-46 of the Undergraduate Bulletin. Any student caught plagiarizing or cheating will receive an “F” for the course and the incident will be reported in writing to the Dean.
REVISION OF SYLLABUS:
I reserve the right to revise this syllabus at any time during the semester.
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT:
Beepers and Cell Phones WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! Please turn them off before you come to class. If your beeper or cell phone goes off once during class, you will be warned. If it happens a second time, you will receive a grade of "F" for the course.
ASSIGNMENTS AND DEADLINES:
First Short Paper -- Due in class September 26. Write a brilliant essay (5-7pp.) on the heroic qualities of George Washington as related in Parson Weems' Life of Washington.
Second Short Paper -- Due in class October 17. Write a brilliant essay assessing the heroic qualities of Frederick Douglass based on William S. McFeely's biography.
Third Short Paper -- Due in Class November 21. Write a brilliant essay (5-10pp.) assessing the role of heroes in twentieth-century American culture based on your readings of Shoeless Joe, Commies, Cowboys, and Jungle Queens, and at least one other book.
Final Exam -- Held in our classroom on December 12, 2-4:00 p. m.