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)