COURSE SCHEDULE:
(a digital version of this schedule with live links and color-coded author/time periods
may be found at the course web site: http://jleader.pbworks.com
1) Aug. 24
Aug. 26
Course introduction
Internet video and quiz: What’s your worldview?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXnSE0uvwzM
QUESTION CLUSTER # 1: “Why should we not also enjoy an original relation to the
universe?”—Why am I here? Where can I find happiness? Am I living a good life?
2) Aug. 31
America as Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century, Part 1:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html
“Pilgrim and Puritan”: Norton A, 13-15
The Bay Psalm Book, introduction and Psalms 19, 23 and 24: 186-191
The New-England Primer: 361-363
William Bradford, introduction and excerpts from Of Plymouth
Plantation: 121-122; Ch. 4 124-127; Ch. 9 131-134
Sept. 2
John Winthrop, introduction and “A Model of Christian Charity”: 165-177
3) Sep. 7
No Class—Labor Day
Sept. 9
Edward Taylor, introduction and “Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children,”
“Huswifery,” and “A Fig for The, Oh! Death”: 289 ff.
Introduction to 18th century: 365-376
Thomas Paine, introduction, “The Crisis” and excerpts from The Age of
Reason: 639-640; 647-659
4) Sept. 14
What is Transcendentalism?:
http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm
Ralph Waldo Emerson, introduction; Nature “Introduction” and “Ch. 1”:
Norton B 211-217; and “The Poet” 295-309
Sept. 16
Introduction to the 19th century: 3-21
Walt Whitman, introduction: 1310-1314; and “When I Heard the Learn’d
Astronomer,” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” and “A
Noiseless Patient Spider”
5) Sept. 21
Nathaniel Hawthorne, introduction: 369-372; “Young Goodman Brown”
386-395; and ”The Minister’s Black Veil” 409-418
Sept. 23
Emily Dickinson, introduction: 1659-1663; poems according to Franklin
numbering (the first number, not in brackets): 124, 202, 236, 320,
365, 373, 1353, 1577, 1715
QUESTION CLUSTER # 2: “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”—Who am I? What’s my
purpose in life? How do I want to be remembered?
6) Sept. 28
Benjamin Franklin, introduction, “The Way to Wealth,” and “The Speech
of Miss Polly Baker”: Norton A 455-465
Jonathan Edwards, introduction: 396-398; and “God’s All-Sufficiency
for the Supply of Our Wants” (Edwards.yale.edu/research/browse under
Vol. 14):
http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZ
S5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4xMz
oyMS53amVv
Sept. 30
Washington Irving, introduction: Norton B 25-27; and “Rip Van Winkle”
and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”: 29-62
ESSAY #1 DUE
7) Oct. 5
Emerson, “Self-Reliance”: 269-286
Henry David Thoreau, introduction 961-964; Walden, Ch.1 “Economy”:
981-1023
Oct. 7
Edgar Allen Poe, introduction 629-632; “The Raven,” and “Annabel Lee”;
“The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Cask
of Amontillado”: 637 ff.
8) Oct. 12
Herman Melville, introduction 1424-1427; “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
1483-1508
Oct. 14
Rebecca Harding Davis, introduction and Life in the Iron-Mills:
1705-1732
9) Oct. 19
Whitman, “Song of Myself” sections 1-8, 15-16, 24, 48-52: 1329 ff
Dickinson, poems according Franklin numbering (the first number, not in
brackets): 260, 340, 353, 407, 591, 1773
QUESTION CLUSTER # 3: “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”—What is fair?
What will I fight for? How can I make a difference?
Oct. 21
Anne Bradstreet, introduction Norton A 207; “The Author to her Book,”
“Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” “To My Dear and Loving
Husband,” and “Upon the Burning of Our House” 225 ff
Hannah Webster Foster, introduction and first third of The Coquette:
817-846
10) Oct. 26
Foster, The Coquette contd.: 847-916
Oct. 28
Hawthorne, “The Birth Mark”: Norton B 418-429
Poe, “The Black Cat”: 695-700
Fanny Fern, introduction, “Aunt Hetty on Matrimony,” and “Hungry
Husbands”: 905-909
11) Nov. 2
Lydia Maria Child, introduction 180-182: letter on “Women’s Rights”:
199-203
Whitman, “Song of Myself” sections 10-13 and 21
Dickinson, poems according Franklin numbering (the first number, not in
brackets): 194, 225, 411, 477, 764, 857
Nov. 4
Indian Policy: The Colonial Legacy:
http://americanindiantah.com/history/nar_colonial_legacy.html
Bradford, from Of Plymouth Plantation: Norton A 150-154 (top)
Franklin, “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” 476-480
19th Century Indian Relations with the United States:
http://americanindiantah.com/history/nar_19thcenturyrelations.html
Black Hawk and Petalesharo: Norton B 349-356
12) Nov. 9
Mary White Rowlandson, “A Narrative of the Captivity”: Norton A 256288
ESSAY #2 DUE
Nov. 11
No Class –Veteran’s Day
13) Nov. 16
Phillis Wheatley, introduction: 762-764; and “On Being
Brought from Africa to America” and “To the University of Cambridge, in
New England”: 764 and 766
Thomas Jefferson, introduction and “Declaration of Independence”: 659667; “Slavery”: 669-673
Sojourner Truth “Speech to Women’s Rights Convention”: Norton B 801802
Abraham Lincoln, introduction and “A House Divided”: 730-740
Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”: 654-666
Nov. 18
Harriet Beecher Stowe, introduction and excerpts from Uncle Tom’s
Cabin: 805-857
14) Nov. 23
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin continued: 858-904
Nov. 25
Frederick Douglass, introduction: 1170-1174; excerpts from Narrative
of the Life--Ch.s 1, 4-7, 10-11: 1182 ff; “What to the Slave is the Fourth
of July?”: 1251-1254
15) Nov. 30
Harriet Jacobs, introduction and excerpts from Incidents in the Life of
a Slave Girl: 920-941
Dec. 2
Melville, “Benito Cereno”: 1526-1582
FINAL EXAM: Monday, Dec. 7, 1:30-4 p.m.