Below are the prompts for the take home part of the midterm. Choose only one prompt. The essay will be due on Monday, May 10. Note that you may choose to write about works that we have not discussed in class.
1. What does the term American literature mean to you? Discuss the contributions of up to four of our readings to your understanding of American literature. Include at least two from after midterms (Irving, Hawthorne, et al). Feel free to consider works from different genres as well as those from both Colonial America and the United States of America. Consider canonical literature (works by Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, & Dickinson) as well as more marginal works (readings by Fanny Fern, Catherine Maria Sedgwick, et al). What role does realism play? What role does non-fiction play? You may also consider works we did not discuss in class. What does each work have in common with the others? How does each work trouble or complicate your understanding of American literature? Who is the audience for each of the works you talk about?
2. What role do women play in American literature before 1865? Consider women as characters, audiences, and authors in up to four different works. At least two of these works must be from after the midterm. Discuss the impact of True Womanhood on the way that women are portrayed and that women portray their world and appeal to their audiences. Note that women are both canonical writers (Dickinson, Bradstreet), semi-canonical (Beecher Stowe, Fuller), and more marginal (Sedgwick, Fern). Also, note that men like Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman were published anonymously and that some semi-canonical or marginal authors like Fanny Fern were popular in their day. Recognize that your viewpoint will be grounded in your historical perspective as a 21st century American, a time when more and more college graduates are women.
3. How does American literature before 1865 depict work and the worker? What role does race, gender, and class play? Does it matter whether the worker is slave or free? Or whether the worker is male or female? What role does realism play? What role does audience play? Feel free to discuss both fiction and non-fiction. You may discuss up to four works. Up to two may be from the first half of the semester.
4. What role does race play in American literature before 1865? Consider not only African-American and/or Native American authors and their writing but also African-American and/or Native American characters and audiences as well as European-Americans as a race. Also, consider how race impacts important themes in American literature such as freedom and individualism. Be sure to discuss the upcoming Civil War, slavery, and their impact on the nation and its literature. Discuss up to four works from the semester so far. Of these four works, two must be from after the midterm.
5. What role does genre play in American literature before 1865? Consider the genres that you have read in other literature classes (especially at the college & AP level) and those that we are reading this semester. Discuss the impact of gender, class, race, and historical period. Note that we have talked about some British authors (John Donne, George Herbert, Aphra Behn, Katherine Phillips, etc.) as well. Refer to up to four works. (The British works are above and beyond your four works to discuss.) At least two works must be from after the midterm.
6. What role do landscape and geography play in American literature before 1865? Consider differences in genre, historical period, gender, race, and class among authors and their works. Consider how attitudes towards nature have changed from Bradstreet and Rowlandson's time to Whitman and Thoreau's as Puritanism recedes into the past. If you have studied later American literature and/or read the work of nature writers such as Terry Tempest Williams or Barry Lopez, feel free to bring their insights into your discussion. You may also bring in insights from your reading of British writers, especially the Romantics.
Good luck! I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say.
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