EN 219 Section 002: Honors American Literature

Professor:       Nikhil Bilwakesh

Email: nbilwakesh@ua.edu

Office: Rowand-Johnson 210

                        Office Hours: Tu/Th: 11AM – Noon, or by appointment

 Course Description

 

This course is a chronological survey of the literature of the North American territory that coalesces into what we know as the United States, from the fifteenth century through the Civil War.  We look at literature and history in conjunction in order to enhance our understanding of both.  We will examine different genres, including sermons, diaries, poetry, drama, stories, essays, historical accounts, and letters, focusing on the ways in which the pieces cohere as “American.”  We will consider social, scientific, religious, political, and stylistic contexts, and we will look at other artistic forms and media that developed during the period, including visual arts. We will consider the usefulness of literature as historical documentation. We will also examine the ways in which the historical periods and works we are studying have been portrayed in film, music, art, and literature.  One of the major questions we consider throughout the semester: How does American literature go towards creating a national consciousness and language?

 

Expected Student Learning Outcomes (Departmental)

• Students can produce a literary close reading that addresses both the form and the content of one or more text(s) in the construction of an argument about the text’s meaning.
• Students attain a broad knowledge of American literary history of the Colonial period.
• Students attain a broad knowledge of American literary history of the Early National period.
• Students attain a broad knowledge of American literary history of the American Renaissance period.
• Students gain the confidence and ability to speak in a sophisticated and critical fashion about early American literature.
• Students will develop effective written communication skills.
• Students will recognize and identify key concepts in the arts, sciences, and humanities to provide a broad perspective on the human condition.

WEEK	THEME	DATES	READING
1	Introductions
		TH 8/20	None
2	“O brave new world that has such people in’t.”	T 8/25	Christopher Columbus, Norton 31- 34; Bartolome de Las Casas Norton  35 – 40; Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals” (e-learning) Paul Metcalf, “…and nobody objected.”  (handout)
		TH 8/27	William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I and Act II (e-learning)
3	Captivity and Nativity	T 9/1	William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III - V; blackboard) (e-learning)
		TH 9/3	Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Norton 236-267); Sherman Alexie, “Captivity” (e-learning)
4	The Varieties of American Religious Experience I	T 9/8	William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation,  (Norton A 105-138)
		TH 9/10	Thomas Morton,  New English Canaan (Norton A 139 -  146) and Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The May-Pole of Merry Mount” (Norton B 1304 – 1311) NOTE: bring both Norton A and B to class
5	The Varieties of American Religious Experience II	T  9/15	Anne Bradstreet, “Contemplations” (Norton A 195 – 202) and Edward Taylor, “Preparatory Meditations”  (Norton A 269 – 278)
		TH 9/17	Jonathan Edwards, “Images or Shadows of Divine Things” (e-learning); Omar Ibn Said, The Life of Omar Ibn Said (e-learning) (Note: Bring Norton A to class)
6	Declarations of Independence	T 9/22	Benjamin Franklin, (Norton A 451 – 473); Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (excerpt e-learning)
		TH 9/26	Thomas Paine, Norton 629 – 649; Thomas Jefferson, The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson (Norton A 651 – 657)
7	“We The People”	T 9/29	The Constitution of the United States (e-learning); Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (Norton B 2140 -  2143)
		TH 10/1	James Fenimore Cooper (Norton B 985 – 1009)
8	“Glad to the Brink of Fear”	T 10/6	Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (Introduction and chapters I and  IV: Norton B 1110 – 1113; 1118 – 1122); “Self Reliance” (1163 – 1180)
		TH 10/8	MID-SEMESTER STUDY BREAK
9	“This land must back its debt to woman”	T 10/13	Margaret Fuller “The Great Lawsuit” (1637 – 1659); “Things and Thoughts in Europe” (1677 – 1682)
		TH 10/15	Margaret Fuller, 1659 – 1682)
10.	“The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.”	T10/20	Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life (preface to Ch 9) (Norton 2064 – 2097)
		TH10/22	Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life (to finish): (Norton 2097 – 2129)
11	The Imp	T 10/27	Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Black Cat,”  and “The Masque of the Red Death”  (Norton B 1553 – 1566; 1585-1589; 1593-1599)
		TH 10/29	Edgar Allan Poe, poems (1532 – 1543)
12	”I am the poet of the body And I am the poet of the soul.”	T11/3	Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”  (ch 1-20) (Norton B 2210-2224)
		TH 11/5	Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” (to end) (Norton B 2238 – 2254)
13	“Pain – has an Element of Blank”	T11/10	Emily Dickinson, poems (Norton B 2554 – 2568 (“I  felt a Funeral, in my Brain”))
		TH 11/12	Emily Dickinson, poems (Norton B 2572 – 2597
14	“A peaceable revolution if any such is possible”	T11/17	Henry David Thoreau, “Walking” (blackboard)
		TH11/19	Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government” (Norton B 1857-1872)
15	“Teaching us how to die”	T11/24	Henry David Thoreau, “A Plea for Captain John Brown” (blackboard) Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (Norton B 1635 – 1636)
		TH11/26	THANKSGIVING BREAK: NO CLASS
16		M12/1	In-Class Readings
		F 12/3	In-Class Readings

 

 

 

 

Course Requirements and Evaluation

 

1. Punctual, regular attendance and informed participation (30%)
2. Quizzes (20%)
3. Formal and informal writing (50%)

 

Reading:

 

The reading requirement for this course is heavy, and the material ranges in its level of difficulty.  You must be on top of the reading.  Lack of preparation for class discussion will be noted. Take notes, use the margins in your texts, and develop questions and comments so that you can contribute to class discussions fruitfully. 

Early American writing can be weird and difficult.  The sentence constructions, the vocabulary, and the theological and other content can seem obscure.  We will try to appreciate what is interesting about some of these difficult texts. 

            While it is impossible to strive towards “completeness” when dealing with almost four centuries worth of literature, our survey is both vast and, in places, deep.  The reading will require your best efforts to complete.  Where it is difficult, try to figure out what is difficult (vocabulary?  Allusions?  Sentence structure?)  If it is displeasing, boring, specify your displeasure.

 

 

Quizzes:

 

There will be a written-response quiz every session on the reading assignment due that day.  Occasionally, you will be given the questions in advance.  The quizzes will generally start us out on the themes we will cover in the class discussions.  They might be focused on specific details or they might ask you to write on broad themes involving one or more of the texts covered.  If you are late for class, you will get a zero on the quiz.

Attendance Policy

 

For credited attendance, you must be on time, with the texts that we will be using for class that day. Three instances of lateness will count as an absence.  Each additional instance of lateness will count as an absence.  Excessive lateness may result in your dismissal from the course. 

If you are registered with the Office of Disability Services, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss any course accommodations that may be necessary. If you have a disability, but have not contacted the Office of Disability Services, please call 348-4285 or visit 133-B Martha Parham Hall East to register for services. Students who may need course adaptations because of a disability are welcome to make an appointment to see me during office hours. Students with disabilities must be registered with the Office of Disability Services, 133-B Martha Parham Hall East, before receiving academic adjustments.

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The Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Policy will be followed in the event of academic misconduct.

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