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English 6110: Seminar in American Literature I

Pilgrims, Prophets, and Reformers: The Utopian Impulse

in Early American Literature and Culture

Johann Valentin Haidt, “Zinzendorf als Lehrer” (circa 1747)

Fall 2007 / Instructor: Dr. Patrick M. Erben
Classroom: TLC 2237 / Office: TLC 2239
Monday 5:30-8:00pm / Office Hours: M/W/F 11-12 pm;
M 4-5 pm and by Appointment
Mailbox: TLC 2256 / E-mail:
Voicemail: 678-839-6144

Course Description and Rationale:

Ever since the discovery of the New World had inspired Thomas More’s Utopia, early American literature (as well as literature about the Americas) fashioned alternatives to orthodox religion, economic materialism, conventional sexuality, patriarchal and hierarchical concepts of social organization, and many other mainstream cultural and literary formations. The writings exploring such radical departures range from the esoteric, mystical, and spiritual, to the practical, political, and polemical, but they usually attempt to harness the promise and potential of the New World. This course surveys utopian, esoteric, and communitarian traditions and impulses in American literature and culture from a transatlantic perspective, tracing their backgrounds in 16th and 17th-century Europe to the American colonies and up to the Civil War.

The course examines a spectrum of literary modes and cultural sites: radical religious and political visions of colonial settlement; communal societies and their writings; secret societies; communal forms of organizing social, economic, and sexual interaction; visions of the end of the world; reform movements and societies. Approaching the idea of “literature” broadly, we will study a range of texts, including non-fiction prose, fiction, and poetry, as well as canonical and non-canonical works. Even more, we will examine how communal experiments generated cultures rich in semiotic systems, including architectural and natural spaces, religious and sexual rituals, food practices, social interactions, music, and material object worlds—all of which will serve as the course “texts,” interacting with literary works in the conventional sense. For example, we will study how the utopian culture and literature of the Moravian community in Bethlehem, PA, emerged from a variety of practices: Moravians wrote and sung hymns imagining an eroticized, mystical union with Christ; they built communal structures that housed separate living quarters for women, men, and children (the so-called “choir system”); they ritualized sexual intercourse during specific periods of religious worship, placed in designated chambers (the “Blue Room”) adjacent to other sacral spaces; and they embedded food consumption in a communal experience of the numinous during the famous “love feasts.”

Required Texts:

Note: Please obtain all required texts as soon as possible; you are responsible for finding the correct edition.

More, Thomas. Utopia. W.W. Norton (Norton Critical Edition). (ISBN: 978-0393961454)

Wollstonecraft, Mary. Vindication of the Rights of Woman. W.W. Norton (ISBN: 978-0393955729)

Imlay, Gilbert. The Emigrants. Penguin Classics. (ISBN: 978-0140436723).

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings. Modern Library. (ISBN: 978-0679783343)

Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Belknap Press. (ISBN: 0674018249)

Additional texts will be made available through E-reserve! ) (Password: Engl6110)

Website:

Following the English Department’s new paperless policy, I will post the syllabus and descriptions of all assignments on my departmental web page, which you can access at: . Please note that we will not use WebCt for this course

Requirements and Assignments:

or:

“Everything is connected to everything else” (our motto for the assignments…)

Please note that I will post separate handouts with detailed instructions on each assignment, including specific grading standards and expectations. All written assignments should be emailed to me () as Word attachments!

Participation: All reading assignments are to be completed by the beginning of the class period scheduled for discussion of these assignments (see detailed course schedule). I expect you to bring all assigned primary texts to the class meeting during which they are to be discussed. I encourage you to cultivate an active and engaged reading style, using underlining, marginalia, notes, etc. Classroom discussion will usually involve close readings, and I may ask you to support your comments with appropriate evidence from the text. Active class participation is the essence of successful learning and a successful course. I evaluate both the quality and quantity of your contributions, so less vocal students may excel through fewer, but thoughtful comments.

