INTRO:
English 241 has helped me to grow in so many ways. Throughout the
course the readings, writings, and lectures are what got me through each
week. I took this course because I studied American Literature in high
school and really enjoyed it. I did not know that there was so much more
to American Literature. In this course, I was able to go in depth and
learn about Early America, Early American Literature, America, more
about myself, and authors during that time.
Notes
*Early America:
-Lecture:
Those who settled in America had a whole continent, theirselves, and
500 native nations to discover. In 1870, Americans were still
discovering what it meant to live on this continent. America was a new
world that came out of no where and changed Europe.
-Reading: “What is an American?” -St.John De Creveceour’s Letter III (published in 1781)
-Writing:
“What is an American essay?”Wrote an essay to a modern day immigrant
about what is an american and what being an American means to me. It’s
one thing to know this from personal experience but hard to put in an
essay. This writing was given so that I could determine what my
definition of “American” mean and hopefully as the course develop it
would change as I study more through Early American Literature.
*Early American Literature
-Lecture: Because
America started late, American Romanticism tended to take on a more
optimistic character than its European counterpart. Politically, the
idea was that Romantics would change society one individual at a time,
and they would made these changes by helping their readers feel more
intensely. Most American Romantics tended to be optimistic, to seek
beauty, and to try and help Americans feel and act for others. By
learning to feel with and for others, those influenced by Romantic art
would come to be more caring citizens, and America could begin to temper
the developing strain of "I am in this only for my own benefit." Many
Romantics also hoped that by helping people to appreciate Nature more,
they would influence others to create beauty. It is no accident that
the great progressive movements in America began in the Romantic era.
Over the next few weeks, we'll begin to explore how Romanticism
influenced the political and social aspects of Antebellum America.
-Reading: Mention readings...
-Writing: Mention Essay
*Authors:
Lecture:
Poe was late in life before his particular means of helping his readers
find the sublime--horror, madness, killings, the loss of beautiful
lovers--began to catch on and had sufficient, consistent outlets. In
fact, Poe made a much better living as a critique and an editor than he
ever did as a writer. So far, you've seen the American search for the
sublime take on the form of horror (Poe), the search for one's best self
(Emerson), an intense focus on the unique in each individual (Emerson),
and trying to figure out how to cultivate the full engagement of the
individual with the spiritual and social world (Thoreau). Few
people represent their time and place as well as Franklin. He
carefully constructs and projects an image of himself as a typical
American. He starts from humble beginnings. Through hard work and
careful frugality, he acquires a fortune, and he then "retires" to
devote himself to public projects and a life dedicated to civic
projects.
Readings: Mention readings about authors
*Myself
*Writings: Mention writings that involved self such “Who is your best self?”
*America
America has definitely improved since Early America.
Lecture: This mix of people worried about the pace of change with some wanting to
speed it up and others wanting to slow it down was volatile. Once it
was accepted that it was alright for people to read, converse and think
for their self, a new tradition began. People shared reason and
followed reasonable “Common Sense.” Each needed to be convinced that
radical social change was good idea, and the literature of late colonial
period is one of arguments from visions of how to restore the social
order of the mother country to proposing ever greater change based on
reason. The key insight here is that in late colonial America there was constant
demand for workers. The economy was constantly expanding, so almost any
individual could gain relative wealth, that is, if he or she had
industry, a certain degree of luck, and was willing to save and work.
Here, you might hear echos of Franklin’s essay, “The Way to Wealth” and
from the Autobiography. Quite literally, Franklin used writing for others and writing about
himself to share a new vision of the life of the individual--what we
speak about as the American Dream, and this vision was radically
different from that practiced for centuries in Europe. These changes
would make many very nervous, and they would look to the stability
offered by religion to help them deal with the stress of social change
the new world represented. Others, like Franklin, embraced changes
wholeheartedly, and argued even more radical changes were needed to
almost every aspect of life, including religion. Hence, Franklin will
argue that the individual could use reason to form a plan to cultivate
their own virtue, just as they could cultivate other paths to wealth and
happiness.
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