ENGLISH 280: AMERICAN
LITERATURE TO 1870
Dr. Kuzmanovich
Time:
Office Hours: MW 1:3-2:45; R
TEXTS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION (from the Catalogue): “Historical survey treating
the development of American letters from early Puritanism through naturalism. Closed
to Seniors without permission of the chair.”
Such
a focus clearly aims at providing broad knowledge of American Literature, but
these days more and more graduate programs in American Literature are changing
their names to American Studies or just Cultural Studies, putting into question
all four terms: American, Literature, Culture, and Studies. Attempting to
define those terms generates questions which can serve as the general outline
of this course: (1) "What is American literature and what special problems
does it present for its readers?" (2) "Does being an American entail
a distinctive attitude to space and time?" (3) "What problems and
conflicts confronted American culture from Colonial times to the Civil
War?" (4) "What is heroic about American literary heroes and heroines
as they come to terms with these conflicts?" (5) "How if at all have
these definitions and conflicts changed over the historical period we are
covering in this course?" (6) "What are the contingencies that define
the relations between American writers and the frameworks (aesthetic,
geographical, economic, racial, political, etc.) in which they
functioned?" (7) "Have the modes of imagination our writers employed
and the images they have produced been adequate to the task of capturing
American experience?" The final questions to contemplate as you select
upper level courses here (and possible graduate courses elsewhere) are: (8)
"Is there something called American literature that is separate from a
series of cultural/political constructions designed to serve shifting
ideological goals/ends?" (9) "Can a definition of American literature
be given so that it is not merely another way to codify dominant assumptions
about genre and gender, language and race, class and ethnicity and thus impose
hierarchies upon discrete creation myths and oral narratives, novels and
romances, histories and chronicles, diaries and autobiographies, sermons and
conversion narratives, poems and essays?" (10) "If your answer to #9
is 'yes,' what is that definition, and to what uses can we put it?"
FORMAT: The day-to-day format of the course will be: a lecture on a
period or writer(s), followed by a close reading of selected passages from one
or more texts, followed by a discussion and occasionally supplemented by a film
or a video (in class for short films; at a mutually convenient time for longer
ones). Since we are moving over almost 500+ years of literature, it is
imperative that you stay up on your reading.
RESERVE (INTERNET)
JOURNAL: As we stampede over centuries of literature, differences
among authors and works are likely to become blunted. In order to counteract
this blunting and give you a chance to make your writing more effective, I
would like you to keep a journal (in a notebook other than the one you use in
class) in which you record responses to what we read. Immediately after you
read an assignment (or experience anything related to this course [films,
shows, other books, public events]), write down your candid responses, in this,
your personal journal. Although you should not worry about the coherence of
individual entries, you should identify some specific idea, detail, or incident
that evoked in you a strong association or response (positive, negative, or
mixed). Then develop your response, giving full details (memories, reflections
on your current situation, connections to other texts, etc.) that may help
explain your response. Give full reign to your spontaneity, humor, passion,
long-term concerns. You may choose to parody a work or a writer, rewrite
his/her endings, transpose characters from one text to another, trace a theme
we are not tracing in class, etc. Occasionally, look back over your responses
and remark on the emerging connections between your entries. If you keep
tracing your ideas deeper and deeper by comparing your general impressions with
the specific details of the text, you may find that those connections reveal
something quite useful about your own way of reading and thinking about
literature. Three times during the semester I will ask you to type out the
"Best of Your Personal Journal" and submit it as a way of keeping up
a conversation with me. In those typed entries I would like you to present a
more polished development or digest of the comments you had made on the reading
done since the last journal due date. You may write at length on a single
reading selection or on the connections you perceive among the readings for
that period, or you may resort to focused, even pointed, remarks on each
selection. Each journal submission should be 1) well thought out, 2) no
longer than two double-spaced pages, 3) typed, 4) proofread, and 5) handed in
on time. Preserve as much candor and creativity from your personal journal
as serves your purpose. Passion is always welcome. So are details: key words or
apt short citations. If you should notice that you repeatedly return to the
same topics/images/questions, try to figure out why. See if you can use your
answers as the basis for your paper. Such connections also make very helpful
study aids at finals time. (I will comment on each submission as I read them,
collect and grade them only at the end of the course. You may also wish to
submit the personal journal at the end, but it is not a requirement.)
