Getz (Xavier)

General Information

Abstract

The course considers the origin and validity of the term "American Renaissance" and other issues relating to the formation and interpretation of the literary canon of this period. Literature of various genres is studied for its formal qualities and its interaction with the history and culture of this period and our own. Throughout the semester we examine the premises that aesthetic concerns cannot be separated from political and social issues and that as we read texts we remake them so that our responses themselves become texts for us to study.

The first few weeks we study authors who focus directly on the major historical issues of the time: westward expansion and treatment of Indians and Hispanics already in those territories, urbanization and industrialization of the Northeast (enhanced by German and Irish immigration), the struggle for women's rights, and, of course, slavery and abolitionism. The remainder of the semester we study canonical authors in the context of these voices and issues.

Population

This is one of several upper-level courses that fulfill the American literature requirement for junior and senior English majors and secondary certification students in English. Usually a few M.A. English or M.Ed. students also take it. Total enrollment is about 35. This is a 3-hour class that meets twice a week for a semester. The format is mostly discussion.

Bibliography and Texts

Lauter, et al., Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume I

Melville, Moby-Dick (Bantam edition includes "Hawthorne and His Mosses")

A selective timeline of history and popular culture I prepare by decade from the 1830s through 1860s using The Timetables of American History (ed. Laurence Urdang) and other sources

General Writing and Pedagogy

Besides the normal class discussions, we use in-class group work and oral readings or summaries of reaction papers (sometimes written in class but usually at home) to enhance the dialogue. Reaction papers of one to two pages (if typed) are assigned every other week, often with specific questions for response. A mid- term exam (essay questions distributed ahead of time but answered in class), three critical essays, and a final project are also required. Graduate students do a longer research paper and lead discussion for half a class period.

Readings & Pedagogy

UNIT # 1

(1 or 2 class sessions) Readings for Unit 1: Introduction to Early Nineteenth Century, 1180-1213; Timeline handout; Songs and ballads, 2671-91; Bryant , "To a Waterfowl"; "To Cole, the Painter, Departing for Europe"; Longfellow , "Psalm of Life"

UNIT 2

(2 class sessions) Readings for Unit 2: Cooper , from Pioneers and Last of the Mohicans; Humor of the Old Southwest , 1427-43; Kirkland , from A New Home--Who'll Follow?; Native American tales and legends, 1214-24; Speech of Chief Seattle; Aztec and Inuit poetry , 2663-71; Tales from Hispanic Southwest , 1228-38; Vallejo , from Recuerdos

UNIT 3

(4 or 5 class sessions) Readings for Unit 3: Writers on slavery and abolition, 1825-71 and 1792-95; (Next time I'll be more selective from these and give more time to Douglass, Stowe, and Jacobs); Child, 1795-1812; Douglass , Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"; Stowe , from Uncle Tom's Cabin and other selections, 2307-2377; Jacobs , from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

4-PAGE CRITICAL ESSAY

UNIT 4

(2 class sessions) Readings for Unit 4: Whitman, "To a Locomotive in Winter"; Grimké, from Letters on the Equality of the Sexes; Stanton, from Eighty Years and More;"Declaration of Sentiments"; Fern, 1899-1908; Melville, "Paradise of Bachelors, and Tartarus of Maids" Truth, 1908-1915; Stowe, from The Minister's Wooing; "Sojourner Truth, the Lybian Sybil"

Reaction Paper for Unit 4

UNIT 5

(4 or 5 class sessions) Readings for Unit 5: Emerson, Nature;"The American Scholar"; "Self-Reliance"; "The Poet"; "Hamatreya"; "Days"; Fuller, 1580-1637, especially from Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government"; "A Plea for Captain John Brown"; and from Walden

Second Critical Paper

UNIT 6

(2 class sessions) Readings for Unit 6: Poe , Review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales; "MS. Found in a Bottle"; "Ligeia"; "Fall of the House of Usher"; "Purloined Letter"; "Cask of Amontillado"; "Sonnet--To Science"; "Israfel"; "Raven"; "Philosophy of Composition"; "Ulalume"; "Annabel Lee"

UNIT 7

(6 class sessions) Readings for Unit 7: Hawthorne , Scarlet Letter; Melville , "Hawthorne and His Mosses"; Moby-Dick

UNIT 8

(4 class sessions) Readings for Unit 8: Whitman , 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass; "Song of Myself"; "Sleepers"; "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" from Drum-Taps, 2804-10; "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"; Dickinson , 2838-2921 (Students choose poems we emphasize.)

Final Project

Writing & Pedagogy for Final Project (takes the place of a final exam):

Identify and justify your selections of:

1. One noncanonical author or text on our syllabus that should be included in future versions of this course.

2. One canonical author or text on our syllabus that should be included in future versions of this course.

3. One canonical author or text on our syllabus that could be omitted to make room for others.

If you can't justify any author or text for one of the categories, add a second author or text to one of the others and justify it.

In your justifications be explicit about your criteria for inclusion and exclusion.

This paper should be about 5 pages long and is due at the beginning of the final exam period. For that day you should also prepare a five-minute summary of this paper for presentation to your small group. During the exam period the groups will collect and summarize the findings of their members, and we'll pool the reports of the groups to see where the class stands and what we can conclude from these results.

Attendance and active participation during the final exam period are required.