History of American Literature - year II
1. Course description
The course is a chronological survey of selected literary texts beginning with Native American narratives and finishing with naturalism/modernism. The material covered in class complements and deepens the knowledge students acquire from the lecture in the History of American Literature. The credits obtained both for the participation in class and in the lecture are prerequisite for the admittance to the examination in the subject.
2. Meeting times:
The class meets according to the schedule for each second year group, available at the secretary’s office.
3. Aims of the course:
  • Acquainting students with the most significant trends in American literature;
  • Developing students’ proficiency in active reading;
  • Enhancing students’ skills in performing analyses of literary texts ;
  • Suggesting to the students ways and methods of literary research and facilitating their individual scholarly efforts.
4. Tutor: Paweł Jędrzejko (available on Wednesdays 09:40-11:00, as well as by appointment, room 310 or 308).
Should any problems arise with respect to the course, teaching, progress, or anything at all — everyone is welcome to come and talk!
5. Assessment: The assessment of students' work will be based on:
a) attendance
b) participation in classroom discussions
c) assignments
d) individual presentations
e) essays (see below)
f) additional assignements (if need be)
6. Reading list (63):
  • Native American creation myths (Iroquois, Pima)
  • Bartolome de las Casas excerpts from the Norton Anthology of American Literature
  • A. N. Cabeza de Vaca excerpts from the Norton Anthology of American Literature
  • J. Smith excerpts from The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles
  • W. Bradford excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation
  • J. Winthrop „A Model of Christian Charity”
  • R. Williams „A Key to the Language of America”
  • Anne Bradstreet poems
  • Michael Wigglesworth „The Day of Doom”
  • E. Taylor „Preparatory Meditations”
  • „God’s Determinations”
  • S. Sewall excerpts from The Diary
  • C. Mather excerpts from The Wonders of the Invisible World
  • J. Edwards „Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
  • B. Franklin „The Way to Wealth”
  • „The Edict by the King of Prussia”
  • „The Sale of the Hessians”
  • excerpts from The Autobiography
  • J. Woolman The Journal of John Woolman (excerpt): „Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes”
  • S. Occom „Sermon Preached at the Executon of Moses Paul”
  • J. H. St. J. de Crevecoeur Letters from an American Farmer („What is an American”)
  • Th. Paine excerpts from Common Sense
  • „Of the Theology of the Christians, and the True Theology”
  • Th. Jefferson „The Declaration of Independence”
  • Ph. Freneau poems
  • Phillis Wheatley poems
  • Royall Tyler The Contrast
  • W. Irving „Rip Van Winkle”
  • „The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow”
  • William Apess „An Indian Looking-Glass for the White Man”
  • J. F. Cooper The Pioneers
  • N. Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter
  • „Young Goodman Brown”
  • „The Minister's Black Veil”
  • „My Kinsman, Major Molineux”
  • preface to „The House of the Seven Gables”
  • H. Melville Moby Dick
  • Billy Budd, Sailor
  • R. W. Emerson „Nature”
  • „Self-Reliance”
  • H. D. Thoreau Walden
  • „Resistance to Civil Government”
  • „Life Without Principle”
  • M. Fuller „The Great Lawsuit”
  • E. A. Poe „The Cask of Amontillado”
  • „The Tell-Tale Heart”
  • „Ligeia”
  • „The Raven”
  • „The Fall of the House of Usher”
  • „The Purloined Letter”
  • „The Philosophy of Composition”
  • Walt Whitman Preface to The Leaves of Grass
  • Song of Myself
  • E. Dickinson poems
  • Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • Letters from the Earth(excerpts)
  • W.D. Howells „Novel-Writing and Novel-Reading”
  • Kate Chopin The Awakening, „Emancipation: A Life Fable”
  • H. James Daisy Miller
  • „The Art of Fiction”
  • S. Crane The Red Badge of Courage
  • „The Open Boat”
  • Th. Dreiser Sister Carrie
Note: due to limitations of time, some of the above works may not be discussed in class; however, the students will be required to have read all of them.
7. Literature
Basic literature (8):
  • The Norton Anthology of American Literature(N. Baym et al. eds.)
  • The American Tradition in Literature(S. Bradley et al, eds.)
  • American Literature, the Makers and the Making (C. Brooks et al., eds)
  • Idee przewodnie literatury amerykańskiej (Viola Sachs)
  • Historia literatury Stanów Zjednoczonych w Zarysie(A. Kopcewicz i M. Sienicka).
  • The Columbia Literary History of the United States(Emory Elliott, ed.)
  • The Columbia History of the American Novel (Emory Elliott, ed.)
  • Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki(Andrzej Bartnicki; Donald T. Critchlow, eds.)
Supplementary literature (10+):
  • Hispanic American Literature(Nicolas Kanellos, ed.)
