Crime and Punishment in American Literature (352:351)            Spring 2008

Professor H. Bruce Franklin Office: Hill 515. Phone: 353-5279, ext. 515. Office hours: Mon. 1:00-2:00; Wed. 2:30-3:30; and by appointment. E-mail: hbf@andromeda.rutgers.edu   Web page: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf

REQUIRED TEXTS: (Editions listed are those ordered at New Jersey Books and Bradley Hall. You may substitute except where noted.)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Penguin.
Herman Melville, Billy Budd & Other Stories. Penguin. (OK to substitute as long as
    text for Billy Budd, Sailor is the one edited by Hayford and Sealts.)
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. New American Library.
Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest. Vintage paperback.
Neal Stephenson, Zodiac. Bantam or Grove.
H. Bruce Franklin, Prison Writing in 20th-Century America. Penguin.
Tim O'Brien, In the Lake of the Woods. Penguin.
Donald Goines, Dopefiend. All America Distributors.
Héctor Tobar. The Tattooed Soldier. Penguin.

[RECOMMENDED Any one of the following widely available books would be very helpful in understanding the prison system in America today:

Scott Christianson, With Liberty for Some. Northeastern University Press.
David Cole, No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System.
   New Press.
Elliott Currie, Crime and Punishment in America. Henry Holt.
Joy James, States of Confinement. Palgrave.
Christian Parenti, Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis. Verso.
Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. Allyn & Bacon.
Daniel Burton Rose, Dan Pens, and Paul Wright, eds., The Celling of America: An Inside
    look at the U.S. Prison Industry. Common Courage Press.
Elihu Rosenblatt, ed., Criminal Injustice: Confronting the Prison Crisis. South End Press.]

Assignments must be completed by the indicated dates:

January 30  Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave. (1845)

February 4 Herman Melville, "Benito Cereno" (1855)

February 6  Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" (1853)

February 11 Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Sailor (1891)

February 18 Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)

February 20 In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

    Foreword by Tom Wicker
    Editor's Introduction
    Plantation Prison
    "Autobiography of an Imprisoned Peon" (1904)
    Songs of the Prison Plantation
        "Go Down Old Hannah"
        "Midnight Special"
        "Easy Rider"

February 25 In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

    Jack London "'Pinched': A Prison Experience" and "The Pen" (1907)
    Agnes Smedley "Cell Mates" (1920)
    Kate Richards O'Hare from Crime and Criminals (1921)
    Chester Himes "To What Red Hell?" (1934)
    Nelson Algren "El Presidente de Méjico" (1947)

March 3  Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest (1929)

March 5  See the movie Chinatown (1974) any time before this class meeting. A copy will be available on the fourth floor of Dana Library and videos are widely available for rental.

March 10 In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

    Malcolm X from The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
    Etheridge Knight   "The Warden Said to Me the Other Day" (1968)
        "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane" (1968)
    George Jackson from Soledad Brother (1970)
    Mshaka "Formula for Attica Repeats" (1974)

March 12  In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

    Jack Abbott from In the Belly of the Beast (1981)
    Assata Shakur from Assata (1987)

March 24  Donald Goines, Dopefiend (1971)

March 26  In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

Norma Stafford "In Santa Cruz" (1972)
        "The Gone One" (1973)

William Wantling  "from Sestina to San Quentin" (1973)
        "Poetry" (1973)
        "Who's Bitter?" (1973)

Carolyn Baxter "Lower Court" (1979)
        "35 Years a Correctional Officer" (1979)
        "On Being Counted" (1979)

March 31  In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

    Jimmy Santiago Baca "The New Warden" (1979)
        "The County Jail" (1979)
        "I Applied for the Board" (1982)
        "Past Present" (1992)
    Edward Bunker from Little Boy Blue (1981)

April 2  In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

Nathan C. Heard from House of Slammers (1983)
Patricia McConnel "Sing Soft, Sing Loud" (1989)
Jerome Washington "Diamond Bob" (1994)
    "The Blues Merchant" (1994)
    "Nobody's Hoss" (1994)
    "Barracuda and Sheryl" (1994)
    "Shing-a-Ling and China" (1994)

April 7  In Prison Writing in 20th-Century America:

Kathy Boudin "Our Skirt" (1997)
    "The Call" (1997)

Dannie Martin  "AIDS: The View from a Prison Cell" (1986)
    "A Prescription for Torture" (1990)
    "A Mount Everest of Time" (1990)

Mumia Abu-Jamal "B-Block Days and Nightmares" (1990)
    "Skeleton Bay" (1993)
    "Already Out of the Game" (1994)

April 14 Neal Stephenson, Zodiac (1988)

April 21  Tim O'Brien, In the Lake of the Woods (1994)

April 30 Héctor Tobar, The Tattooed Soldier (1998)

May 7   Final day for submission of original short story or essay (minimum length 2,500 words).  Do not leave the writing or printing of this project for the last minute.  A hard copy is due in class.  You must also submit a digitized copy, either on a disk or by e-mail, within 24 hours of this class.

There will be frequent brief tests on the readings, usually on the day they are due. These are not meant to be ambushes but aids for reading and for our discussion. There will be a final examination but no mid-term.

In determining the grade for the course, approximately equal weight will be given to (1) the brief tests, (2) the short story or essay, and (3) the final examination. In addition, each student's work will be evaluated on overall performance, with attention given to attendance, participation in discussion, and the level of knowledge and understanding ultimately reached.

Instructions for Writing Project

The essay or short story you are writing for this course is an opportunity for an original, valuable achievement. Think of it as something you are preparing for publication. That is, you are addressing an audience of reasonably intelligent strangers whom you must entice to read your work and who should be convinced after they have read it that it was well worth their time. Most questions about form and content can be answered easily if you put yourself in your readers' shoes. The essay or story should also contribute to our understanding of some aspect of the subject matter of the course.

The minimum length is 2,500 words. If you are having difficulty reaching this length, you can be sure there is some problem in your conception and development of your essay or story.

On proper use and acknowledgement of sources, be sure you have a copy of the Rutgers Policy on Academic Integrity and are familiar with its contents, especially the sections on Level 2 and Level 3 violations.  The penalty for submitting a purchased or plagiarized paper is suspension from the University.

The physical appearance of your work should be attractive and professional looking. It should be double-spaced throughout, and the print should be very black (not gray and faded) and pleasant to read. There is no adequate excuse for frequent errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar. So allow yourself ample time for spell checking and proofreading. 

Extensions without penalty will be granted only for medical or other emergencies. Be sure to keep a back-up copy of your paper. Barring any catastrophe, the graded paper will be returned to you at the time of the final examination. The comments on your paper (which may be extensive) are intended for your benefit, not as a rationale for the grade; please study them with care.