Midterm Prompts for EN 211 -- Spring 2014

Below are the prompts for the take home part of the midterm (50 pts).  Choose only one prompt.  The essay will be due on Friday, March 14. 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 three of our readings to your understanding of American literature.  Feel free to consider works from different genres as well as those from both Colonial America and the United States of America.  How does literature shape American identity?  You may also consider works from Canada or Mexico.  What does each work have in common with the others?  How does each work trouble or complicate your understanding of American literature?  Note that we have talked about some British authors (John Donne, George Herbert, Samuel Richardson, Katherine Phillips, etc.) as well.  (The British works are above and beyond your three works to discuss.)

2.  What role do women play in American literature before 1865?  Consider women as characters, audiences, and authors in up to three different works.   Which genres or topics do they seem to prefer?  Recognize that your viewpoint will be grounded in your historical perspective as a 21st century American.

3.  Should it matter whether or not a work is published during its author's life?  Why?  Why not?  Should it matter whether or not a work was popular when it was first published?  Why or why not?  Refer to up to three of the works that we've read so far this semester.  Consider how publication may change a work.  Consider the authors' race, class, and gender and these factors' impact on their work and its publication.  Note that some of the British authors we've talked about were not published in print (as opposed to manuscript circulation) either.  (The British works are above and beyond your three works to discuss.)

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.  Feel free to use 20/20 hindsight, especially about the upcoming Civil War.  Discuss up to three works from the semester so far.

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.  (By the way, have we read any novels or short stories yet?!)   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 three works.  (The British works are above and beyond your three works to discuss.)

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.  If you have studied later American literature and/or read the work of nature writers such as Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez, or Henry David Thoreau, 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. 

Fourteenth Set of Questions for EN 211

 

Above is a picture of a printing press that Benjamin Franklin may have used while he worked in London.  This machine is now at the Smithsonian!

Good evening :)

Today we began discussing the literature of the United States of America.  Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is an excellent place to begin!  We will continue with the autobiography and discuss Olaudah Equiano's autobiography as well.  Equiano is claimed by both American and British literature.  Although he wrote that he had been born in Africa, his actual birthplace is unknown and may have been in the Americas.  Equiano's autobiography is an early example of the slave narrative, an important element in American literature.  This work was published during its author's lifetime and was incredibly popular!

Here are a few questions for you:

-- How does Benjamin Franklin's autobiography develop?  How does he change as a character?  as a narrator?  Does his audience or relationship to his audience change?  

-- What does BF's autobiography teach you about America in the author's lifetime?

-- How might BF's life have been different had he stayed in Boston?

-- Discuss BF's travels, especially to Philadelphia and to England.

-- Look at the 1862 link to the painting below:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Men_of_Progress.jpg
Discuss the depiction of BF in this painting.  How does he fit with the scientists and inventors of 1862?

-- What is it like to live in 18th century Philadelphia?

-- Use the links at this entry to discuss both Franklin and Equiano's autobiographies:

http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/02/life-writing-from-2009.html

-- Discuss lifewriting as a genre.  What role does it play in literature?  in American literature?  or history?

-- Does it matter that we may not know where Equiano was actually born and that his autobiography may include fictions?  Why?  Why not?

-- Discuss the reasons why Equiano wrote his autobiography.

-- Compare/contrast Equiano's Interesting Narrative to Franklin's Autobiography or to other autobiographies that you have read.

-- How is Africa depicted in Equiano's autobiography?

-- How is America depicted?

-- For more information about Equiano and his Interesting Narrative, see this blog entry:
http://en202.blogspot.com/2014/02/olaudah-equiano.html

Watch for the midterm prompts!

Dr. Szlyk

Olaudah Equiano

Equiano was a chief's son who was kidnapped into slavery around 1755 or so.  He fortunately was able to buy his freedom.  He then became an anti-slavery activist in Britain, and he wrote his autobiography, which not only was popular but also helped to spark the movement to abolish slavery in the British Empire and eventually elsewhere.  I wonder if Equiano ever met the poet Mary Robinson, for they were contemporaries, and she became active in the movement that he inspired.

For a little more information about Equiano, see these sites:

 https://web.archive.org/web/20100630074731/http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/articles/olaudah_equiano.html

http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/index.htm

http://www.brycchancarey.com/Carey_1650-1850_2008.pdf

The second site includes excerpts from Equiano's Interesting Narrative.  

