RALPH BAUER
3126 Tawes Hall
Department of English and
Comparative Literature
University of Maryland,
College Park, MD 20742
Phone: 301 405 9647
E-Mail: bauerr@umd.edu
website:
"http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/home.html"
CMLT277/ENGL278L: LITERATURES OF THE
AMERICAS

Office hours:
T/TH 2-3pm
 Lecture:
o T/TH........ 12:30pm- 1:30pm (KEY 0106)
 Discussion
o Section 0101(67863): F......... 9:00am- 9:50am (BPS 1124)
o Section 0102(67864): F.........10:00am-10:50am (BPS 1236)
o Section 0103(67865): F......... 9:00am- 9:50am (TLF 1103)
o Section 0104(67866): F.........10:00am-10:50am (TLF 1103)
o Section 0105(67867): F.........11:00am-11:50am (PLS 1158)
o Section 0106(67868); F.........12:00pm-12:50pm (PLS 1119)
Course Webpage:
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/teach/index/CMLT277/home.html
1
1. Course Description
In this course, we will comparatively study the literatures of several North, South, and Central
American cultures with a focus on the specificities, similarities, and divergences of their literary
and cultural texts from the fifteenth century to the present. Some of the topics we will consider
include the literatures of the European discovery and conquest, the cultural encounters in the
early Americas, colonialism and colonial cultures, the independent movements, and the neo- and
post-colonial American nation states.
2. Learning Outcomes:
Students in the class will gain familiarity and facility with the basic vocabulary and concepts of
the literatures, histories, and cultures of the Western hemisphere, as well as of the legacies of the
colonial encounters between multiple cultures in the Americas from the late fifteenth to the
twenty-first centuries. They will develop their critical skills in the evaluation of primary literary
and cultural archival materials of the Americas. They will practice their ability to formulate a
thesis related to comparative literary and cultural studies and to support the thesis with evidence
and argumentation. They will learn about fundamental concepts and methods that produce
knowledge about plural societies and human diversity. They will learn to analyze literary and
cultural traditions in relation to the specific cultural, historical, political, and social contexts of
the colonial and postcolonial Americas. And they will study comparative, intersectional, or
relational framework to examine the diverse historical experiences of the various cultures
comprising the Western hemisphere.
3. Texts (on order at the UMD Book Center and the Maryland Book Exchange)
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
Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead ISBN 978-0140173192
The Wadsworth Themes in American Literature, vols. 1 and 4. ISBN 978-1428262409/
978-1428262386
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RigobertaMenchú, I, RigobertaMenchú. ISBN B0042F1F5I
Gabriel GarcíaMárquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude. ISBN 978-0060883287
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Sab and Autobiography. ISBN-13: 978-0292704428
Herman Melville, Bartleby and Benito Cereno. ISBN-13: 978-1420925494
Anon., Xicotencatl ISBN-13: 978-0292712140
Additional materials will be made available via the on-line course syllabus
4. Assignments and Grading:

A) Papers: There will be two 5-7 page papers of literary analysis. Each paper will account
for 20% of your final grade. For paper deadlines and topics, see the class syllabus. Each
paper will involve one preliminary draft and one final draft, due two weeks apart from
one another. The preliminary draft is not graded but required in order to receive a
comment. COMMENTS WILL BE GIVEN ON PRELMINARY DRAFTS ONLY. NO
2
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COMMENTS WILL BE GIVEN ON FINAL DRAFT. Your final draft will only contain
your grade.
B) a one-page, single-spaced response paper to one of the movies we will be watching as
part of this course. The response paper is due twelve days after the movie is shown
(10%).
C) Short Response Exercises. There will be frequent short response exercises during
lectures and discussions. These exercises will not be individually graded but figured in
collectively with your participation grade.
D) midterm exam (10%).
E) final exam (20%). The questions from the final exam will be selected from a study
hand-out, which will be distributed one week before the exam.
F) Participation (20%). You will be expected to participate in class discussions
frequently. In both lecture and discussion sections, there will be brief writing exercises in
which you will be asked to reflect on your reading. (See "Short Response Exercises").
