Thursday Evenings, Fall 1999   Dr. Richard Harrington
Sept. 9 to Dec. 16     Phone:  610-469-0468
Time:  6:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M.    rharrington@ursinus.edu

Required Texts:
Lauter, P., ed.  The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed.
 Vol. 1, 1998.
Chopin, K.  The Awakening.
Hawthorne, N. The Blithedale Romance.
James, H.  Daisy Miller.
Melville, H.  Moby Dick.

WEEK I: The American Renaissance
 Introduction to syllabus
 In class assignment:  Read Early Nineteenth Century 1800- 1865, 1276-1308
 The Circle of Romanticism (handout)
 Anne Bradstreet, "To My Dear and Loving Husband"
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Birthmark"
   "The Hollow of the Three Hills," handout
  "The Prison Door," Chapter I (handout)
 Melville, Moby Dick.  "The Quarter Deck," Chapter 36
 Edgar Allan Poe, "Ulalume"

WEEK 2: Myth, Magic, and Folklore
 Myths, Tales, Legends, 1309-1310
 Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Ojibwa), "Mishosha, or the Magician  and His Daughters," 1312-1316
 Tales from the Hispanic Southwest, "The Forsaken Brother,"   1317-1319
 "The Devil Woman," 1331
 Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle," 1342-1354
 James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers, Chapter XXI, 1413-1425

WEEK 3: The Gothic Strain
 Edgar Allan Poe, 1440-1443
  "Ligeia," 1450-1461
  "The Philosophy of Composition," 1529-1536
  "The Masque of the Red Death," 1481-1485
  "Fall of the House of Usher," 1461-1474
 Melville Moby Dick, Chapters 42 and 66
 Reflection Paper #1  Romanticism:  Analyze the elements of    gothic romanticism in Poe and Melville.
 
WEEK 4: The Individual in Society
 Essays from Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1578-1676
  "Nature"
  "The American Scholar"
  "Self Reliance"
  "Circles"
  "The Poet"
  "Experience"
 Frederick Douglass, 1751-1836
  "Narrative of the Life of F. Douglass..."
  "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 2031-2037
  from Eighty Years and More:  Reminiscences
  "Declaration of Sentiments"
 Kate Chopin, The Awakening, Chapters 1-13

WEEK 5: Division and Discovery
 Passages from selected essays, Henry David Thoreau, 2090-2161
  "Resistance to Civil Government"
  "Walden"
  "A Plea for Captain John Brown"
  "Walking"
 Sarah Grimke, from Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and  the Condition of Women, 2024-2032
 Sarah Margaret Fuller, 1691-1693
  "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," 1714-1735
 Kate Chopin, The Awakening, Chapters 14-26
 Reflection Paper #2   Discuss contemporary parallels to  Thoreauís conflict between individual rights and "public  tranquillity." OR
 Compare and/or apply Fuller and Grimkeís arguments to the  Victorian values depicted in Chopinís The Awakening

WEEK 6: Acceptance and Transcendence
 Kate Chopin, The Awakening, Chapters 21-39
 William Cullen Bryant, "Thanatopsis," 2670-2674
 Harriet Beecher Stowe, fromUncle Tomís Cabin, 2305-2360
 Reflection Paper #3:  Discuss Chopinís resolution in The Awakening

WEEK 7: The Anti- transcendentalists
 Herman Melville, Benito Cereno, 2454-2511
 Harriet Ann Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life of a Slave 1839- 1863
 Melville Moby Dick, Chapter 44
 WEEK 8: Reconciliation:  Liberating the American Psyche
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Rappacciniís Daughter," 2236-2255
  "The Ministerís Black Veil," 2217-2224
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance, Chapters 1-10
 Reflection Paper #4:  Write a polemical essay that argues for or against a transcendental view of the world.

WEEK 9: Views of Life and Death
 Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance, Chapters 11-20
 Melville Moby Dick, Chapter 109

WEEK 10: The American Character:
 Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance, Chapters 21-29
 Melville Moby Dick, Chapter 119
 Begin Independent study discussions (research in progress)

WEEK 11:  The American Character:  The Symphony
 Henry James, Daisy Miller
 Independent research with support group
 Melville Moby Dick, Chapter 132
 
THANKSGIVING BREAK

WEEK 12: The American Character:  Contemporary Issues in Poetry
 Selected poems from Emily Dickinson, 2725-2794
 Selected or proposed thematic topics
 Independent study discussions continued
 Research paper due

WEEK 13: The American Character:  A Synthesis
 Independent study discussions continued
 Selected poems from Walt Whitman, 2725-2794

WEEK 14: Final Exam
 What is an American?  A Retrospective