Below is a roster of other British abolitionists:

http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/index.htm

Equiano was not the first former slave who wrote his life story:

http://www.brycchancarey.com/cugoano/index.htm

Below is a timeline of events connected with slavery:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9generic3.shtml

For more information on African history, see these sites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section10.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/10chapter2.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section4.shtml

Life Writing (from 2009)

Life Writing

One genre that we'll be studying in EN 211 and that may seem new to you is life writing. Life writing includes autobiographies, biographies, journals, diaries, memoirs, oral histories, and even letters.  Although, at first glance, this genre seems to belong more to history or sociology, reading life history can shed light on the ways that literature shapes how we think and feel as well as influences on literature itself.  Some of the earliest novels like Aphra Behn's Oroonoko and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders even represent themselves as memoirs or autobiographies.  (A memoir covers a part of one's life whereas an autobiography treats the whole of one's life.)  And some life writing like Harriet Jacobs'  Incidents and Samuel Pepys' Diary is not only fascinating but well-written and worth studying as literature.  For example, how does Harriet Jacobs tell her life story in such a way that it appeals to her audience?!  How does she depict herself, Dr. Flint, and her grandmother?  (Note that although Pepys did not want people to read his diary, both Incidents and the Interesting Narrative were written to be read *and* to change people's minds about slavery.)

Here are some links on the study of life writing (or life history):

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/clhlwr/

 https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing/about

For those of us who know (a little) French, this site is invaluable as it is associated with Philippe Lejeune, one of the literary scholars to focus on autobiography:

http://www.autopacte.org/

This list from California's Center for Autobiographic Studies explains the difference between autobiography and memoir as well as outlining the different forms of autobiography.  The audience is someone wanting to write and perhaps even publish an autobiography or memoir, but I think that you'll find this list to be useful.

 https://web.archive.org/web/20080409005826/http://www.storyhelp.com/autotypes.html

By the way, Beatrice Wood wrote her autobiography, I Shock Myself, when she was in her early nineties.  Almost ten years later she actively participated in a documentary on herself and her work.  Ms. Wood was also one of the models for Rose in Titanic.  Here is a link to a site with examples of her artwork:

http://artscenecal.com/ArtistsFiles/WoodB/WoodBFile/BWood.html

However, life writing is not simply published or unpublished autobiographies and memoirs.  Here is a link to a project from several universities in Hawaii.  It exemplifies the work that scholars are doing in this area.

 https://web.archive.org/web/20130110182000/http://www.hawaii.edu/biograph/cbrbiohiariyoshi.html
There is also the Legacy Project, a collection of correspondence between service members and their loved ones.

http://www.warletters.com/index.html

To read some of these letters, go to this site:

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/battlelines/index_good.html

This database includes women's letters and diaries from the 1600s to 1950:

 https://web.archive.org/web/20081002173840/http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/NWLDLive/

Here writers discuss their motivations for keeping journals--and preserving their life writing:

http://fraglit.com/impassio/k-essay.htm

http://fraglit.com/lwc/archives/38

A literary scholar writes about her experience reading the published diaries of 18th c. novelist Frances Burney D'Arblay:

http://www.jimandellen.org/burney/fanny.divergent.html

Lifewriting is also an important part of national identity:

 https://web.archive.org/web/20080420043330/http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/segan/CANLIN.HTM

Of course, we must not forget biography and collections of biographies.  Lucy Hutchinson's biography of her late husband continues to intrigue literary scholars:

http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/Lucy%20Hutchinson.htm

I've cited a number of works by women, but one of the most famous literary biographies is James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson...and earlier Johnson himself wrote a collection of literary biographies:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Johnson/Guide/lives.html

I really am only scratching the surface, but I think that adding life writing to EN 202 gives us a much fuller and richer idea of world literature.  If you know French, Spanish, or another language, I would be interested in seeing what you might find in the area of life writing!

Thirteenth Set of Questions for EN 211

 

Can you see Benjamin Franklin's portrait in the painting "Men of Progress" (1862)?

For more information about this painting, see this link:  http://www.npg.si.edu/edu/brush/guide/unit2/progress.html

Good evening :)

Today we finished up our discussion of American literature before the United States (Native American myths & folktales, narratives of exploration, and Puritan literature) and did some review for our exam on Friday, March 14.

March 10 and 12 are good days for the first presentation, but we will do more reviewing.

For Friday we will be reading excerpts from Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, a window into a very different world.

Here are a few questions for further review as well as for the new reading.

-- Take a look at the attached picture (am lit.jpg) and apply some of the themes to our readings.  Which works and themes would be worth discussing in your papers?

-- Go to MyMC and take a look at the picture am lit review.  What would you add to this cluster?

-- How did today's review help you with your understanding of American literature?

-- How is your journal helping you?

-- What are the challenges of reading older literature?

-- What are the rewards of reading older literature?

 What are the challenges of reading literature that reflects a different attitude towards religion?

-- What are the rewards of reading literature that reflects a different attitude toward religion?

-- Compare/contrast Benjamin Franklin's autobiography to a relevant piece of writing that we have read in class so far.

-- What does Benjamin Franklin add to our exploration of American literature and America?

-- How does Franklin represent America?

-- How does he represent family?

-- How does he represent urban life?

-- His autobiography was originally written for his illegitimate son (who may not have read it).  How might this audience shape Franklin's narrative and tone?

-- Note that the autobiography was not published in Franklin's lifetime.  In fact, parts of it were first published in French.  How might this circumstance (the Autobiography) not being published under the author's direction and in his lifetime shape Franklin's narrative and tone?