Oral presentation: Each of the texts, set of texts, authors, and communal experiments that we will explore established or participated in an elaborate semiotic system, i.e. signs and symbols that cooperate or intersect in constructing meaning. Especially in the realm of utopian experimentation, the signs we typically regard as “literary texts” are only the beginning; they are linked to

  • economic structures (e.g. communal economies),
  • gender and sexual relations (i.e. how women and men live together, how sexuality is formalized or liberated, etc.),
  • architecture, living spaces, and other built environments (e.g. sacred and secular buildings),
  • material objects (e.g. the wooden block “pillows” at the Ephrata Cloister);
  • art and music (e.g. hymnody),
  • laws, secular and sacred (e.g. “revelations” beyond the Bible),
  • ceremony, spectacle, and public/private events (e.g. the “lovefeast”)
  • social structures and hierarchies governing the way communities operate and understand themselves.

Your oral presentation may center on a specific sign (i.e. simply one object or practice), a system of signs, or the intersection of various signs/systems of signs. Visually and analytically, the sign/system of signs should stand in the center of your oral presentation (e.g. by demonstrating and explaining the arrangement of buildings and rooms inside of buildings in colonial Bethlehem, PA). Then, your presentation should develop how the system of signs reveals the meanings, concepts, and significance of utopianism and/or communalism for a specific author, example, or community. You should use the semiotic systems you unpack, whereever possible, to make our readings “speak” in ways that are impossible by focusing on the text alone. Important: I will provide general background readings or give a general introduction to specific groups, authors, communities, etc. prior to day for which your presentation is scheduled. Thus, your presentation does not need to cover broad historical contexts etc. but should focus more concretely on the interaction between texts and semiotic systems.

I will provide a sample presentation during our first class meeting, but I encourage you not to emulate my example too narrowly but rather to be as creative as possible. Cast your net widely, follow multiple threads, and most of all explore the fascinating worlds of early American utopianism!

Your presentation should be about 15 minutes long and make use of one or more visual presentation media (slides, powerpoint, handouts, etc.).

Secondary Source Review: (minimum 3, maximum 5 pages) During the second meeting of the semester, I will ask you to pick one secondary source (criticism, history, philosophy, theology, anthropology) and write a review for distribution with the rest of the class. You may pick journal articles or book chapters. This exercise will not only familiarize you with scholarship on the topic of the course, but also allow you to find an entry into resesarch on your topic. Thus, I suggest you choose a source directly or closely related to your topic. You may pick a text from our reserve list (except chapters/essays already assigned as course readings) or make the selection yourself. I particularly recommend searching the index of the Utopian Studies Journal ( West Georgia does not own this journal, but you can get any essays sent through GIL Express. You may also pick a chapter from a larger monograph, but you will have to contextualize the chapter in light of the book’s general argument (e.g. by summarizing the introduction).

While similar to reviews published in scholarly journals, your assignment does not require an evaluation of the work in light of existing scholarship (thus, you don’t have to read everything else that has been written on a certain topic ). However, you should emphasize how the work under review illuminates one or more primary texts assigned for class. I will provide sample book reviews from scholarly journals.

Research Paper: (15-20 pages) I encourage you to develop your research paper from the oral presentation. This will allow you to focus consistently on a unified topic and thus get the most out of your research time. In writing the research paper, you may draw from a variety of disciplinary approaches, or, in other words, work in an interdisciplinary fashion. That means, you are not bound to an exclusively “literary criticism approach” but may use methods and evidence usually found in art history, anthropology, political science, history, theology, etc. Nevertheless, if you are most comfortable with a “traditional” close reading supported by literary criticism, that’s fine with me as well.

In choosing a topic, I would also like to encourage you to tie our course topics and readings to literary or cultural representations of “utopia” (or dystopia) in the widest sense. You may, for instance, research connections between early American and present-day communal experiments; or, you could research the influences of the tradition we examined on later literary utopias/dystopias such as Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984, or Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale.

The research paper will include the following required steps:

  • Proposal
  • Annotated Bibliography
  • Mandatory Conference
  • Draft
  • Final Copy
  • Posting project on website (by the last day of classes!)