GRADING: Your final grade will be based on two reviews (15 % each),
one five page paper (20 %), a final exam (25%), journal responses (15%) and
classroom participation (10%). Obviously, in order to participate, you need to
attend. Your grade will be lowered by one full letter grade should you miss
more than four classes without a valid excuse, and college policy requires that
you receive a failing grade if you miss one fourth or more of your classes. All
written work is due in my office by 5:00 PM of the day for which it is are
assigned, and late papers (when accepted) are penalized one letter grade per
day.
HONOR CODE: All work must be original, follow the current MLA
style, and be pledged. See the end of this document for my thoughts on
plagiarism.
|
Day |
Date |
|
Writing Due |
|
|
|
|
|
|
M |
1/13 |
Introduction;
Goals and Methods of the Course; Earliest "American" Writing, “Discovery,”
Promise, and Exploration |
|
|
W |
1/15 |
Native American Oral Literatures o
Wohpe and the Gift of
the Pipe (Lakota) o
The Origin of Stories (Seneca) o
Raven Makes a Girl Sick and Then Cures Her (Tsimshian) o
The Bungling Host (Hitchiti) Native American Oral Poetry o
Aztec Poetry §
Two Songs §
Like Flowers Continually Perishing (by Ayocuan)
o
Inuit Poetry §
Song (Copper Eskimo) §
Moved (by Uvavnuk, Iglulik Eskimo) §
Improvised Greeting (Takomaq,
Iglulik Eskimo) §
Widow's Song (Quernertoq,
Copper Eskimo) o
A Selection of Poems §
Deer Hunting Song (Virsak Vai-i, O'odham) §
Love Song (Aleut) §
Song of Repulse to a Vain Lover (To'ak,
Makah) §
A Dream Song (Annie Long Tom, Clayoquot) §
Woman's Divorce Dance Song (Jane Green) §
Formula to Secure Love (Cherokee) §
Formula to Cause Death (A'yunini
the Swimmer, Cherokee) §
Song of War (Blackfeet) §
War Song (Crow) §
Song of War (Odjib'we, Anishinabe) §
War Song (Young Doctor, Makah) §
Song of Famine (Holy-Face Bear, Dakota) §
Song of War (Two Shields, Lakota) §
Song of War (Victoria, Tohona
O'odham) |
|
|
F |
1/17 |
"Creation of the Whites" (Yuchi) Handsome
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
|
|
|
M |
1/20 |
Observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day |
|
|
W |
1/22 |
Alvar Nu-ez Cabeza de Vaca (1490?-1556?) o from Relation of
Alvar Nu-ez Cabeza de Vaca §
from Chapter VII: The Character of the Country §
from Chapter VIII: We Go from Aute §
from Chapter X: The Assault from the Indians §
from Chapter XI: Of What Befel
Lope de Oviedo with the Indians §
from Chapter XXI: Our Cure of Some of the Afflicted §
from Chapter XXIV: Customs of the Indians of That
Country §
from Chapter XXVII: We Moved Away and Were Well
Received §
from Chapter XXXII: The Indians Give Us the Hearts
of Deer §
from Chapter XXXIII: We See Traces of Christians §
from Chapter XXXIV: Of Sending for the Christians Pedro de Casteneda
(1510?-1570?)
