English 3380: Survey of American Literature I: “Revolution and the Word”
* Paper Assignment: Prompts may be used, or you may create your own Open Topic *
Length: 5-7 pages (1,250-1,750 words), typed, double-spaced, with standard one-inch
margins.
Focus: Each paper must include substantial treatment of one of the texts we read as a
class from week eight through week twelve.
Additional Primary Sources: Each paper should make reference to 1 or 2 additional
primary sources from the selections for Group 1 (Native American sources) or
Group 2 (Slavery sources).
Secondary Sources: Each paper must make reference to a minimum of two secondary
sources you find on your own, using the MLA Bibliography. The sources should
discuss some aspect(s) of any of the primary sources you use. Brief sources such
as articles from Explicator shall count as ½ of a source.
Thesis: your paper should have an identifiable thesis and be thesis-driven, whether your
paper is expository or creative.
Title: All essays must have a TITLE. The title should reflect your thesis. “The Legend
of Sleepy Hollow” is not an appropriate title for a paper—it’s been taken! “The
Function of the Narrator in ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’” is an appropriate
title.
Works Cited: Please include at the end of your paper. A separate page is not required
(save a tree!).
Drafts: I’m delighted to work with you at any stage of the paper development before the
paper is due.
Specific Quotations and Close Readings: these should be at the center of every
paragraph you write.
Due: Tuesday 23 November, in class.
Another View of the Paper:
Main Text
1 from weeks 8-12
Primary Sources
1 or 2 from Group 1 or 2
Secondary Sources
Minimum of 2; find on
your own, MLA
The following prompts are suggestions only. You may choose one of the topics
below or you may develop your own topic; if so, please contact me for guidance. All
papers must include a minimum of two (2) secondary sources.
Prompts. Topics are broken out by reading groups:
1. (Group 1) Scholars have identified the myth of the vanishing American Indian as
a common stereotype among nineteenth-century Euro-Americans. Analyze the
extent to which Sigourney’s poem “Indian Names” and/ or Bryant’s poem “The
Prairies,” and either Elias Boudinot’s essay from the Cherokee Phoenix or the
Cherokee Memorials either refute or reinforce the myth of the vanishing
American Indian. Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
2. (Group 1) Compare and contrast the persuasive power of religious critique as it is
invoked either by Apess in “An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man” or in
the Appendix in Douglass’s Narrative, and either Petalesharo’s “Speech of the
Pawnee Chief,” or Boudinot’s essay from the Cherokee Phoenix. Include a
minimum of two secondary sources.
3.
(Group 1) Many of the texts we’ve read are concerned about the relationships
among myth, history, and story-telling. Write an essay in which you analyze the
extent to which the following texts can be understood as engaged in re-writing
history, and/or are concerned with the limits of history, myth and fiction:
Boudinot’s essay from the Cherokee Phoenix and either Apess’s “An Indian’s
Looking Glass for the White Man,” or Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” or Irving’s
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
4. (Group 1) Compare and contrast the issue of betrayal in one or two selections
from the primary sources of Native American texts, and the issue of betrayal in
Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
5. (Group 1) Compare and contrast the form(s) and style(s) of protest literature in
Apess’s “An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man,” Elias Boudinot’s essay
from the Cherokee Phoenix and/ or the excerpt from The Life…of Black Hawk.
Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
6. (Group 2) Compare and contrast the extent to which ‘self-evident truths’ are
either revealed or hidden in plain sight in Gray’s The Confessions of Nat Turner,
Garrison’s “To the Public,” and Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” Include a minimum
of two secondary sources.
7. (Group 2) Compare and contrast the elements of style and the use of imagery in
Douglass’s Narrative and the excerpt from David Walker’s Appeal. Include a
minimum of two secondary sources.
8. (Group 2) How are Jefferson’s ideas about race (as articulated in the excerpt from
Notes on the State of Virginia) reflected by and/ or refuted in Melville’s “Benito
Cereno” and in the excerpt from David Walker’s Appeal? Include a minimum of
two secondary sources.
9. (Group 2) Compare and contrast the portrait of antebellum American womanhood
in Grimké’s Appeal and Truth’s “Speech” with the figure of Madeline Usher in
Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Include a minimum of two secondary
sources.
10. (Group 2) Compare and contrast representations of the horror of dehumanization
in the excerpt from Walker’s Appeal with either Douglass’s Narrative, or Poe’s
“The Fall of the House of Usher.” Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
Creative Options: *All Creative Papers must include a one paragraph summary
describing your argument and how your paper interprets or re-interprets the
reading(s) upon which your creative work is based.* Please also read the guideline
for Creative Papers, located in the sidebar on the course web page. Creative Papers may
sometimes be longer than expository papers due to the nature of creative work. Creative
Papers must also use a minimum of two (2) secondary sources primarily found using
the MLA Bibliography, and they must also include Works Cited.
10. (Group 1) Creative Option: Imagine a radio interview featuring Elias Boudinot
and William Apess in which they are reviewing Sigourney’s “Indian Names” and
Bryant’s “The Prairies.” Create a dialogue using references to and /or quotations
from specific passages. * Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
11. (Group 1) Creative Option: Imagine a discussion among the following: Elias
Boudinot, William Apess, Lydia Sigourney and William Cullen Bryant. They
have all returned from viewing Thomas Cole’s series of five paintings, The
Course of Empire. View this series using our course web page. Create a dialogue
using references to and /or quotations from specific passages (and references to
the painting, of course). * Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
12. (Group 1) Creative Option: Imagine a discussion about the value of civilization
between Elias Boudinot and William Apess. Create a dialogue using references
to and /or quotations from specific passages. * Include a minimum of two
secondary sources.
13. (Group 2) Creative Option: Write a book review of Melville’s “Benito Cereno”
as if written by Martin Delany and/ or David Walker. Create the review using
references to and /or quotations from specific passages. * Include a minimum of
two secondary sources.
14. (Group 2) Write an analytical review of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”
as if written by Angelina Grimké and Sojourner Truth (use quotes and references
from Grimké’s Appeal and Truth’s “Speech,” as well as quotes from Poe). *
Include a minimum of two secondary sources.
*All Creative Papers must include a one paragraph summary describing your
argument and how your paper interprets or re-interprets the reading(s) upon which
your creative work is based.*