5. Attendance
Attendance is required and will be considered in the computation of your participation grade.
You can take up to three unexcused absences without adverse effect on your participation grade.
Beyond the first three, every unexcused absence will affect your participation grade adversely. In
order to have an absence excused for medical or other legitimate reasons, you will have to
provide documentation.
6. Academic Integrity
It is important for you to be aware of UMD's policies on academic integrity and of the
consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the
Code of Academic Integrity, please visit http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/whatis.html.
7. Course policy w/r to University's Emergency Preparedness
In case of an extended closure of the University due to an emergency, all course assignments,
lectures, and notes will be posted via email. Papers will be submitted via email. Discussion
sections will meet "virtually" during regular times and communicate via the On-Line Discussion
Forum.
8. Special Needs
If you have a registered disability and wish to discuss accommodations with me, please let me
know. Disabilities can be registered through Disability Support Services (4-7682 or 5-7683
TTY/TDD).
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Course Schedule

PART I: THE LITERATURES OF THE COLONIAL AMERICAS
o WEEK I.
 T 9/1: Introduction
 TH 9/3: Christopher Columbus: Diaro and Letters (on-line). Presentation.
 F 9/4: Discussion, co-ordination, organization.
 Movie of the week: Ridley Scott, 1492, the Conquest of Paradise (Note:
you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the
communal viewing on TH, 9/3, pm at 6:30 Non-Print Media Services,
Hornbake Library)
o
WEEK II.
 T 9/8:
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Bartolomé de Las Casas, from The Brief Account of the
Destruction of the Indies (on-Line) (Presentation).
 ÁlvarNúñezCabeza de Vaca,The Account(on-line). (Presentation)
TH 9/10: Florentine Codex ,Songs of the Aztecs, and PopulVuh (in
Wadsworth Themes). Presentation.
F 9/11: Discussion
Movie of the week: NicolásEchevarría, Cabeza de Vaca (Note: you may
download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal
viewing on Thursday 9/10, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services,
Hornbake Library)
o
WEEK III
 T 9/15: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, from The True History of the Conquest of
Mexico (on-line) (Presentation)
 TH 9/17: no class. (Begin reading Xicotencatl).
 F 9/18: Discussion
o
WEEK IV
 T 9/22: from Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, La Florida del Inca (on-line).
Presentation.
 TH 9/24: no class (continue reading Xicotencatl.
 F 9/26: Discussion. DRAFT PAPER # 1 DUE. For suggested topics,
click here
 Movie of the week: Bruce Beresford, Black Robe (Note: you may
download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal
viewing on Thursday 9/24, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services,
Hornbake Library)
o
WEEK V
4
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T 9/29: Marina de San Miguel and Luis de Carvajal (on-line).
Presentation.
TH 10/1: Presentation.
 Anne Hutchinson (on-line).
 Salem Witch Trial Papers (on-line).
 Cotton Mather (on-line).
F 10/2: Discussion
Movie of the week: Philip Leacock, Three Sovereigns for Sarah (Note:
you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the
communal viewing on Thursday 10/1, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media
Services, Hornbake Library)
o
WEEK VI
 T 10/6: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, The Answer and poems (on-line).
Presentation.
 TH 10/8: Phillis Wheatley, Selected Poetry, and Hamond, "An Address"
(in Wadsworth Themes). Presentation.
 F 10/9: Discussion
 FINAL DRAFT PAPER 1 DUE
 Movie of the week: Maria Luisa Bemberg, I, the Worst of All (Note: you
may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the
communal viewing on Thursday 10/8, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media
Services, Hornbake Library)
o
WEEK VII
 T 10/13: Equiano, The Interesting Narrative (on-line). Presentation.
 TH 10/15: Midterm Exam
 F 10/16: Discussion
 Movie of the week: Michael Apted, Amazing Grace. (Note: you may
download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal
viewing on Thursday 10/15, 7 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake
Library)
PART II: THE EARLY AMERICAN NATION STATES
o WEEK VIII
 T 10/20: Presentation
 Bolívar, "Jamaica Letter" (in Wadsworth Themes)
 Heredia, "To Niagara" (in Wadsworth Themes)
 Bello, "Agriculture in the Torrid Zone" (in Wadsworth Themes).
