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Syllabus #3
American Literature 2010
Professor Mary Katherine Wainwright
Policies and Objectives:
Requirements for this course include careful reading of all assignments, consistent class attendance, class participation, impressive test scores, and well-written writing assignments. Class format includes lectures, class discussion, films, and guest speakers. Approaches to the literature include literary analysis as well as historical, cultural, sociological, and philosophical contexts. Assignments will be made in class weekly.
Objectives: To recognize the richness and diversity of American literature by studying texts that emerge from and illustrate that diversity; to rethink traditional ideas about what is of value in literature, as well as about intellectual frameworks for studying it; to examine the cultural implications of gender, race, and class for our understanding and appreciation of literature; to study the diverse and changing cultures of America; to understand how a text engages concerns central to the period in which it was written as well as to the overall developments of American culture; to connect literature and its study with the society and culture of which it is fundamentally a part.
Text: The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1
Reading and Writing Syllabus
Week 1 8/20 Introduction 8/22 In-class writing (Anne Bradstreet) 8/24 Discussion of writing requirements
Week 2 8/27 Discussion of the American dream 8/29 "The Coming of the Spanish," 52 "Iroquois or Confederacy of Five Nations," 56 8/31 de Vaca, Chpt. VII, 89 de Villagra, Canto 31, 128 Champlain, "An Encounter with the Iroquois," 132
Week 3 9/3 No School 9/5 Writing Assignment #1 due: In what ways does the literature assigned for week 2 reflect a conflict of interests between the Native Americans and the Spanish/French explorers? Support your answer by using specific quotations and examples from the primary texts (500 words). Columbus, pp. 70-75 (end with Fri. Nov. 2d) 9/7 Smith, "From A Description," 156; "Advertisements," 160
Week 4 9/10 Winthrop, "Modell of Christian Charity," 191 9/12 Bradford, Book I, Chpts. I, III, IV, VII, IX; Book II, Chpt. XI, 212-219 Writing Assignment #2 due: Compare and contrast the differences among Smith's, Columbus's, Bradford's and Winthrop's purposes for coming to America. Use specific examples from the texts to support your answer (500 words). 9/14 Bradford, Bk II, Chpt. XIX. 221 9/16 Morton, VII, XIV, XV, XVI, 182-189
Week 5 9/17 From Winthrop's Journal, 204; Mather, Chpt. V, 403 Roger Williams, Introduction, 232; Woolman, "Some Considerations," 604 Writing Assignment #3 due: Using Bradford and Winthrop as representatives of the Puritan code, discuss how a consideration of the Puritan treatment of Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, African-Americans and Martha Carrier causes us to doubt the ideology (the myth) of America's religious and political "toleration" and "freedom." 9/19-21 Puritan Poetry: Bradstreet, Wigglesworth, and Taylor
Week 6 9/24 Phillis Wheatley, poems, 712 9/26 Jupiter Hammon, "An ADDRESS," 682 9/28 Samson Occom, "Narrative," 730
Week 7 10/1 Writing Assignment #4 due: Compare and contrast the purposes of Puritan poetry and African- and Native American writings by referring to specific passages from the primary texts assigned weeks 5 & 6. 10/3 Letter from Abigail to John Adams 3/31/1776, 930 Letter from John to Abigail Adams, 4/14/1776, 930 Letter from John Adams to James Sullivan 5/26/1776, 931 10/5 Paine, "An Occasional Letter," 937
Week 8 10/8 Chief Seattle, Speech 1770 10/10 David Walker, "Appeal," 1781 10/12 Sarah Grimké, "Letters," 1886-1892
Week 9 10/15 Truth, 1911-1914 10/17 Writing Assignment #5 due: Using the texts assigned for Weeks 7, 8, and 9 (Truth), discuss how the factors of gender and race affect the American dream myth. 10/19 Irving, "Rip Van Winkle," 1248
Week 10 10/22 Thoreau, from Walden, 1981-2015 Transcendentalism 10/24-26 Emerson, "The American Scholar," 1499
Week 11 10/29 Fuller, from Woman in the 19th C, 1604 Writing Assignment #6 due: Compare and contrast Emerson's and Fuller's ideals of Transcendentalism
10/31-11/2 Douglass, Narrative, 1637-1722
Week 12 11/5 Jacobs, Incidents, 1723-1749 Writing Assignment #6 due: Compare and contrast the discourse of freedom as depicted by Douglass and Jacobs. What constitutes freedom for each? 11/7 Jacobs 11/9 Melville, "Bartleby," 2405
Week 13 11/12 No School 11/14 Melville 11/16 Hawthorne, "Rappaccini's Daughter"
Week 14 11/19 Hawthorne, "The Birth Mark," 2101 11/21 Introduction to Emily Dickinson 11/23: Thanksgiving
Week 15 11/26-30 Emily Dickinson
Week 16 12/3-7: Walt Whitman
Week 17 Final Exam |
