SUMMER SESSION 1
JUNE 2ND – JULY 8TH 2025
ENG. 625: GENDER & 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE (30711)
ONLINE ASYNCHRONOUS
Dr. Granville Ganter
Email: ganterg@stjohns.edu
In this summer course, students will be asked to do close research on one of 5 texts: Charlotte Temple (1790), a cautionary story of a young teen who is abandoned after becoming pregnant out of wedlock; The Scarlet Letter (1850), the story of a married woman who refuses to declare that the father of her child is actually the town minister; Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), an encyclopedia of the evils of slavery, focusing on the Christian virtue of a young white girl and a fatherly slave; Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), the story of a young woman’s desperate attempt to keep from being raped by her master; or Sister Carrie (1900), the story of a wayward teen from Indiana whose sexual blunders result in her success as a star on Broadway. Students will choose and read their “research” book either before the class begins, or during the first week of class. We will collectively read and discuss all 5 books over the course of 5 weeks, but each student will complete a research program based on the book that they chose at the start of the class. The final project will include in Week 1, a discursive response to the original text; in Week 2 an annotated bibliography of critical work on the text; in Week 3 the selection of several key passages for analysis; in Week 4 a revised response after completing background research; and in Week 5, a conclusion. To provide as much oxygen as possible during this short course, students are encouraged to do as much of the reading as possible before the class begins.
ENG: 900: MASTER’S RESEARCH (30432)