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Southern Lives
History & American Studies #322
Easter 2025
Professor John C. Willis
Syllabus
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Course Objectives
This examination of the Southern past focuses on individuals – both real and fictional – in an effort to better understand how these signal characters have revealed and informed the region’s cultural history. Readings, discussions, journal entries, and formal papers will offer you a chance to develop an advanced and unique understanding of these historic actors, and to frame your interpretations of their actions and lasting impact.
Assignments and Grades
Grades will be determined on the basis of your work on several papers, a final examination, and class participation. Each of these elements will contribute one-third toward your course grade.
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Class participation is essential for your full interrogation of the facts and theories related to this course, and will be judged daily on the basis of your attendance, performance on quizzes and short writing assignments, discussion of assigned texts, and original contributions to our understanding of the Southern past and present. Class attendance is a necessary, but only partial, fulfillment of the participation requirement. You are encouraged to ask questions and volunteer your insights in lecture and discussion meetings.
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Consultation
I will hold office hours regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30—4:30 and at other times by appointment. My office is in Walsh-Ellett #201. You can also reach me by email at jwillis@sewanee.edu.
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Books​​
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Kate Chopin, The Awakening
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Percival Everett, James
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William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
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Ely Green, Ely, An Autobiography
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Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me
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Timothy Tyson, The Blood of Emmett Till
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Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
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Other readings can be accessed through the links below
Class meetings
January 13: Introductions
January 15: What is "the South," anyway?
• The Ringer, “Sorry, but Your State is Not the South”
• Gregory Schneider, "White Contractors Wouldn't Remove Confederate Statutes"
• Brian Glover, "De-Located Yankees"
January 20: No meeting: Martin Luther King day holiday
January 22: Understanding "the Southern rage to explain"
January 27: Neither, or both?
• Sheldon Hackney, "The Contradictory South"
• Choose essay subjects
January 29: Jim Crow’s place
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February 3: Booker T. Washington’s origins
• Up From Slavery, Introduction and chapters 1-6
February 5: Booker T. Washington’s progress
• Up From Slavery, chapters 7-17
February 10: History in your backyard
• Map of Sewanee, Tennessee, ca. 1910
February 12: Too black, too white
​• Ely, An Autobiography, pp. 1-118
February 17: Departures
​• Ely, An Autobiography, pp. 119-246
February 19: A different angle on local life
• William A. Percy, “Sewanee” chapter from Lanterns on the Levee
February 24: The hyper-Victorian South
February 26: Gendered realities of the turn-of-the-century South
• The Awakening​
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March 3: Modernism and the Agrarians
• Twelve Southerners, “Introduction” of I’ll Take My Stand
March 5-16: Spring Break
March 17: An Agrarian view
• Robert Penn Warren, “The Patented Gate and the Mean Hamburger”
March 19: William Faulkner’s Southern history
March 24: Inside Benjy’s world
• The Sound and the Fury, chapter 1
• Benjamin Compson's memory fragments (chapter 1)
March 26: From Massachusetts to Mississippi
• The Sound and the Fury, chapters 2-3
March 31: Signifying . . . ?
• The Sound and the Fury, chapter 4
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April 2: Group work on The Sound and the Fury
April 7: Group presentations about The Sound and the Fury
April 9: From Depression to post-war superpower
April 14: A death in the Delta
• The Blood of Emmett Till
April 16: Jim Crow slowly leaves the stage
April 21: Framing an honorable Southern life
• Robert E. Lee and Me
April 23: From New South to Sunbelt​
April 28: Imagining past, present, and future
• James
​April 30: Where have you been and where are you going?
• Larry Griffin and Ashley Thompson, “Enough about the Disappearing South”
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May 2: Final examination = due by 5:00 p.m.
Journals
You will offer electronic journal entries for your reactions to, speculations on, and interpretations of the ideas we encounter in readings for this course. Before we are scheduled to discuss a particular work, I will supply a question to help shape your entry. Journal entries will be due via the Brightspace "assignments" window by 10:00 a.m. on the day we consider the book, short story, or chapter. Journal submissions will not be required on days when you turn in an essay.
Essays
Each student will write two critical essays during the semester. These papers will examine books or short stories considered in the course, and will be due at the beginning of class on the day designated for discussing that text. You may structure your essay around the journal question for the work or choose to examine another angle. Your goal should be to explore how the text you are examining reveals important aspects of life in the South during its time period. All students are strongly encouraged to discuss the thesis of their papers with me before writing; those not writing from the journal question are required to consult with me about their topic.
Subjects will be chosen on January 27, with no more than four students writing essays on any single work. Plan to write on one work from group 1 and another from group 2.