-- Compare/contrast Franklin's self-presentation with what you know of him from history.

-- Have you been to historic sites in Boston or Philadelphia?  Discuss your impressions of these places.

-- Have you been to historic sites in the UK or France?  Discuss your impressions of these places.

-- How did Franklin shape the United States?

-- Compare/contrast Franklin's life writing with other life writing that you have read.

Am looking forward to seeing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk

Twelfth Set of Questions for EN 211

Above is a picture of Jonathan Edwards.

Good evening :)

We are coming to the end of our time with the Puritans.  On Wednesday we will move on to the birth of the United States with The Autobiography of Ben Franklin.  It is amazing to think that his lifespan and Jonathan Edwards' overlapped!

Here are links to the videos we watched in class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-dk4-HBNWQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMiqF3CJGBc

This version is more dramatic, and it is slightly modernized:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3FiN5v_orE

As we finish up the Puritan section of American Literature I, I would like you to answer some of the following questions:

-- Which themes are present in American Literature I so far (starting with the Native American myths)?

-- What have you learned from reading the early works in American Literature I (Native Americans, narratives of exploration, Puritan literature)?

-- How would you characterize American Literature I so far?

-- How would you characterize Puritan literature?

-- How would you characterize the Puritans?

-- How would you compare Puritan America to the Revolutionary Era?

-- Discuss the differences between public and private writing, between public and private genres.

-- Discuss the range of genres that we have read so far.

-- Discuss the part that poetry plays in American Literature so far.

-- Discuss the part that life writing plays in American Literature so far.

-- Discuss the role that metaphor and/or allegory play(s) in literature.  

-- Discuss Rev. Edwards' use of Christian imagery and/or Bible texts in his sermon.

-- How does listening to the reenactments of his sermon help you with understanding it more?

I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say!

Dr. Szlyk 

Eleventh Set of Questions for EN 211

Above is a picture of a new statue of poet John Donne in the garden of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.  He served as the dean of this cathedral after he was persuaded to become an Anglican priest.  The statue below is of Donne's death effigy.  It was the only statue in the cathedral to survive the Great Fire of London.  Donne also preached his last sermon while wearing his shroud.

Good evening :)

I'm glad that we were able to spend time with two of Edward Taylor's poems ("Upon Wedlock, and the Death of Children" and "Meditation 8") as well as with John Donne's Holy Sonnet 14

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173362

George Herbert's "Altar Wings" and "Love (III)":

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/herbert/temple/Altar.html

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16121

and Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins..."
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15923

According to the author of Herrick's biography, the women mentioned in his poems were fictional!

Here are links to Michael Wigglesworth's "The Day of Doom," an exceedingly long poem but a best seller in Puritan America:

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom001.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom026.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom051.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom076.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom101.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom126.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom151.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom176.htm

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/doom201.htm

Please don't feel that you have to read the whole poem.  Just skim over to get a taste!

It may help you as you read Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," one of the most celebrated sermons from the Colonial era.  Interestingly, Edwards preached his sermon in 1741, after the Puritan era had ended.  Edwards, by the way, was the grandfather of Aaron Burr.  Burr served as Thomas Jefferson's vice-president and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.

Here are a few questions for you:

-- Compare and contrast American poets (Mrs. Bradstreet, Rev. Taylor) with their British contemporaries.  What is similar about their poetry?  What is different?

-- Compare/contrast Mrs. Bradstreet's poetry with Rev. Taylor's.

-- If you are Christian, what is it like to read religious poetry from the 1600s?

-- If you are not Christian, what is it like to read religious poetry from the 1600s?

-- Compare and contrast "The Day of Doom" with the Book of Revelations.

-- Compare and contrast "The Day of Doom" with current stories about the end of the world.  (Think of movies, TV shows, and novels.)

-- How does Michael Wigglesworth's perspective on religion differ from Edward Taylor (or John Donne. George Herbert, or Robert Herrick)'s?

-- Discuss Wigglesworth's rhyme scheme and imagery.

-- Discuss Rev. Taylor's use of Christian imagery.  How does he depict Holy Communion?

How does he depict his relationship with God?  Or humans' relationship with God?

-- How has language changed since Rev. Taylor's day?

-- Rev. Taylor's poetry was not published during his lifetime.  In fact, he did not allow his descendants to publish it until long after his death.  How do his poems reflect the fact that he was not writing for publication as Wigglesworth was?

-- Compare and contrast Jonathan Edwards' sermon with sermons that you yourself have heard.

-- What does Sinners add to your understanding of Colonial America and the Puritan mindset?

-- What seems to be Rev. Edwards' belief system and view of religion?

-- Compare and contrast Rev. Edwards' sermon with Rev. Taylor's poems or the poems by English clergymen.  Here is a link to one of John Donne's sermons:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/donne/deaths_duel.i.html

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/11/john-donne-virtual-reality-sermon

-- Discuss differences between public and private writing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say.  Watch our blog for your midterm prompts and study guides.

Dr. Szlyk