Samuel de Champlain (1570?-1635)
|
|
|
F |
1/24 |
John Smith (1580-1631) o
from The Generall Historie of §
from Book III §
from Chapter 2: [Smith as captive at the court of
Powhatan in 1608] §
from Chapter 8: [Smith's Journey to Pamaunkee] o
from A Description of New England [Appeal for
settlers to plant a colony in o
from Advertisements for the Unexperienced
Planters of New-England, or Anywhere, Or the Path-way to Experience to Erect
a §
from Chapters 1, 2, 3, 9 |
|
|
M |
1/27 |
Thomas Morton (1579?-1647?) o
from New English §
from Book I:
Containing the originall of the Natives, their
manners & Customes, … §
Chapter
IV: Of their Houses and Habitations. §
Chapter
VI: Of the Indians apparrell. §
Chapter
VIII: Of their Reverence, and respect to age. §
Chapter
XVI: Of their acknowledgment of the Creation, and immortality of the Soule §
from Book III:
Containing a description of the People that are planted there, … §
Chapter
I: Of a great League made with the Plimmouth
Planters after their arrivall, by the Sachem of
those Territories. §
Chapter
V: Of a Massacre made upon the Salvages at Wessaguscus. §
Chapter
VII: Of Thomas Mortons entertainement at Plimmouth,
and castinge away upon an §
Chapter XIV: Of the Revells of §
Chapter XV: Of a great Monster
supposed to be at Ma-re-Mount; and the preparation made to destroy it. §
Chapter XVI: How the 9. worthies put mine Host of Ma-re-Mount into the John Winthrop (1588-1649) o
from A Modell of Christian
Charity, esp. from "Thus stands the cause between God and us" and
"...our prosperity"
o
from The Journal of John Winthrop, esp. the Williams
and Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
|
|
|
W |
1/29 |
William Bradford (1590-1657) o
from Of §
from Chapter IX: Of their Voyage, and how they
Passed the Sea; and of their Safe Arrival at §
from Chapter XI: The Remainder of Anno 1620 [The Mayflower Compact, The Starving Time,
Indian Relations] §
from Chapter XIX: Anno Domini 1628 [Thomas Morton of Merrymount] §
from Chapter XXIII: Anno Domini 1632 [Prosperity Brings Dispersal of Population] §
from Chapter XXVIII: Anno Domini 1637 [The Pequot War] §
from Chapter XXXII: Anno Domini 1642 [Wickedness Breaks Forth] Roger Williams (1603?-1683)
|
|
|
F |
1/31 |
Journal Due: Your reaction
to the Puritan handling of either Morton or
Hutchinson. What is really at stake? Mary White Rowlandson
(1637?-1711)
Mary French (1687?-?)
Louise
Erdrich—“The Runaways” John Williams (1664-1729)
|
Journal Due |
|
M |
2/3 |
Ann Bradstreet (1612?-1672)
|
|
|
W |
2/5 |
Edward Taylor (1642?-1729)
|
|
|
F |
2/7 |
Cotton Mather (1663-1728)
Jonathan Edwards
(1703-1758)
|
|
|
M |
2/10 |
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) §
A Narrative of the Late Massacres §
A Witch Trial at
|
|
|
W |
2/12 |
J. Hector St. John de Crčvecoeur
(1735-1813)
|
|
|
F |
2/14 |
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Samson Occom (Mohegan)
(1723-1792)
Briton Hammon (fl. 1760)
|
|
|
M |
2/17 |
Journal Due: Write on A or B. (A)
Is de Crčvecoeur's image of the melting pot still
appropriate? |
Journal Due |
|
W |
2/19 |
Philip Freneau (1752-1832)
Timothy Dwight (1752-1817)
Phillis Wheatley
(1753-1784)
|
|
|
F |
2/21 |
James Fenimore Cooper
(1789-1851)
|
|
|
M |
2/24 |
Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867)
Harriet Ann
Jacobs (1813-1897) ·
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
|
|
W |
2/26 |
Hendrick Aupaumut (Mahican) (1757-1830)
George Copway (Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh; Ojibwa) (1818-1869)
William Apess (Pequot)
(1798-?)