I would like to think of this project not so much as “just a term paper,” but rather a step up from your senior seminar paper (if you did your undergraduate degree here, you know what this means…). In other words, try to make this paper the best possible representation of your academic abilities. Then, it could be a writing sample for applying to a Ph.D. program, a conference paper (in a condensed format), the beginning of a master’s thesis, or even a submission to a scholarly journal. Think Big! For this reason, we will work on this project steadily throughout the semester, allowing enough time for conceptual stages, research, writing, and revision.

Grade Breakdown:

Participation:20%

Secondary Source Analysis:15%

Oral presentation:20%

Research Paper:45%

Course Policies:

Paper Use Policy: Following the English Department’s new guidelines for paperless teaching, this course strives to reduce paper use as much as possible. Handouts, syllabi, and supplementary readings will be available through my personal website (). Please submit all papers and written assignments to me via email (). I can only accept Word Documents attached to email messages sent from West Georgia email accounts! To meet the deadlines, papers need to be submitted to the site before the beginning of class on the specified date. I will return your papers, grades, and comments by returning the attached documents via email to your West Georgia accounts.

Attendance and Deadlines: Regular and timely attendance is essential for a successful course--not just for each individual but the whole group. You are allowed two (2) absences for the entire course, regardless of the reason for your absence. For each absence in excess of that number, I will deduct a grade level from your final grade (i.e., from A to B etc.). You are responsible for signing up on an attendance list circulated at the beginning of every class meeting. In case of absence, you are responsible for keeping up with all assignments, readings, and in-class work. I do not make lecture notes etc. available to students who missed class (please get in touch with a fellow student). I can only accept late work if you discussed the issue with me ahead of time. All exceptions and acceptance of excuses are completely at my discretion.

Plagiarism: There are different forms of plagiarism, from blatant theft of entire papers to negligence in acknowledging a source in your writing. However, you will be held responsible for any form of plagiarism—whether intentional or not. Consequences and responses to plagiarism are entirely at the discretion of the instructor. Please pay specific attention to the English Department’s site on plagiarism: I expect all out-of-class work to abide by MLA Format (See: MLA Handbook for the Writers of Research Papers) for proper documentation of sources (primary and secondary).

Communication and E-mail Policy and Etiquette: According to university policy, I can only accept and answer emails you send me from your official West Georgia email account (you can access this remotely through webmail or through “MyUWG.”). I would also like to institute an “email etiquette;” i.e. please observe basic rules of politeness and formality in email messages. These rules include:

  • any message must include an address line (e.g. “Dear Dr. Erben” or “Dr. Erben”)
  • use polite and appropriate language, as well as reasonably edited prose (i.e. complete sentences, correct spelling, etc.)
  • always sign your name
  • Please remember that I do have a life outside of the university; thus, allow reasonable time for me to answer your emails.

Individual Help, Office Hours, and WritingCenter: The writing center provides individual tutorials for any writing-related problems, but no proofreading service. The center is located in TLC 1201. However, I am not only available during my designated office hours, but am happy to speak to you about assignments and any other questions by appointment.

Tentative Course Schedule

a more detailed reading schedule will be added asap!

All changes are at the discretion of the instructor. Important: All assignments, including readings, are to be completed for the date listed in the schedule!

All texts marked (E) will be available through e-reserve!

