Thank you for your fine comments to this blog. I have enjoyed all of the posts. The blog served as fertile ground for many of the final papers in the course.
Last, I must thank Osei Dixon, whose commitment to the blog kept it alive. In a memorable e-mail to me, Osei wrote, "The blog is a good idea, don't leave it to die on the side of the road. That's what people do to helpless Christmas puppies!" This puppy grew up into a tough old dog.
I hope you have a great summer and that you read the great writers. They are good company.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Matters of Choice (And a Military Metaphor)
We have spent some time in a literary period now, and as we embark on the summer, which for many of us will mean some intellectual independence--no more books selected by instructors!--I do wonder what you might read in this period. Of course, there is no obligation to read further, BUT you do have a "foothold" now or, to borrow a military term, a "beachhead."
Let's imagine for a moment that you are planning to launch a further incursion into the American Romanticism. To quote Admiral David Farrugut's famous Civil War battlecry, pronounced in 1864--incidentally, a few months after Hawthorne's death--"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
A. Which of the authors that we read this semester might you pursue further, and what books by these writers would you consider picking up?
B. Which "battlefronts" are now effectively over? In other words, which authors will you leave to other readers, perhaps, those more wise or more foolhardy than you?
C. Which work could you envision yourself reading again twenty or thirty years hence? Why would you choose this work?
D. What work, if any, would you like to know more about?
E. Which of these authors would you be interested in learning more about?
F. Last question, which passages of these texts do you think will stay with you, that you will recall in your everyday life, everywhere, from here to there, until you reach Longfellow's "Ultima Thule."
Let's imagine for a moment that you are planning to launch a further incursion into the American Romanticism. To quote Admiral David Farrugut's famous Civil War battlecry, pronounced in 1864--incidentally, a few months after Hawthorne's death--"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
A. Which of the authors that we read this semester might you pursue further, and what books by these writers would you consider picking up?
B. Which "battlefronts" are now effectively over? In other words, which authors will you leave to other readers, perhaps, those more wise or more foolhardy than you?
C. Which work could you envision yourself reading again twenty or thirty years hence? Why would you choose this work?
D. What work, if any, would you like to know more about?
E. Which of these authors would you be interested in learning more about?
F. Last question, which passages of these texts do you think will stay with you, that you will recall in your everyday life, everywhere, from here to there, until you reach Longfellow's "Ultima Thule."
A Matter of Synthesis: Overview of American Romanticism
Over the course of the semester, we have read book length works from following authors: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Fenimore Cooper, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Fanny Fern. In addition, we have read short pieces related to the Transcendentalist Movement by Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, Mary Moody Emerson, Amos Bronson Alcott, and Orestes Brownson.
With the exception of Longfellow's later works, all of the texts that we read cover a span of roughly thirty years time, from the 1820s through the 1850s. More narrowly, The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Israel Potter (1854 - 1855), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Ruth Hall (1855), and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858) were all written within a seven year time. F.O. Matthiessen in his seminal work The American Renaissance identified the writing from the 1850s alone, which the texts above represent merely a briefly sample, as the American Renaissance, the first definitive outpouring of American art.
My question is the following: looking at all of these works, what are some of the definitive characteristics that we find in these works, and do these texts have overarching thematic and stylistic elements that are distinctly "American" or define this period in American society? In answering the question, try to reference specific works.
With the exception of Longfellow's later works, all of the texts that we read cover a span of roughly thirty years time, from the 1820s through the 1850s. More narrowly, The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Israel Potter (1854 - 1855), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Ruth Hall (1855), and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858) were all written within a seven year time. F.O. Matthiessen in his seminal work The American Renaissance identified the writing from the 1850s alone, which the texts above represent merely a briefly sample, as the American Renaissance, the first definitive outpouring of American art.
My question is the following: looking at all of these works, what are some of the definitive characteristics that we find in these works, and do these texts have overarching thematic and stylistic elements that are distinctly "American" or define this period in American society? In answering the question, try to reference specific works.
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