Journal #5

Throughout the semester, we have seen how different ideas of the individual emerged in Early American history and literature from the competing influences of the Judeo-Christian and Enlightenment traditions. In addition, we have seen a new strain in the Romantic writings of Emerson and Thoreau that valorize the individual and experience in new ways. Discuss EITHER Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” OR Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in relation to these questions. What does the story suggest about the relationship of the individual to the community? What is the fate of the individual who sets himself or herself apart? What does this suggest about the author’s view of human nature? Can being individuals make us free? Happy? Make specific comparisons to other texts we have read and be as specific as possible in your response.

Your journal entry should be a page to two pages, typed, double-spaced and carefully proofread. Due in class on Thursday, November 30th.

Journal #4 and Revised Schedule

In a short response of about two pages, typed, double-spaced and carefully proofread, discuss the common threads you see between “Resistance to Civil Government” and the excerpts of Walden that we have read. Do you see a common view of the individual and his or her relation to the larger world in each or do you see contradictions between the ways each text suggests that we should live? On what view of human nature does each vision seem to rest? (Think about the different views of human nature we’ve seen so far in class).Does the desire to create change expressed in “Resistance” conflict with the desire to remake one’s own life expressed in Walden? Include at least one direct citation from each of the two texts.

Due in class on Tuesday, November 14th.

Revised Schedule: PLEASE USE THIS SCHEDULE AS YOUR GUIDE FOR THE REST OF THE SEMESTER

Thursday, November 9th
Discuss Walden
HW: Journal #4
Read James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers (excerpts) (p. 2185-2207)

Tuesday, November 14th
Discuss The Pioneers: The West, Narrative, Fiction and Myth
HW: Read Sojourner Truth, Assorted Readings (p. 2092- 2099) and Sarah Moore Grimké, “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Coniditon of Women” (excerpts) (2082-2088)

Thursday, November 16th
Discuss Truth and Grimké Women, Civil Rights and 19th Century America
HW: Read Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil” (p. 2242-2245; 2267-2275)

Tuesday, November 21st
Discuss Hawthorne: American Fiction; Another Look at Puritanism
HW: Read Edgar Allan Poe “The Black Cat” (p. 2495-2501)

Thursday, November 23rd
No Class – Thanksgiving Break



Tuesday, November 28th
Discuss Poe: The Birth of Genre Fiction
HW: Read Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (p. 2621-2651)
Jorunal #5

Thursday, November 30th
Discuss Melville: Another View of Individualism
HW: Read Collection of Poems by Emily Dickinson (pages TBA)

Tuesday, December 5th
Discuss Dickinson: Poetry and the Self
HW: Read Song of Myself (excerpts) (pages TBA)
Journal #6

Thursday, December 7th
Discuss Whitman: Poetry and the Nation
Begin Final Exam Review: Handout
HW: Read “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and Drum Taps (excerpts) (pages TBA)

Tuesday, December 12th
Discuss Second Collection of Whitman Poems: The Poetry of War
HW: Begin Exam Review

Thursday, December 14th
Review for Final Exam

Tuesday, December 19th
Final Exam (During Regular Class Period)

Journal #3

Choose a section from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass that you think would have been particularly effective in persuading the reader and/or in achieving its other objectives. Think about his nineteenth-century readers: what stories or arguments do you think were likely to be effective and why? If applicable describe any pro-slavery justifications to which Douglass responds and/or the way Douglass interprets his experiences.

Your journal entry should be a page to two pages, typed, double-spaced and carefully proofread. Be sure to include specific references to the text.

Due in class on Thursday, October 12th.

Addenda to Schedule

Please note: while we are back on schedule, journal #3 is postponed until next week.
For Tues., please read Chapters 1-7 of Douglass, as indicated on your syllabus and below.

Review

PLEASE NOTE: As of TUESDAY, October 3rd, we are back on the schedule as listed on your syllabus and below.


The midterm is designed to give you the opportunity to demonstrate what you've learned. The midterm will consist of two sections: identification of key terms/short answers, identification of key passages, and short essays.

I) Identification of Key Terms - You will be asked to define key terms that appear in our course texts or that describe important concepts related to these works and to state their significance to our texts. Here are some key terms from this section of the course to review:

Typology
Covenantal Theology
Captivity Narratives
Autobiography
Deism
Natural Law/Natural Rights
Enlightenment

II) Identification of Key Passages - You will choose from a number of key passages from course texts and identify the name of the work and its author before briefly discussing the meaning of the passage and its relation to the significance of the work as a whole. Work on reviewing the literary and stylistic properties of different course texts to aid
your identification.

Journal #2

Due in Class on Thursday, September 28th

Begin by selecting any text we’ve read other than the one you wrote about in the first journal. Then select a key passage of no more than a short paragraph. Begin by retyping it word for word at the top of your page. Turn off your spelling and grammar checkers – let the weird spellings and constructions flow and try to wrap your head around the author’s meaning. Give the page number of your citation in parenthesis.

Below the citation, briefly summarize its meaning: what events does it describe or argument does it make? Then discuss its significance in relation to the key themes we’ve been discussing, such as religion, the Enlightenment, sources of knowledge, the development of Colonial America, and so on. Describe why you think the passage is important to the work as a whole and what it might tell us about the period during which it was written. If you’d like to give a more personal response, do so after you’ve discussed the text itself.

Your journal should be about a page, typed, double-spaced and carefully proofread.

Revisions to the Schedule

Please note: for Thursday, Sept. 21st, we will discuss the selections from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. We will discuss Crevecoeur on Tuesday, September 26th and will continue one class behind the schedule until further notice.