 TH 10/22:Xicotencatl(in paperback) Presentation.
 F 10/23: Discussion
o
WEEK IX
5
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o
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T 10/27: Avellaneda, Autobiography and Sab (in paper-back).
Presentation.
TH 10/29: Avellaneda, Sab, cont.
F 10/30: Discussion.
Movie of the week: Maria Luisa Bemberg, Camila. (Note: you may
download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal
viewing on Thursday 10/29, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services,
Hornbake Library)
WEEK X
 T 11/3: Melville, Benito Cereno (in paper-back). Presentation.
 TH 11/5: Melville, Benito Cereno
 F 11/6: Discussion
 Movie of the week: Stephen Spielberg, Amistad. (Note: you may
download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal
viewing on TH 11/5, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake
Library)
PART III: MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURES
o WEEK XI
 T 11/10: José Martí, "Our America"; Rubén Darío, "A Roosevelt/To
Roosevelt" (on-line). Presentation.
 TH 11/12: RigobertaMenchú, I, RigobertaMenchú (in paper-back).
Presentation.
 F 11/13: Discussion
 Movie of the week: Gregory Nava, El Norte. (Note: you may download
the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing
on Thursday 11/12, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake
Library)
o
WEEK XII
 T 11/17: Gabriel GarcíaMárquez, "The Solitude of Latin America" (online) One Hundred Years of Solitude (paper-back). Presentation.
 TH 11/19: GarcíaMárquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, cont.
Presentation
 F 11/20: Discussion
 Movie of the week: Mike Newell, Love in the Time of the Colera. (Note:
you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the
communal viewing on Thursday 11/19, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media
Services, Hornbake Library)
o
WEEK XIII
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T 11/24: GarcíaMárquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, cont.
Presentation
TH 11/26: Thanksgiving break
F 11/27: Thanksgiving break
o
WEEK XIV
 T 12/1: Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead (paper-back).
Presentation.
 DRAFT PAPER 2 DUE. For suggested topics, click here
 TH 12/3: Silko, Almanac of the Dead, cont.
 F 12/4: Discussion
o
WEEK XV
 T 12/8: Silko, Almanac of the Dead cont.
 TH 12/10: Review
 F 12/11: Discussion
 Movie of the week: Chris Eyre, Smoke Signals. (Note: you may download
the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing
on Thursday 12/10, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake
Library)
FINALS WEEK
o Friday, December 18, 1:30-3:30: Final Exam. For the exam study page, click
here. FINAL DRAFT PAPER 2 DUE
RESOURCES
On this page, you can find printed and on-line sources that are suggested for further reading and
reference. If you choose to use these (or any other) resources in your written work, be sure to
document your use properly.
Basics
In your papers for this class, you can use either of the two styles of citation customary in the
Humanities---the MLA Style or the Chicago Style. You can find a brief summary of these two
styles of citation here.
Expectations and Standards
7
By university policy, a grade of "A" stands for "excellent;" "B" for "good;" "C" for "adequate,"
"D" for "inadequate," and "F" for "Failing."
In this class, the criteria for evaluating papers are as follows:
1. does the paper closely engage and work with the primary readings?
2. does it articulate an original and interesting idea, thesis, or claim about the primary
reading?
3. does it develop a coherent and persuasive argument?
4. does it support its points with specific textual evidence?
5. does it pay attention to literary/rhetorical form, style, and language?
6. does it display awareness of the text's historical context?
7. does it provide a critique of authorial perspective?
8. does it scrutinize the text's strategies of representation?
9. does it use language effectively, lucidly, and grammatically?
10. does it accurately document its sources?
Suggested further background readings for the first part of the course ("The Literatures of
the Colonial Americas") at McKeldin Library:
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Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian
Legacy.
Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of
Conquest
Edmundo O'Gorman, The Invention of America: An Inquiry into the Historical Nature of
the New World and the Meaning of its History
TzvetanTodorov, The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other.
