Schedule
| Date | Assignment |
| May 27 | Course Introduction. In-class reading. Video: "The Promised Land." |
| 29 | Native American Oral Literatures (18-24; 65-68). “The Origin of Stories” (53-55), “Iroquois” (56-59), “Formulas” (99-100), “Creation of the Whites” (64-65), Handsome Lake’s “How America Was Discovered” (780-781). How did Native American's account for the existence of and invasion by Euro-Americans? What is distinctive or characteristic about Native American oral discourses? Reflective Essay. |
| June 3 | European Contact and Colonialism. Columbus’ “Narrative of the Third Voyage” (107-108, 116-119), Champlain’s “Voyages” (201-202, 205-211), The Jesuit Relations (211-221); "Chesapeake" (222-224), Harriot's "A Briefe and True Report" 224-233), Smith’s “Generall Historie of Virginia” (242-250). How did Euro-American's account for a world that was new to them and that seemed incommensurate with anything that was familiar to them in Europe? Quiz |
| 5 | The Puritan Way. "New England" 276-280), Morton’s “New English Canaan” Book III (281-294), Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” Book I, Book II chapters xi, xix, xxxii (311-334), Bradstreet’s selected poems ("The Author to Her Book," "Before the Birth of One of Her Children," "Upon the Burning of Our House") (382-383, 390, 394, 397-398), excerpts from Taylor’s “Occasional Poems” (456-459, 467-469). How did Puritans use biblical typology to make sense of daily life and the strangeness of the world in which they found themselves? How is the Puritans' allegorical attitude toward nature reflected in their writing? Reflective Essay. |
| June 10 | Rowlandson’s “Narrative” (425-456), Sewall’s “Diary” and "The Selling of Joseph" (484-494), Mather’s “Magnalia Christi” ‘General Introduction’ and ‘Gaeleacius Secundus’ (495-497, 502-511), Edwards’s “Sinners” (620-622, 641-652). Quiz |
| 12 | Enlightenment: The Age of Reason and Revolution. "Eighteenth Century" (553-569), Bacon's "Manifesto" (260-267), Byrd’s “History” (598-618), Cook's "The Sot-weed Factor" (697-715), Franklin’s “Autobiography—Parts Two and Three” (782-784, 853-867 ), Crevecoeur's "Letter III What Is an American?" (898-899, 905-910), Paine's from "The Age of Reason" (934-936, 948-954), Jefferson’s “Notes” Query xi, Query xvii, Query xviii, (968-970, 980-984, 988-991), Wheatley’s "On Being Brought" and "To the University of Cambridge" (1203-1205, 1212, 1214-1215), Hammon’s “An Address” (1053-1054, 1057-1060). How did the Anglican and Rationalist approach to nature differ from that of the Puritans? How are these religious identities also represented as regional differences? What themes do emerging African-American writers share in common? Reflective Essay. |
| 17 | Report Due. Narratives of the Early Republic. Equiano’s “Interesting Narrative” Chapters 1 & 2 (1116-1135); from Rowson’s “Charlotte Temple” (1326-1339), Brown’s “Somnambulism” (1339-1353). Video: "The Republic of Virtue." What features distinguish the American Romantic tradition from the evangelical, sentimental tradition? Quiz |
| 19 | Gothic Romanticism: Myths, Tales, and Legends "Early Nineteenth Century 1800-1865" (1355-1385), Schoolcraft’s “Mishosha” (1388-1394), Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (2071-2072, 2093-2112), Poe’s “Ligeia” (2387-2389, 2390-2400). What features are shared by gothic (or "demonic") Romanticism? Reflective Essay. |
| 24 | Romantic Literature: Tales and Criticism. Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “The Birth-Mark,” and “Preface” (2170-2173, 2195-2203, 2204-2215, 2372-2373), Fuller’s “American Literature” (1626-1628, 1653-1660), Melville’s “Hawthorne and His Mosses” (2714-2726). How did American Romantic writers of the "American Renaissance" self-consciously imagine a distinctly American literature? What did they see as its strengths and challenges? Quiz |
| 26 | Transcendental Romanticism. Thoreau’s “Resistance” and Walden, “Where I Lived” and "Conclusion" (1669-1672, 1672-1686, 1687-1696, 1713-1721), Emerson’s “The American Scholar” and “Self-Reliance” (1512-1515, 1543-1555, 1555-1572) and excerpts from "Divinity School Address (handout). What features are shared by transcendental Romanticism? Reflective Essay. |
| July 1 | African-American Slave Narratives. Douglass’ “Narrative” (1814-1880), Jacobs’s “Incidents” Chapters i, vi (1960-1968). How did the earliest African-American writers employ biblical typology and the sentimental novel in their prose narratives? Quiz |
| 3 | Dissent Against Slavery and Genocide. Quinney’s “Speech” (1403-1409), Grimké Weld’s “Appeal” (1805-1814), and Higginson’s “Nat Turner’s Insurrection” (1945-1957). What arguments have Native Americans and abolitionists advanced against slavery and genocide? Reflective Essay. |
| 8 | Report Due. The War. Chesnut’s “Civil War” (1987-1996), Lincoln (both selections) (2007-2011), "Songs and Ballads" (2791-2793), “Steal Away” (2796), “Go Down, Moses” (2797-2798), “John Brown’s Body” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (2799-2800) Stowe’s from Uncle Tom’s Cabin and "Preface" (2475-2522) How did literature before and during the Civil War employ religious language to talk about the conflict between North and South? Quiz |
| 10 | Late Nineteenth-Century Literature. Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor (2550-2554, 2656-2714). Video: "The Wilderness and the West." How does Melville employ nautical life as a symbol for the political world? Reflective Essay |
| 15 | Modern Poetry. Walt Whitman (2846-2849), Whitman’s “Preface” (2849-2863), “Song of Myself” (2863-2914), poems from “Calamus” (2925-2927), “When Lilacs” (2941-), “Democratic Vistas” (2960-2969). In what ways is Whitman an Emersonian transcendental Romantic? Quiz. |
| 17 | Emily Dickinson (2969-2974), poems numbered J. 49, 84, 211, 249, 258, 280, 303, 341, 365, 435, 441, 446, 465, 670, 712, 754, 1129, letters to Susan Gilbert (3011-3012), to “Master” (3013-3014), to T.W. Higginson (3015-3019), Higginson’s letter to Mrs. Higginson (1957-1959). In what ways was Dickinson both a conventional nineteenth-century poet and an innovative, experimental poet who anticipated poetry in the twentieth century? How does she continue the tradition of gothicRomanticism? |
| 24 | Final Exam 7:00-8:45 |
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