Bickman (U Colorado, Boulder)

Texts:

Required Texts: Heath Anthology of American Literature, Paul Lauter, ed. et. al.

Readings & Pedagogy

Unit #1

Myth History and Language; 8 Class Sessions

The European Encounter with the American Wilderness Introductory; passages from William Carlos Williams , Robert Frost ; Nathaniel Hawthorne , "The May-Pole of Merrymount" Handout. WORKSHEET 1; William Bradford, 210-11; from Of Plymouth Plantation, Ch. IX, 215-17; Ch. XIX, 221- 225; Ch. XXVIII, 226-27, and handout passage. Thomas Morton, 176-77; from New English Canaan, Ch. XIV-XVI, 183-88, and handout passage. WORKSHEET 2; Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown", 2082-91; from New England Primer, 308-310; WORKSHEET 3 Cotton Mather, from Wonders of the Invisible World, 399-406; WORKSHEET 4; Mary Rowlandson , Captivity Narrative, 317-42; WORKSHEET 5; Ebenezer Cook, The Sot-weed Factor, 614-31;WORKSHEET 6; Nathaniel Hawthorne, biography 2065-69; "The Custom-House," 2132-57; WORKSHEETS 7, 8, 9; The Scarlet Letter, 2157- 2172.

Unit #2

American Pastoral--Transcendentalism; 2 Class Sessions

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1467-70; Nature, "The American Scholar," "Self-Reliance," "Circles," "Experience," 1471-1536, 1551-67; Henry David Thoreau , 1964-66. All prose, 1967-2053.

Unit #3

Gender and Race in l9th Century America; 5 Class Sessions

Margaret Fuller , 1580-83; from Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1604-26; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1893-99; Sojourner Truth , 1908-15; Frederick Douglass , 1637-39; Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, 1640-1704; Harriet Ann Jacobs , 1723-25; from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1726-50.

Unit #4

The Development of American Fiction; 7 Class Sessions

Susanna Haswell Rowson , 1153-54, from Charlotte, A Tale of Truth, 1154-64; Washington Irving , 1238-39 . "Rip Van Winkle, " 1249-60. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, " 1260-80; Edgar Allan Poe , 1322-25 "The Fall of the House of Usher, " 1344-57; "The Oval Portrait, " 1362-64. "The Purloined Letter, " 1372-85. "The Cask of Amontillado, " 1386-91; Herman Melville , 2400-2404, "Bartleby, the Scrivener, " 2405-31; from The Encantadas, 2431-46; Billy Budd, 2523-81.

Unit #5

The Development of American Poetry; 7 Class Sessions

Emerson , "The Poet," 1536-51; all poems, 1567-80; Walt Whitman , 2709-2712. All poems, 2727-2828; Emily Dickinson , 2838-2845. All poems and letters, 2845 -2921; Higginson letter about ED, 1871-73.

Unit #6

Your Turn; 5 Class Sessions

In groups of four you will each choose a selection from our anthology you wish to teach, make up a worksheet on it, and run a class period based on the selection and worksheet. Further details of this complicated, but promising procedure will be distributed later, but you should start scanning the anthology now for what you will teach; Last day of class; some momentary stays against confusion .

Worksheets

Sample Worksheet (#4)

Directions to Students: Up to now the worksheets have led you through a series of very specific questions, but by now you should start to develop your own sense of significant specifics and how to link them to general statements. So now that you know how much we value specifics and quotations from the text, we're starting this worksheet with primarily general questions to which you can attach specifics of your own selection.

First, though, as a check on your own understanding of Puritanism, please write brief definitions or descriptions of the following: Feel free to use dictionaries and any other reference works not infected with mold: Original Sin, Innate Depravity, Grace, Predestination.

The original title of today's work is The sovereignty and goodness of GOD, together with the faithfulness of his promises displayed; being a narration of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, commended by her, to all that desires to know the Lord's doings to, and dealings with her. Especially to her dear children and relations. Comment on the appropriateness of this title.

As your headnote tells you, Mary Rowlandson's Narrative soon became what we would now call a runaway bestseller, both in American and England. What factors might account for its popularity? Why do you think the Indian captivity narrative has had such longevity in our cultural consciousness (as carried forth in movies like "Little Big Man," "A Man Called Horse," etc.? What about your own reactions in reading it) what emotions did you feel?

Describe as best you can the Biblical myths and the Puritan frameworks through which Mrs. Rowlandson processes her experiences and give specifics examples from the text of their workings. What can you learn about the structure and the vision of this work comparing it to Hawthorne's fictional tale you've just read, "Young Goodman Brown"? How, for example, are they both structured around circular journeys? How does each seem to create a dreamlike or rather nightmarish quality?

What does Mrs. Rowlandson learn in her captivity and what does she not learn that she might have? Does she portray herself as a sympathetic character to you? What does she suggest about the strengths and weaknesses of Puritanism in America? What further thoughts and questions do you have?

Sample Worksheet (#5)

Comment on Cook's perhaps whimsical use of Biblical mythology in lines 27-48 (p. 615) to place or describe America? Who or what does he see creating it? How does this vision color his description of subsequent events? What can you say about his portrayal of the American colonists? Of women? Of Native Americans (see especially lines 261-359)? Why do animals seem so omnipresently intrusive in the poem? Why does so much of the action happen at night?

One of the reasons for having you read The Sot-Weed Factor is to suggest that the vision of America as the Heart of Darkness, as a screen upon which are projected the subjects hidden fears and desires, is not solely a Puritan invention or phenomenon. What significant similarities and differences do see between the narratives of the Puritan Mrs. Rowlandson and the Anglican Cook ? Write specifically of the structure of the narratives, the emotional feel and texture of the works. Which of the two seems to have the largest proportion of distortion? What further can you say by juxtaposing the two now with Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"?