Gordon Brotherston, Book of the Fourth World: Reading the native Americas through
their Literature
Gordon Sayre, Les SauvagesAmericains: Representations of Native Americans in French
and English Colonial Literature
Greene, Roland. Unrequited Conquests: Love and Empire in the Colonial Americas
David Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment Greene, Roland. Unrequited
Conquests: Love and Empire in the Colonial Americas
Octavio Paz,Sor Juana, or the traps of faith
Henry Louis Gates, The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary
Criticism .
-line Resources
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Discoverers Web
Christopher Columbus and Early European Exploration. A Guide to the Collections of
the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the New York Public Library.
The Columbus Landfall Homepage
8
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Columbus and the Age of Discovery
Suggested further background readings for the second part of the course ("THE EARLY
AMERICAN NATION STATES") at McKeldin Library:
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Belnap, Jeffrey, and RaúlFernández, eds., José Marti's “Our America”: From National
to Hemispheric Cultural Studies.
Brickhouse, Anna. Transamerican literary relations and the nineteenth-century public
sphere.
DeGuzman, Maria. Spain's Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness, and AngloAmerican Empire.
Goudie, Sean. Creole America: The West Indies And the Formation of Literature And
Culture in the New Republic.
Gruesz, Kirsten. Ambassadors of Culture: the transamerican origins of Latino Writing
Handley, George. Postslavery Literature in the Americas.
---. New world poetics : nature and the adamic imagination of Whitman, Neruda, and
Walcott.
Jehlen, Myra. American Incarnation. The Individual, the Nation, and the Continent
Kazanjian, David. The Colonizing Trick. National Culture and Imperial Citizenship in
Early America
Lazo, Rodrigo. Writing to Cuba: Filibustering and Cuban Exiles in the United States
Mautner-Wasserman, Renata. Exotic Nations: literature and cultural identity in the
United States and Brazil
Murphy, Gretchen. Hemispheric Imaginings: The Monroe Doctrine and Narratives of
U.S. Empire
Nwankwo, Ifeoma C. K. Black Cosmopolitanism: Racial Consciousness and
Transnational Identity in the Nineteenth-Century Americas
Suggested further background readings for the third part of the course ("MODERN
AMERICAN LITERATURES") at McKeldin Library:
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BenítezRojo, Antonio,.. The Repeating island : the Caribbean and the postmodern
perspective.
Cohn, Deborah. History and Memory of the Two Souths: Recent Southern and Spanish
American Fiction.
Cox, Timothy. Postmodern Tales of Slavery in the Americas: From AlejoCarpentier to
Charles Johnson.
Fitz, Earl, Rediscovering the New World. Inter-American Literature in a Comparative
Context.
Gale Chevigny, Bell, and GariLaguardia, eds., Reinventing America. Comparative
Studies of the Literature of the United States and Spanish America.
Hiraldo, Carlos. Segregated miscegenation: on the treatment of racial hybridity in the
U.S. and Latin American literary traditions.
Kaup, Monika, and Debra Rosenthal. Mixing Race, Mixing Culture: Inter-American
Literary Dialogues.
Muthyala, John. Reworlding America: Myth, History, and Narrative
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Pérez Firmat, Gustavo. ed., Do the Americas have a Common Literature?
Saldívar, José David. The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and
Literary History
Zamora, Lois Parkinson. Writing the Apocalypse Historical Vision in Contemporary U.S.
and Latin American Fiction
Appendix B: Paper Assignment # 1
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1. Compare Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative to the writings of Christopher Columbus.
2. Compare the versions of the conquest of Mexico in the "Aztec accounts of the conquest" and in
Bernal Díaz del Castillo's True History of the Conquest of Mexico.
3. In much of the literature we’ve discussed so far, the New World is represented as a more
‘primitive’ version of the Old. By comparing two texts of your choice, discuss the ‘primitivism’
in European representations of America.
4. Compare the text of Cabeza de Vaca to that of Bernal Díaz del Castillo in respect to the
philosophy of Bartolomé de las Casas.