Date / Topics / Readings / Assignments
8/20 / Introduction to course, syllabus
General questions and paradigms
“Oral Presentation” (instructor): Utopia/Dystopia: European Images and Representations of the “New World” / In-class readings (brief excerpts):
Christopher Columbus, Diario
Cortez
Hernando de Soto
Cabeza de Vaca, Relación
William Strachey
Shakespeare, The Tempest / Sign-up for presentations
8/27 / The Beginning of a Tradition:
Thomas More, Utopia / Primary: Utopia, “The Text of Utopia” 1-87;
Secondary: “Backgrounds” 87-133. / make secondary source selection
9/3 / labor day; no class
9/10 / Utopia continued.
Background Lecture (instructor): Utopian Crazes of the 17th Century:
The Rosicrucian Manifestoes and Alchemy
Hermeticism and Communitarianism
Jan Amos Comenius and Pansophia
The Puritans, the English Revolution and the “Commonwealth”
Philadelphianism
Radical Protestantism in England and on the Continent / Secondary: Utopia, “Criticism” 137-216.
9/17 / New England:
The “Monoliths” (William Bradford, John Cotton,
The Dissenters and the Discontents: Case Study--Anne Hutchinson / Primary: all E-reserve: William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation;John Cotton, “God’s Promise to his Plantation;” John Winthrop, “Model of Christian Charity;”
Anne Hutchinson, The Examination of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson at the Court at Newtown; John Winthrop, from A Short Story of the Rise, Reigne, and Ruine of the Antinomians, Familists and Libertines.
Secondary: all E-reserve: Reiner Smolinski, “General Introduction” to The Kingdom, The Power & The Glory: The Millenial Impulse in Early American Literature (pp. viii-xlvi); Francis J. Bremer, “Puritanism: Its Essence and Attraction,” from The Puritan Experiment;Philip Gura, “Prologue” and “Anne Hutchinson and the ‘Antinomians,’
from Glimpse of Sion’s Glory; Michael Winship, “Introduction” from The Times and Trials of Anne Hutchinson. / Secondary Source Analysis
9/24 / “How Sweet the Sound:” German Mystics and Communities of Spiritual Song in Colonial America:
(readings/discussion) Conrad Beissel and the Seventh Day Baptist Community at Ephrata / Primary: (all e-reserves) Lamech and Agrippa, Chronicon Ephratense (Chronicle of the Ephrata Cloister, Chapters I, II, III, IV, V, IX, X, XI, XII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVIII, XIX, XXII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI [187-199], XXVII, XXX [235-237], XXXIII);Conrad Beissel, Dissertation on Mans Fall (uploaded in two parts!); Conrad Beissel, “99 Mystical Sayings and Poems;” “The Rose of Sharon” (Chronicle of the Ephrata Sisters’ House).
Secondary: (e-reserves) Jeff Bach, from Voices of the Turtledoves: The Sacred World of Ephrata (pp. 1-67: Important: Also in hardcopy on reserve!). [If Bach is not available on time, please read alternatively: Jan Stryz, “The Alchemy of the Voice at Ephrata Cloister!”]; Andrew Weeks, “Introduction” from German Mysticism;
(hard-copy reserve only/suggested reading): Stephen J. Stein, “Preface” and “Introduction: Talking About Religious Outsiders” and “Early Dissenters and Popular Religion” (from: Communities of Dissent). / Presentation 1: Jade Kierbow
10/1 / Zinzendorf and the Moravians
Bethlehem and the “Choir” system
The Blood and Wounds Theology and its Iconography
Hymnody
Language
Missions and Global Church / a) Zinzendorf: Life and Thought
Henry H. Meyer, “Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf—Founder of the MoravianChurch” (46-55); in: Lotz, Founders of Christian Movements
From Pietists: Selected Writings (Ed. Peter Erb): Nicolas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf (291-330)
- “The Litany of the Life, Suffering and Death of Jesus Christ”
- “Selected Hymns”
- from “Nine Public Lectures” (1746)
- “Brotherly Union and Agreement at Herrnhut” (1727)
Hymns from
b) Moravian Spirituality and The Re-gendering of the Trinity; Gender and Communal Life; “Sacred Sex”
Atwood, “Understanding Zinzendorf’s Blood and Wounds Theology”
“Moravian Litanies Used in Bethlehem” (233-256); in: Atwood, Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem
Aaron Fogleman, Jesus is Female: Moravians and the Challenge of Radical Religion in Early America; “Introduction: The Challenge of Radical Religion” (1-13), “Chapter 3: The Challenge to Gender Order” (73-104) and insert pages (please view those in hardcopy if not visible on pdf!).