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English 6/76101 Seminar: U.S. Literature to 1865 :: Fall
2006
American
Renaissance Literature in the Context of Slavery:
Historical Problems and Contemporary Critique
Course Objectives:
This graduate seminar will focus on canonical figures of the American
Renaissance in the context of slavery. The goals of the seminar
will be to provide some comprehensive understanding of key writers
in the period along side writers more directly involved in the
abolitionist movement, and to examine an increasingly important
question: why have we (in academe) made these writers important.
The course will operate as a somewhat collaborative research group
in which students will participate individually and collaboratively
in exploring primary texts of the American Renaissance, in secondary
representations of those texts (and their authors) by critics in
the past 20 years. It is my hope that we will come to an understanding
of the "macropolitics" of the literary critic.
Emerson, R. W. Emerson's Antislavery Writings Yale
UP
Emerson, R. W. Emerson’s Essays Harper
Thoreau, H. D. Walden and Resistance
to Civil Government Norton
(Crit Ed)
Stowe, H. B. Uncle
Tom's Cabin Norton
(Crit Ed)
Melville, H. Melville’s
Short Novels Norton
(Crit Ed)
Delany, M. R. Blake U
North Carolina
Hawthorne, N. Life of Franklin Pierce Fredonia
(NL)
Hawthorne, N. The Scarlet Letter Bedford/St.
Martins
In addition, we will read other essays and longer works (in digital
form, generally) by the writers above and by Frederick Douglass,
Frances Harper, Walt Whitman, Lydia Maria Child, Theodore Dwight
Weld, George Fitzhugh, David Walker, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina
Grimké, Catherine Beecher, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Daniel
Webster, and Abraham Lincoln. (Additional materials available on
Web Vista or are linked from Vista).
Requirements:
The coursework is "scaffolded" and leads to a major project,
a 20-page research prospectus on a major writer that you will begin
in the fourth week of the semester . Along the way, you will also
complete several critical position papers, one or two book critical
summaries (most of which will be submitted on WebVista), a motif
essay, and an annotated bibliography. Finally, you will be required
to write reflective responses and discussion on Vista and to participate
in collaborative research for some of assignments. See the course
schedule for assignment dates.
Office & Hours:
I
will meet students in my office (209d in the Grad Student Lounge) before and
after class for consultations. I will also be available by appointment at other
times also in my office, usually tuesday and thursday afternoons. We will be
using WebCT Vista (vista.kent.edu)
and will hold regular online office hours on vista. I also respond quickly to
simple or substantive queries and requests for appointments via email: raymond.craig@kent.edu.
phone messages left at 2-1741 are neglected until i am in the building.
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