5. Compare the story of Juan Ortiz in Garcilaso’s The Florida of the Inca to the story Doña Marina
in Bernal Díaz del Castillo's True History of the Conquest of Mexico
6. Focusing on one or two texts of your choice, discuss the tension between tradition and experience
in the literature of the European discovery of America.
7. Discuss the issue of “inter-culturalism” in early Native American literatures. Themes you might
focus on include the encounter between mono-theistic and poly-theistic religions or the encounter
between alphabetical and non-alphabetical forms of textuality.
8. Compare one or more early Native American texts as 'writing as resistance.'
9. Compare the cultural function of prophecy in at least two texts that you have read for this class.
10. Compare the Popul Vuh to other creation stories with which you are familiar.
11. In lecture and sections, we have discussed how early modern texts subscribe to a concept of
"truth" that is different from our modern concept of truth. Thus, we have observed that the
modern category of "fiction" depends in part on a modern idea of truth defined as "factual," while
"fact" and "fiction" were not fully disaggregated in 16th- and 17th-century literature. By focusing
on two texts of your choice that we have discussed this semester so far, compare their concept of
"truth." Particular sub-questions you may want to address include: what are the implications of
their notion of truth with regard to the issues of "evidence" and "authority"? What counts as
"authority" for the author. What stylistic and thematic devices does the narrator employ to
establish his or her claim to authority?
12. In lecture and sections, we have observed that the various European powers in the New World
pursued various economic and/or political interests. How do these various interests manifest
themselves formally in the texts we have read? By discussing two texts of your choice, you may
focus on formal aspects such as style, narration, or imagery.
13. Compare the court documents relating to the trials of Anne Hutchinson and Marina de San
Miguel, as well as the trials of the women accused as witches at Salem.
14. Discuss the rhetoric of nature in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's defense of the right of women to
learn.
15. Discuss the use of an African poetic persona in Phillis Wheatley's poetry.
General Guidelines:
1. If you have an idea of your own you'd like to write about, pls. run it by me or your TA for
approval. We encourage you to formulate your own topic but require that you first discuss it with
us.
2. In the header information of your paper, clearly indicate to which question you are responding.
3. As mentioned on your syllabus and on our first day of class, you will need to turn in a preliminary
draft in order to receive a comment on your paper. The final draft will contain a grade only, no
comment. You are therefore STRONGLY encouraged to turn in a preliminary draft.
4. Secondary research (i.e. references to works other than the primary texts) is encouraged but not
expected. If you do choose to consult secondary sources, such as critical commentary, you must
properly document and acknowledge it.
11
5. Papers will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
a. does the paper advance an informed, interesting, intelligent, and original thesis about the
primary text(s) in question that pertinently responds to the chosen or formulated topic.
b. does the paper support this idea with points that are clearly pertinent and relevant? c. does the
paper support these points with direct references and/or citations from the primary texts?
d. Is the paper written clearly, lucidly, and stylistically sound? For further guidelines, see the
"Resources" page.
6. If you choose a topic that invites you to “compare” two texts, address both thematic AND
stylistic elements of the text in the comparison and discuss both similarities and differences,
explaining the significance of the similarities and differences that you find.
7. All citations from the primary texts must refer to the editions used in this class. If there is a reason
why you want to use a different edition or version of your text(s) (such as a full-text version,
rather than the anthologized excerpts), you must obtain permission from me or your TA BEFORE
you submit. your preliminary draft.
8. All papers must be formatted according to one of the two citation styles customary in the
Humanities--the "MLA style" or the "Chicago style." For a summary of these two documentation
styles, see http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/teach/styles.html
Appendix C: PAPER ASSIGNMENT # II
1. Compare the treatment of the issue of race in Olaudah Equiano's narrative and Philis Wheatley's
poetry and prose.
12
2. Compare the poems by Andrés Bello and José María Heredia.
3. Compare two texts of your choice in their uses of the Romantic idea of the 'sublime'.
4. A number of the nineteenth-century texts that we have read make use of the theme of slavery not
only in a literal sense (i.e. Native American slavery, African slavery) but also in a metaphoric
sense. Compare two or three texts of your choice in this regard.