  • Asian American Literature (Shawn Wong, ed.)
  • African American Literature(Al Young, ed.)
  • The Third Woman. Minority Women Writers of the United States(Dexter Fisher, ed.)
  • On Deconstruction. Theory and Criticism after Structuralism(Jonathan Culler, ed.)
  • American Renaissance(F.O. Matthiessen)
  • American Women Writers to 1800(Sharon M. Harris, ed.)
  • New England Writers and Writing (Malcolm Cowley, ed.)
  • From Puritanism to Postmodernism(Richard Ruland; Malcolm Bradbury, eds.)
  • „We are all Indians.” Violence/Intolerance/Literature (Wojciech Kalaga; Tadeusz Sławek, eds.)
— and a multitude of other titles of your choice, available in our library and reading room.
8. SUBJECTS OF CLASSES
Note: should any of the classes be cancelled for reasons beyond the tutor’s authority, students are still responsible for covering the material. However, the tutor will be more than willing to organize extra- or make-up classes, should a need arise
CLASS # 1. Tutor’s introduction of the assumptions of the course, requirements, principles of crediting, stylesheet for papers, expectations as to academic writing, preliminary choice of research subjects.
CLASS # 2. The Bible and Native American creation myths. Pre-White orature: myths, legends and oratory. Contrasting concepts of the human in the Universe.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *Native American creation myths (Iroquois, Pima) + texts supplied by the tutor, the Bible (Genesis, John)
Discussion:
American Indian culture/cultures. Savagist myth. Phallogocentrism vs. decentralized concept of man
CLASS # 3. Spanish accounts of the conquest. Discussion on excerpts from texts selected by the tutor. The culture clash.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *Bartolome de las Casas: excerpts from the Norton Anthology of American Literature
  • *A. N. Cabeza de Vaca: excerpts from the Norton Anthology of American Literature
  • * Toni Morrison: „Playing in the Dark”
  • * Daniel Defoe: excerpts from Robinson Crusoe
Discussion:
Colonizing thinking, the conquest, the dominating/dominated culture
Additional task:
See the film Mission
CLASS # 4 & 5. Introduction to Early Colonial Literature
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature + „The Rise of Puritanism” (supplied)
  • *be able to discuss Puritanism in the context of reformation
  • *be able to discuss the problematic status of history
  • *J. Smith: excerpts from The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles,
  • *W. Bradford : excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation,
  • *J. Winthrop: „A Model of Christian Charity”
Discussion:
a) What is history? b) Smith’s History as a text of culture c) Visions of the newly discovered land (Smith, Bradford, Winthrop) d) Puritan philosophy and lifestyle, biblical typology, the concept of the „City upon the Hill”, the character of Puritan writing.
CLASS # 6. Literature and Puritan Life: Literary reflections on life in Puritan colonies
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *S. Sewall: The Diary
  • *C. Mather: The Wonders of the Invisible World
  • *R. Williams: „A Key to the Language of America”
  • *Materials supplied by the tutor
Discussion:
a) Puritan values and lifestyle, b) Puritan perception of the world, c) Roger Williams, Puritan theocracy, Native Americans.
Additional assignment:see films: The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible
CLASS # 7. The poetry of Puritanism
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *Anne Bradstreet: poems
  • *Michael Wigglesworth: „The Day of Doom”
  • *E. Taylor: „Preparatory Meditations” and „God’s Determinations”
Discussion:
a) Anne Bradstreet as a woman poet, b) dychotomy in Bradstreet’s poetry, c) Michael Wigglesworth and Puritan didactics d) Edward Taylor’s intellectual/metaphysical poetry, d) variety and style of early colonial poetry.
CLASS # 8. American Age of Reason. The Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *J. Edwards „Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
  • *B. Franklin „The Way to Wealth”
excerpts from The Autobiography
Discussion:
a) conflict of values at the twilight of the Puritan era, b) Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin as representatives of their time, c) American Age of Reason: the dawn of Revolution.
Additional task:
Each group subdivides into four teams working on the presentations to be delivered in the course of the next class.
CLASS # 9. American political writing of the Age of Reason: presentation of group-work project:
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature.
  • Benjamin Franklin: „The Edict by the King of Prussia”
  • „The Sale of the Hessians”
  • Th. Paine: excerpts from Common Sense
  • „Of the Theology of the Christians, and the True Theology”
  • Th. Jefferson : „The Declaration of Independence”
  • Ph. Freneau: poems
Discussion:
Socio-historical context of American political writing and its influence on its character: America vs. Europe of the Age of Reason.
Additional task:
Each group subdivides into four teams working on the presentations to be delivered in the course of the next class.
