Instructor: John Getz

Institution: Xavier University (Cincinnati)

Course Title: American Renaissance: 1830-1865

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.


Demographics:
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.
Texts and Handout:
  • 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, and Annotations: Note: All readings except Moby-Dick and "Hawthorne and His Mosses" are in Heath.
    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"
  • Annotation for Unit 1: Introduction to course--key points of historical background, popular vs. elite culture, literary nationalism, and views of nature by Hudson River painters and writers
  • Writing & Pedagogy for Unit 1: Lecture/discussion; no writing assignment.
    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
  • Annotation for Unit 2: This unit focuses on westward expansion and frontier life. We compare and contrast the perspectives of these writers by region, gender, class, culture, and whether they are newcomers or established in their regions.
  • Writing and pedagogy for Unit 2: Discussion and reaction paper, possibly group work.
    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
    *"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
  • Annotation for Unit 3: This unit focuses on slavery and abolition, showing the variety of responses and strategies within the anti-slavery movement. Because of race and gender, Douglass, Stowe, and Jacobs provide comparisons and especially contrasts in material covered, style, narrative technique, sense of audience, and literary traditions within which they write.
  • Writing and pedagogy for Unit 3: Class discussion 4-page critical essay: Analyze key differences between two of these: Douglass's Narrative, Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Jacobs's Incidents in the Life. In your essay explain whether the differences you discuss strengthen or weaken the works. You are encouraged to use other anti-slavery works on the reading list as reference points or perspectives for your contrast.
    In what turns out to be an essay question on the mid-term students are asked in class to think about which rendering of the slave experience and which strategy for dealing with slavery would be most persuasive to them if they had lived in the years before the Civil War. Different responses to this question provide material for class discussion including group work.
    UNIT 4: 2 class sessions
  • Readings for Unit 4:
    *Whitman, "To a Locomotive in Winter"
    *Grimke, 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"
  • Annotation for Unit 4: This unit shows the relation between two important developments: the industrialization of the Northeast and the rise of the women's movement. Students are also encouraged to make connections between the women's and abolitionist movements. Questions of style and audience and the issue of popular vs. elite culture are important in discussing the readings for this unit as they were for Unit 3.
  • Writing and pedagogy for Unit 4: In either a reaction paper or an essay question on the mid-term students are asked to decide which rendering of women's experience and which strategies for dealing with injustice toward women would be most persuasive to them if they had lived in the years before the Civil War. Different responses to this question provide material for class discussion.
    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" from Walden
  • Annotation for Unit 5: This unit deals with Transcendentalism. We study Emerson's articulation of Transcendentalist philosophy and literary theory and in Thoreau and Fuller the Transcendentalists' attempt to address the issues of slavery and the oppression of women. Comparisons and contrasts are made in the style and thought of these three writers.
  • Writing and Pedagogy for Unit 5: Critical essay of four pages: Choose two of the following authors, and show how a work in our text by one author sheds light on two works in our text by the other: Emerson, Fuller, Thoreau, Poe. You might highlight comparisons, contrasts, or both. Take note of the dates these authors' works were written and published, and use these dates in your essay.
    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"
  • Annotations for Unit 6: This unit studies Poe. We view him as a writer of romance, specifically the Gothic, and consider his work in relation to the Transcendentalists as well as later Gothic and detective authors students have read, including Arthur Conan Doyle and Stephen King, and in light of deconstructive theory destabilizing the meaning of texts. We also examine his portrayal of women in light of our reading of women writers earlier in the semester and try to predict their responses to his work.
  • Writing & Pedagogy for Unit 6: Group work and reaction paper on above topics. See also essay topic for Unit 5.
    UNIT 7: 6 class sessions
  • Readings for Unit 7: *Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter
    *Melville, "Hawthorne and His Mosses" (in Bantam Moby-Dick)
    *Moby-Dick
  • Annotations for Unit 7: This unit compares and contrasts Hawthorne and Melville as writers of the American romance. We also study their responses to the issues of women's rights and slavery, especially through Hawthorne's portrayal of Hester and Melville's portrayal of Queequeg and various black characters. We also note the absence of women characters and search for images of the feminine in Moby-Dick and reflect on student responses to both books, especially if they have read Scarlet Letter before. Attention is, of course, paid to the whaling chapters and humor of Moby- Dick, which students often overlook. The whaling footage from the silent film Down to the Sea in Ships (on video) gives students an idea of what whaling was like.
  • Writing & Pedagogy for Unit 7: Choose either Scarlet Letter or Moby-Dick for a paper that will have three sections:
    a. Write a reaction to some continuing aspect of the book (e.g., a conflict, character, image, theme, not restricted to one or two chapters or incidents). Avoid plot summary. The more focus this section has, the better your paper is likely to be. (3 pages.)
    b. Read a chapter from a critical book or article on your novel that deals with the topic you wrote about in a. The article or chapter must have been written in the last 10 years and be at least 8 pages long. React to this article. Don't summarize; critique/evaluate it. If you've studied literary theory, use your knowledge to categorize the critic's approach. (3 pages.) Attach a photocopy of the article or chapter to your paper.
    c. Present your current view of the topic you identified in a., now that you have reflected on it for some time and read what a critic said about it. Has your view of the topic changed? What have you learned about the topic and/or literary criticism in general? (3 pages.)
    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.)
  • Annotations to Unit 8: This unit contrasts Whitman's open form with Dickinson's closed form and briefly surveys the poetic traditions each contributed to. Whitman's egalitarian impulse in form and theme is also related to abolitionism and Transcendentalism, inviting comparisons/contrasts with Emerson. We also look at Dickinson's relation to Emerson and her response to religious and especially women's issues we have seen throughout the semester. We study both poets' renderings of same-sex desires and relationships.
  • Writing & Pedagogy for Unit 8: Group work and class discussion of reaction papers on one or more of the above topics.
    UNIT 9: Final exam period
  • 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.

    This page was prepared by Audrey Mickahail at the Center for Electronic Projects in American Culture Studies (CEPACS), housed at Georgetown University, under the direction of Randy Bass, Department of English.


    CEPACS
    Randy Bass, Director