5. A number of texts we have read tell an author's life story and oscillate in their representation of
the 'self' between an exemplary self and a particular self. Compare this tension between the ideas
of the exemplary and the particular self in two texts of your choice.
6. Compare the 'creole nationalism' of Xicoténcatl to that of one other text of your choice.
7. Compare the use of sentimentalism in two texts of your choice.
8. Compare the character of Sab in Avellaneda's Sab to the character of Babo in Melville's "Benito
Cereno."
9. Compare the narrators in in Avellaneda's Sab to the narrator in Melville's "Benito Cereno."
10. A number of texts we have read this semester make use of the figure of the 'noble savage'.
Compare how this figure functions rhetorically in two texts of your choice.
11. Several texts we have read this semester fuse the genres of life writing ('autobiography') with the
genre of the testimonial, the socially and politically charged narrative of eye-witnessing. Compare
how this fusion functions rhetorically in the narrative of Rigoberta Menchú and another texts of
your choice.
12. In a number of texts from Latin America that we have read, the 'Anglo' (American) has an
ambivalent or even problematic valence. Compare the representation of the 'Anglo' (American) in
two texts of your choice.
13. Compare two texts written by Euro-American 'creoles' in their rhetorical use of "indigenism", i.e.
their rhetorical use of images of Native Americans (or Native America).
14. In "The Solitude of Latin America," Gabriel García Márquez invokes the accounts of the early
European explorers of the New World in order to theorize (Latin) American narrative, where the
"crucial problem” (he says) has been a lack of objective linguistic means to render subjective
experience believable. Compare this 'chasm' between Old World languages and subjective New
World experiences in García Márquez's novel A Hundred Years of Solitude and one fifteenth- or
sixteenth-century narrative of discovery or conquest.
15. Compare the role of (New World) history, and the relationship between past and present, in
García Márquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude and Silko's Almanac of the Dead.
General Guidelines:
1. If you have an idea of your own you'd like to write about, pls. run it by me or your TA for
approval. We encourage you to formulate your own topic but require that you first discuss it with
us.
2. In the header information of your paper, clearly indicate to which question you are responding.
3. As mentioned on your syllabus and on our first day of class, you will need to turn in a preliminary
draft in order to receive a comment on your paper. The final draft will contain a grade only, no
comment. You are therefore STRONGLY encouraged to turn in a preliminary draft.
4. Secondary research (i.e. references to works other than the primary texts) is encouraged but not
expected. If you do choose to consult secondary sources, such as critical commentary, you must
properly document and acknowledge it.
5. Papers will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
a. does the paper advance an informed, interesting, intelligent, and original thesis about the
primary text(s) in question that pertinently responds to the chosen or formulated topic.
b. does the paper support this idea with points that are clearly pertinent and relevant? c. does the
paper support these points with direct references and/or citations from the primary texts?
13
6.
7.
8.
9.
d. Is the paper written clearly, lucidly, and stylistically sound? For further guidelines, see the
"Resources" page.
If you choose a topic that invites you to “compare” two texts, address both thematic AND
stylistic elements of the text in the comparison and discuss both similarities and differences,
explaining the significance of the similarities and differences that you find.
All citations from the primary texts must refer to the editions used in this class. If there is a reason
why you want to use a different edition or version of your text(s) (such as a full-text version,
rather than the anthologized excerpts), you must obtain permission from me or your TA BEFORE
you submit. your preliminary draft.
All papers must be formatted according to one of the two citation styles customary in the
Humanities--the "MLA style" or the "Chicago style." For a summary of these two documentation
styles, see http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/teach/styles.html
Comparison: Many of the topics are asking you to compare two texts. If you are comparing two
things, you need to talk about similarities and differences. Most of all, you need to RELATE
THEM TO ONE ANOTHER. In order to compare two things, you need a COMMON
DENOMINATOR. That is, when you talk about aspects A, B, and C in text #1, you need to talk
about these SAME aspects (A, B, and C) in text #2--and in the same order. When you discuss text
#2, make sure that you refer back to text #1. This can be done by using effective transitions.