CLASS # 10. Occom, Woolman, Wheatley, Apess: the dominating and the dominant: team presentations.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *J. Woolman: The Journal of John Woolman (excerpt): „Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes”
  • *S. Occom: „Sermon Preached at the Executon of Moses Paul”
  • *William Apess: „An Indian Looking-Glass for the White Man”
  • *Ph.Wheatley: poems
Discussion:
Race in colonial discourse.
CLASS # 11. Washington Irving: between Neoclassicism and the dawn of Romanticism.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *W. Irving „Rip Van Winkle”
  • „The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow”
Discussion:
a) Neoclassical and pre-romantic elements in Rip Van Winkle,b) city vs. village, c) time and change.
CLASS # 12. Frontier and frontier people: J.F. Cooper: The Pioneers.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and Columbia History of American Literature.
  • * J.F. Cooper: The Pioneers
Discussion:
a) The phenomenon of the frontier, b) Frontiersmen, c) Natty Bumppo: a new American character d) Indian John/Chingachgook: shadows of absence, e) Cooper and interracial marriage, f) the Pioneers and ecological criticism
Additional task:
see films: The Last of Mohicans, Far and Away.
CLASS # 14. Individual conferences on students’ projects
CLASS # 15. Individual conferences on students’ projects
CLASS # 16. Credits
WINTER BREAK
17. Puritanism, Enlightenment, Romanticism: a polysystemic perspective.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • skim through: American Renaissance (F.O. Matthiessen)
Discussion: specificity of American Romanticism
CLASS # 18 & 19. Nathaniel Hawthorne: the anatomy of sin
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *Nathaniel Hawthorne: „Young Goodman Brown”,
  • „My Kinsman, Major Molineaux”
  • The Scarlet Letter
Discussion:
a) Hawthorne as a representative of American Renaissance, b) innocence/experience c) Hawthorne and Puritanism, d) nature of sin, e) love, sin and punishment, f) deconstructing the letter
CLASS # 20 & 21. Herman Melville and hamartia
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *H. Melville: Moby Dick
  • *H. Melville: Billy Budd, Sailor
  • *supplied materials
  • *watch film Przeklęty w raju
Discussion:
c) Moby Dick and a Romantic text, b) Moby Dick as an autothematic text, c) Ahab, Ishmael and the Pequod crew: the nature of the quest, d) whiteness and the Whale, e) Ahab as tragic hero f) navigation, g) Billy Budd and passing judgements.
CLASS # 22, 23 & 24. American transcendentalists
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *R. W. Emerson: „Nature”
  • „The American Scholar”
  • „Self-Reliance”
  • *H. D. Thoreau: Walden
  • „Resistance to Civil Government”
  • „Life Without Principle”
  • *Walt Whitman: Preface to The Leaves of Grass
  • Song of Myself
Discussion:
a) What is transcendentalism? b) Emerson as a transcendentalist, c) self-reliance and pantheistic perspective, d) the nature of nature, e) Thoreau: following one’s nature, f) nilometer and the bottomless pond, g) life without principle? h) Whitman and transcendentalism in The Leaves of Grass, i) Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman: comparison and contrast.
CLASS # 25. Edgar Alan Poe: gothicism of the soul.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *E. A. Poe: „The Cask of Amontillado”
  • „The Tell-Tale Heart”
  • „Ligeia”
  • „The Raven”
  • „The Fall of the House of Usher”
  • „The Purloined Letter”
  • „The Philosophy of Composition”
Discussion: a) Poe and the gothic, b) psychoanalytical reading, c) women in Poe’s texts, d) criminal plot and revenge e) Poe and the art of writing.
CLASS # 26. American Realism: Mark Twain as a realist writer?
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • Letters from the Earth(excerpts)
  • *W.D. Howells: „Novel-Writing and Novel-Reading”
Discussion:a) Realism vs. romanticism, b) language, c) perspective, d) protagonist, e) social criticism, f) a grown-up child, g) romanticizing Jim (Toni Morrison)
CLASS # 27. Chopin, James and the question of phallogocentric discourse: woman in society.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *Kate Chopin: The Awakening, „Emancipation: A Life Fable”
  • *H. James: Daisy Miller
  • „The Art of Fiction”
Discussion: a) Animal in the cage, b) Edna Pontellier: a tragic heroine, c) James and his novels, d) Trędowata, e) Daisy Miller: an American in Europe.
CLASS # 28. Naturalism in American literature.
Requirements:
  • *read applicable chapters in Columbia History of American Literature.
  • *S. Crane:The Red Badge of Courage
  • „The Open Boat”
  • *Th. Dreiser: Sister Carrie
Discussion:
a) naturalism as a literary trend, b) determinism, c) man and nature, d) what drives ordinary people, e) passing judgements.
CLASS # 29. Individual conferences
CLASS # 30. Credits