John Wannuaucon Quinney (Mahican) (1797-1855)
Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)
(c. 1802-1839)
Seattle (Duwamish) (1786-1866)
John Rollin Ridge (Cherokee) (1827-1867)
|
|
|
F |
2/28 |
Mid-Term Examination: terms, short explications,
short answers |
MIDTERM |
|
|
|
SPRING BREAK |
|
|
M |
3/10 |
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
|
|
|
W |
3/12 |
Emerson, The Poet, Experience |
|
|
F |
3/14 |
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
|
|
|
M |
3/17 |
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
|
|
|
W |
3/19 |
|
|
|
F |
3/21 |
|
|
|
M |
3/24 |
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) ·
Ligeia ·
The
Tell-Tale Heart |
|
|
W |
3/26 |
Poe ·
The
Philosophy of Composition ·
To Helen ·
Israfel ·
The
Raven
|
|
|
F |
3/28 |
Caroline Kirkland (1801-1864)
Frances Sargent Locke
Osgood (1811-1850)
|
|
|
M |
3/31 |
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
|
|
|
W |
4/2 |
Whitman Journal Due: Write on either A or
B. (A) What roles (if any) did Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman
have in underwriting the Western Expansion? (B) Are the dominant contemporary
views of the Native Americans gendered? |
Journal Due |
|
F |
4/4 |
Herman
Melville (1819-1891)
|
|
|
M |
4/7 |
Melville,
Billy Budd, Sailor |
|
|
W |
4/9 |
Brett Harte (1836-1902)
|
|
|
F |
4/11 |
Douglass (1818-1895), Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, An American Slave |
|
|
M |
4/14 |
Twain, Pudd'nhead |
|
|
W |
4/16 |
Twain, Pudd'nhead |
|
|
|
|
CONVOCATION
AT |
|
|
F |
4/18 |
Erdrich (1954--), Love Medicine, pages 1-167 |
|
|
|
|
EASTER BREAK |
|
|
W |
4/23 |
Erdrich, Love Medicine, pages 168-367 |
|
|
F |
4/25 |
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
|
|
|
M |
4/30 |
Emily
Dickinson |
|
|
F |
5/2 |
OPTIONAL CLASS |
|
|
M |
5/5 |
OPTIONAL CLASS |
|
|
W |
5/7 |
CLASSES END |
Research Paper Due |
|
R |
5/8 |
READING DAY |
|
|
F |
5/9 |
FINAL EXAMS BEGIN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
W |
5/14 |
FINAL EXAMS END |
|
|
S |
5/17 |
Baccalaureate |
|
|
N |
5/18 |
GRADUATION |
|
A Few Words on Teaching Literature
This is the kind of answer I give
to myself when I ask myself why I teach literature: If language is a window
into other minds, then literature is a peculiar kind of a structure preserving
and creating both the windows and the views those windows grant. As a unique
repository of a culture's riches, literature provides one of the few imaginary
spaces where minds can really meet. Read properly, the passions and
preoccupations of other minds immerse us in diverse views of human experience
while helping to frame our unique knowledge of ourselves. But such knowledge
arrives only through the discipline we must impose on our thoughts and feelings
in order for them to be expressed precisely and thus made present to others.
Expressing ourselves well means making it possible for our audience to sense in
our every sentence both the resonances of our race, gender, region, class,
religion, ethnicity, and political ideology as well as the distinctive
independence of our individual spirit's synthesis of, and reaction to those
cultural forces. Keep reminding yourself that through your every word and image
you not merely express but produce what you think. And then, if such reminders
do not silence you, treat your audience to the full complexity of your
historical perspective, the breadth of you cultural literacy, the sharpness of
your interpretive acumen, the richness of your understanding of the imaginative
process, and thus the lucid pleasure inherent in any task done precisely and
passionately. Yes, it's scary, but I can't imagine doing anything else with as
much commitment.
Plagiary occurs whenever you present another writer’s work in such a
way as to give your
reader reason to think it to be your own. Plagiarism is a form of
academic fraud, and it always leads to a failing grade for the plagiarized
work, but may, depending on Honor Council decisions, also result in a loss of
credit for the course, for the semester, temporary suspension from the College,
etc.
