Skip to main content Skip to navigation

English and Comparative Literary Studies

Term 1

Frederick Douglass

Week . Topic: Author

Preparation (Book of commonplace)

1.1 Individuation in the time of revolt: Introductory Workshop

Timeline of American History

Digital History

  • The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) (PDF Document)
  • Crevecoeur, "What is an American?" (1782) (PDF Document)
  • Petition from Amelia County Against Abolition (1784-1785) (PDF Document)
  • Thomas Jefferson on Religious Freedom (1786) (PDF Document)
  • Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography [excerpt] (PDF Document)
  • The Farmer Refuted (PDF Document)

1.2 Individuation in the time of revolt:

First Nations

Film Screening on Monday 17:00 in A0.23, Social Studies

"Bury My Heart in Wounded Knee"

  • L Frank Baum's Editorials on the Sioux Nations (1890-1891) (PDF Document)
  • Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Life Among the Piutes (PDF Document)
  • Narcissa Owen, Memoirs of Narcissa Owen: 1831-1907 (PDF Document)
  • A Narrative of the Life of Mrs Mary Jemison (link to Project Gutenberg where you can choose to read the text online, or via Kindle)
  • PS: I have removed the Buffalo Bird Woman text.

1.3 Individuation in the time of revolt: Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland (1798)

Film Screening on Monday 17:00 in A0.23

"Last of the Mohicans"

  • Noah Webster on Educating Young Americans (PDF Document)

1.4 Individuation in the time of revolt: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)

Film Screening on Monday 17:00 in A0.23

"Huckleberry Finn"

  • Alexander Hamilton on Black Soldiers (PDF Document)
  • Boston King (PDF Document)
  • slides from seminar presentation (Powerpoint Presentation)
1.5 Individuation in the time of revolt: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852)

Optional additional reading

Emerson, "The Transcendentalist" (1842) (PDF Document)

Read chapter 4 of Roberta Weldon's Book, Hawthorne, Gender and Death, titled: "From Melancholy to Mourning" and available through the Warwick Library as an e-book.

There is a vast selection of critical essays on JSTOR which you may wish to consult. The early essays (1950s-170s) are not as satisfactory as the later ones. You will also note that many critics have read this novel in comparison with Shakespeare's Measure for Measure or Hamlet.

Elizabeth Dill, "Angel of the House, Ghost of the Commune" is a thought-provoking essay on the representation of Zenobia in this novel. Accessed through the Library's LION database.

 

READING WEEK

  

1.7 Conflicts of gender, race, class:

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

  • Practical Illustrations of the Fugitive Slave Law (PDF Document)
  • Essay by Robert Levine (PDF Document)
  • In-seminar Handouts: Crevecoeur's "A Visitor's Description of Slavery's Atrocity"; David Walker's "from Appeal, in Four Articles"; sample posters from the Abolitionist movement

1.8 Conflicts of gender, race, class:

Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall (1854)

  • Benjamin Rush on Women's Education (PDF Document)
  • "A society of Patriotic Ladies" (PDF Document) (Read more on the Edenton Tea Party)
  • Abigail Adams (PDF Document); John Adams (PDF Document)
  • Seminar slides (Powerpoint Presentation)

1.9 Conflicts of gender, race, class:

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (c. 1860)

  • Andrew Levy, "Dialectic and Convention" essay (PDF Document)
  • Sarah W Sherman, "Moral Experience" essay (PDF Document)
  • Jean Yellin, "Written by herself" essay (PDF Document)
  • seminar presentation (Powerpoint Presentation)
Online sources:
1.10 End of term test

the test will take place during your seminar slot.

Information and revision notes (PDF Document)