This way of structuring your comparison may be schematized like this:
1. Text 1
1.1. Aspect A
1.2. Aspect B
1.3. Aspect C
2. Text 2
2.1 Aspect A
2.2. Aspect B
2.3. Aspect C
Another way of structuring your comparison would be like this:
1. Aspect A
1.1. Text 1
1.2. Text 2
2. Aspect B
2.1 Text 1
2.2. Text 2
3. Aspect C
3.1. Text 1
3.2. Text 2
Appendix D: Midterm Exam Study Sheet
ENGL277: Literature of the Americas
Midterm Exam
Ralph Bauer
Spring, 2009
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The exam lasts for 75 minutes. Spend approximately 5 minutes scanning the rest of the exam and planning
your answers. You should plan to spend approximately 15 minutes on Part I, 20 minutes on Part II, and 35
minutes on Part III. You may use notes and printed texts, but no electronic equipment. Write all of your
answers into the exam book. (This exam sheet will be thrown away).
Part I [30 points; 15 minutes]
Briefly identify and explain the significance of FIVE of the following terms, giving one example each
from the readings of its relevancy to the literature of the Americas.
Reconquista, Converso, Allegory, Representation, Pre-lapsarianism, primitivism. Golden Age ,
Mysticism, Millenarianism, Ethnocentrism, Cultural relativism, Cultural absolutism, deductivism,
inductivism, providentialism, verisimilitude, metis, just war, rights of conquest, natural slavery, natural
lordship, Scholasticism/Thomism, Black Legend, Amplification, Hyperbole, sermocinatio, peaceful
conquest, hagiography, trickster tale, polytheism, monotheism, syncretism , inter-culturalism, hybridity,
diabolism, encomienda. Relación, cultural broker, meritocracy, typology, plain style. Gothic., Baroque,
visible sainthood, covenant of grace, covenant of works, Justification, Sanctification, Antinomianism ,
Armenianism, Calvinism , Bacchanalia, theocracy, American exceptionalism, Jeremiad
Part II [30 points; 20 minutes]
Choose the one answer (a, b, c, or d) that best identifies each passage below.
Part III [40 points; 35 minutes]
Choose three of the ten passages below and write two brief commentaries for each one as directed below,
supporting your answers with specific textual evidence.
a)
Comment on the ways in which the passage exemplifies a major theme and/or rhetorical
strategy of the text from which it comes.
b)
Compare the treatment of the theme you have identified in (b) to its treatment in a text by
another author from our syllabus.
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GRADING
SCALE
Grade
%
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
100-97
96-93
92-90
89-87
86-83
82-80
79-77
76-73
72-70
69-67
66-63
62-60
59-0
Appendix E
Final Exam Study Page
Below, you will find questions, arranged in two sections, A and B. Section A is cumulative and
section B focuses on the second half of the course (since the midterm). Your final exam will
contain three questions from section A, and four questions from section B exactly as they appear
here. In your exam, you will have to answer ONE question from section A (worth 30% of your
grade) and TWO questions from section B (worth 10% each).
In addition, there will be a third section, C (not included here), with 10 multiple choice questions
asking you to identify passages from the readings (in total worth 30% of your grade). The
passages in this section will be taken from the second half of the course (since the midterm).
Finally there will be a fourth section, D (not included here), where you will be asked to define 5
terms/concepts and to provide examples from the readings. This section will account for 20% of
your grade.
The exam will last two hours. You can bring all your notes and books to the exam (but no
electronic equipment). You will have to write ALL your answer in the exam book passed out
during the exam.
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CATEGORY A:
1. In this course, we read texts from the English and Spanish literatures about the New World. Are
the literatures in these two languages comparable? By drawing from two texts from different
cultural/linguistic origins, discuss common themes as well as differences across these literatures.
2. Beginning with the writings of Christopher Columbus, the New World has often been represented
in terms of a Classical “Golden Age” or a Judeo-Christian “Eden”, both of which carried the
strong connotation of a primal “innocence” coming before an inevitable decline or fall. By
drawing from three texts from various centuries and arranged in chronological order, discuss how
the motifs of “innocence” and “fall” persist, develop, and transform in the literatures of the
Americas.