Group 1
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Ely Green, Ely, An Autobiography
William A. Percy, "Sewanee" chapter from Lanterns on the Levee
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
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Group 2
Robert Penn Warren, "The Patented Gate and the Mean Hamburger"
Timothy Tyson, The Blood of Emmett Till
Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me
Percival Everett, James
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In your paper, do not simply repeat the details of the subject’s autobiography or summarize the short story’s or the novel’s plot. I have some knowledge of these works and do not need to be reminded of their contents. What I expect is your thorough evaluation of the work’s key insights about Southern history and culture. Make sure you explain how the central character’s life helps us understand the larger context of Southern lives during their era. Analysis, not description, should be your method; insight is your goal. Essays will probably run from eight to ten double-spaced pages.
You are not required to incorporate any outside sources. You may, however, wish to use information drawn from monographs or critical reviews in your essay. If you consult any source other than the work in question, please indicate this in a bibliography at the end of your paper. Moreover, if your essay uses words or ideas drawn from class meetings, reviews, or any source other than your own interpretive imagination, please indicate the provenance of these words or ideas in footnotes or endnotes. You will, of course, neither pursue nor accept any unauthorized assistance in preparing these essays, and will honestly pledge your sole authorship of all the work you turn in. It may help to refer to the description of the Honor Code below. You are encouraged to seek the assistance of the Writing Center tutors as you shape, draft, and polish your papers.
Longer essays are due at the beginning of class on the day the work is scheduled for discussion.
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Class policies
Honor Code
When you matriculated, you agreed to follow the Honor Code: to do your own honest work and not to cheat in any form. All forms of cheating, including plagiarism, are violations of the Honor Code and will be treated as such. As per the Honor Code, plagiarism is defined as “[copying or imitating] the language and thoughts of others and [passing] the result off as original work.” Using the language or ideas of others without proper citation is considered academic dishonesty (cheating), and “others” includes responses from artificial intelligence processing programs (for example, ChatGPT). As well, using AI to complete assignments without the express and clear approval of your instructor is also a violation (for receiving unauthorized assistance). If you ever have a question about an assignment or need additional help, please ask for assistance rather than jeopardize your academic career.
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Electronic devices
Please turn off the ringer on your cell phone and put it entirely away before class begins. Obviously, there should be no texting or consulting emails while class is in session. You may not use laptop computers in class during our discussion of assigned works.
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Attendance and participation
It is very important that you attend and actively participate in our classroom sessions. These are opportunities for you to learn from others and for them to learn from you. In order to participate effectively, you should read all the material assigned for the day and complete any other assignments before our meeting. If you are ill or need to miss a class for any reason, please contact me via email before the class meets. Once you feel better, borrow notes from classmates and, if you have questions about any of the material we’ve considered, plan to talk with me during office hours.
A persistently low level of engagement with this class will adversely affect your participation grade. You will be placed on cut warning with the Dean of Students' office after three unexcused absences.
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Sewanee Writing Center
The Sewanee Writing Center is staffed with tutors who are able to help with writing across a variety of disciplines and assignment types. You may visit the tutors for everything from help with grammar and proofreading, to brainstorming and drafting, to revision strategies and more. Walk-ins are welcome, but to make an appointment with a tutor you can register and sign up on the online scheduling website: https://sewanee.mywconline.com/
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With regard to disabilities
The University of the South is committed to fostering respect for the diversity of the University community and the individual rights of each member of that community. In this spirit, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the University seeks to provide students with disabilities with the reasonable accommodations needed to ensure equal access to the programs and activities of the University.
Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments is requested to speak with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) as early in the semester as possible. If approved for accommodations, the student has the responsibility to present their instructors with a copy of the official letter of academic accommodations. Please note: Accommodation letters should be dated
for the current term; accommodations will not be provided without a current accommodation letter; and accommodations cannot be applied retroactively.
SAS is located in the Office of the Dean of Students (931.598.1229). Additional information about accommodations can be found on the Student Accessibility Services website (https://new.sewanee.edu/offices/the-college-of-arts-sciences-
offices/student-life/dean-of-students-office/student-accessibility-services/). If you have questions about physical accessibility, please speak with me about how we can ensure an accessible, safe, and effective environment during our class meetings.
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Title IX and sex discrimination policy
Sex Discrimination is a violation of federal Title IX law and University policy. Disclosure of sex discrimination to University faculty, staff, or specific student leaders (i.e., Proctors, Orientation Leaders, FYP mentors, PRE/SOP Leaders and Ambassadors, etc.) is NOT confidential and these individuals are required to make reports, including names and circumstances, to the University’s Title IX Coordinator. One may report confidentially to All Saints’ Clergy and University Health and Wellness/CAPS staff. To report incidents of sex discrimination, including sexual assault/violence, stalking, and/or sexual harassment, please file a report at ReportSexualMisconduct.sewanee.edu or contact the Title IX Coordinator (Dr. Sylvia Gray, titleix@sewanee.edu, EQB Annex - 104A, 931-598-1420). For more information on Title IX please refer to the Title IX website: new.sewanee.edu/titleix. For all other forms of discrimination, please refer to the EEO website at https://new.sewanee.edu/eeo/. You may file a report at ReportDiscrimination.sewanee.edu.
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