The most common types of plagiarism are:
1. “Let Mikey Do It!” This is the grossest form of plagiarism since
it includes the use of a paper purchased from a paper mill, or a work prepared
by any person other than the individual claiming to be the author such as a
paper stolen from another student or acquired from the fraternity or eating
house archives. (I usually ask for
temporary suspension from the College.)
2. “The Double-Dip.” Self-plagiarism occurs when you submit work which
is the same or substantially the same as work for which you have already
received academic credit here or elsewhere. (I usually ask for loss of credit
for the class.)
3. “Gee, I wish I had written that!
Wait a minute; I just did!” Incorporating into your own sentences the
happily phrased words written or said by another but failing to put the quotation marks
around those “happy” words and thus avoiding having to credit your source. (I
usually fail the paper, but will fail the student for the class if I receive no
cooperation in ascertaining the degree of infraction. The Honor Council may and usually does add
its own penalties.)
The College values and rewards original thought, but it also values
and rewards proper research which requires the correct crediting of authorities
from whom you derive your phrasing, facts, and opinions.
Every discipline within the curriculum requires documentation, but
correct method of attribution varies from discipline to discipline. I require
the latest MLA
style (usually posted on the Web) for which you have already been supplied the
URL. (this year it’s
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~expos/sources/#textboxes)
If you are ever in any doubt about what to document, please ask me,
but until you do, surprise the devil and do the right thing: document absolutely everything.
A Few Words on Grading
Your final grade will never be lower than the arithmetical average of
your in-course grades; it may be higher if you writing and discussing shows
notable improvement. Although all grading is to some degree subjective, I want
to clue you in on what my particular criteria are. I am convinced that written
assignments help you to develop and clarify your understanding of a text, thus
giving you a firmer grasp of it than reading, lecture, or discussion can
provide. What I look for in your writing are the following elements. Words like
sense and feeling hint at the subjectivity; remember, however, that I am a
trained reader and that these criteria are constants for everyone in this class.
--a sense that you have understood and considered
all aspects of the assignment and have something interesting to say in response
to it (rather than answering the obvious questions or latching on to something
already trodden over in lecture and discussion)
--depth of understanding of the work under
discussion (considering evidence which might be interpreted quite differently
from the way you read it, anticipating those objections and fending them off
rather than conveniently forgetting about them; appropriate details brought
forth to convince me of your contention; citations, always with page numbers,
thoroughly interpreted and commented upon)
--a feeling (very early in your response to the
assignment) of some insightful point being made and of the method you plan to
use in demonstrating that point (the more I have to guess what it is you are
getting at, the more you'll have to wonder about your grade; mystery has a
better place on late-night television)
--a sense that you have profited from doing the assignment
itself, a new insight perhaps, usually evident in a conclusion which does not
merely summarize but speculates, conjectures, surmises, theorizes, meditates,
ponders, reflects, ruminates (yes, I use a thesaurus and so should you) or
gives other indication of an ongoing engagement with the text at hand
--rhetorical awareness: when you write for me, you
write for an interested and sympathetic but also skeptical reader. To convince
me that you are making the best possible case for your reading, assume an
authoritative interested tone (achieved through precise propositions which are
qualified where necessary and through a consideration of other points of view);
carefully selected and contextualized citations; coherent exposition and
sufficient development of your insight gained by clear transitions between
sentences and paragraphs; fair use of outside materials in observance of the
honor code.
NB: I am distressed and irritated
by carelessness in handling of logic, grammar, and textual evidence, and, as a
result, every time I have to correct something, your grade is affected
accordingly. For me, teaching provides a type of satisfaction no other activity
can provide, so I care about all aspects of it, including your writing. I hope
you will care about it as much as I do. I applaud good intentions, encourage
aspiration, and value hard work, but I reward only achievement.
LETTERS AND NUMBERS: Letter grades will be converted
to numerical ones according to the following scale:
A = 95; A- = 92; B+ = 88; B = 85; B- = 82; C+ = 78; C =
75; C- = 72; D+ = 68; D = 65.