3. In this course, we have read several texts by authors of non-European ancestry expressing
themselves in European sign systems, languages, literary genres, and/or rhetorical conventions.
By drawing from three texts from three different centuries and arranged in chronological order,
compare how and to what purpose authors of non-European ancestry have appropriated the
European media and/or idioms.
4. Since the American independence movements, American authors have often struggled to define a
distinctly "American" literature that would articulate new aesthetic ideals corresponding to the
new political realities of the young nation states while yet drawing on the linguistic, literary,
generic, and cultural traditions of Europe. Discuss three texts, in chronological order, that
manifest different views with regard to an American cultural/literary independence and
nationalism while yet having to work, to some degree, within a European literary tradition. How
do these writers agree or disagree about what an "American" literature and national identity
should be like? Are there any differences with regard to race, nationality, ethnicity, or gender of
the authors in question?
5. Several of the texts we have read this semester engage with apocalyptic prophecies foretelling the
end of a particular age, society, and/or of a particular social order. Compare how apocalyptic
prophecy functions in three texts of your choice, arranged in chronological order.
6. Several of the texts we have read this semester were authored by women writers who engage in a
critique of male-dominated society and/or traditions of literary authorship. Discuss by comparing
the texts of three women writers from three different centuries.
7. Since the first European arrival (and probably before), the New World has been a place where
various religious traditions met, collided, and (to various degrees and in various manners)
interacted with one another. Discuss the theme of “religious encounters” in the literatures of the
Americas by comparing three texts from different centuries, including the twentieth.
8. Since the sixteenth century, the history of the European discovery, conquest, and colonization (or
invasion) of the Americas has been closely related to the history of capitalism in the West.
Compare how three texts from three different centuries represent the issue of ‘commodification’
(of nature and/or of human beings). What alternatives (if any) to commodification in human
relationships to nature and to other humans do these texts imagine?
9. Many of the texts we have read this semester tell (or re-tell) the story of the European ‘conquest
of America’—the story of the ‘discovery’ of the New World by the Europeans, the creation of a
‘modern’ social order, and the imposition of Euro-centric ways of life and of understanding the
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world upon non-European peoples. Yet, some texts also tell the story of the persistence of nonEuropean cultures and ways of knowing the world, despite European colonialism. By drawing
from three texts from at least two different centuries, compare how authors imagine the
persistence of alternative, non-European cultural traditions and their relationship to the
‘mainstream’ Western culture.
Category B
1. Discuss the meaning of any of the words contained in the full title of Equiano's The Interesting
Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself.
2. Discuss the political significance of the authors’ choice of poetic form in Andrés Bello’s
“Agriculture in the Torrid Zone” and José Maria Heredia’s “Ode to Niagara.”
3. Discuss the rhetorical use of the ‘Black Legend’ in Simón Bolívar’s “Jamaica Letter.”
4. Discuss the significance of the orphanage motif in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab.
5. Discuss the function of the limited third-person narrator in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno.
6. Discuss José Martí’s concept of “our America.”
7. Discuss the rhetorical function of the first-person-singular narrator in Rigoberta Menchú’s I,
Rigoberta Menchú.
8. Discuss the leifmotif of the ‘gringo’ in Gabriel García Márquez’s A Hundred Years of Solitude.
9. Discuss the leitmotif of the snake in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead.
Appendix F: Role Play: the Valladolid Debate of 1551.
Assignment (work in groups of 3)
Each group pick one of the two roles:
a) Juan Gines de Sepulveda
b) Bartolome de las Casas
c)
The year is 1551. You have been summoned to appear before the emperor, Charles V,
holding court in Valladolid, Spain. The question to be decided by the emperor and his court
is whether or not the Spanish conquest of the New World was or was not a ‘just war’. It is
your task to persuade the king and his court of your position by presenting evidence from
the historical literature you have read in this course. Produce 3 reasons why or why not the
Spanish conquest was just and be prepared to argue your case in court. Support your
position with textual evidence.
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