Colonial American Literature |
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Unit 1 Jan. 9-25, 2002 By the end of this unit, you should:
Please
complete these assignments on or before the dates in bold.
ResourcesYou
can find more information about the subjects covered in this lesson by
consulting these resources:
Be Your Best: Internet can help you get a handle on terms and concepts related to the Internet. It also includes step-by-step instructions for creating and posting a Web page, along with tips on using typefaces and other graphic elements effectively. Be
Your Best: Research
offers detailed guidance on finding, evaluating, and using sources. Updated January 9, 2002
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AnnouncementsWelcome to ENG 221: Major American Authors.
I am looking forward to an interesting and productive semester. As
you know from reading the syllabus, we have a lot of fascinating territory
to cover in the next four months. Before beginning any journey, though,
you should do some preparation. We will begin in our first class
meeting with an introduction to the Internet. We will meet in Dial
149, a computer classroom, where I will help you to create an online portfolio
and post the first page on it. Over the rest of the semester, you
will post additional materials on this portfolio, where your classmates
and I--as well as the rest of the world--will be able to see and use them.
On Monday, we will meet in Sampson-Livermore Library, where I will help you to develop some foundational skills for conducting research on American literature. Before you come to this class, please e-mail me to let me know which author you have chosen for your author project.If I do not hear from you before this class, I will assign you an author.You will have most of this class period to practice finding, evaluating, and using sources on your author. I will be available to offer guidance, make suggestions, and answer questions. During the other classes in this unit, we will study a number of literary works from colonial America, beginning with the literature of the Native Americans and one of the European explorers who encountered them.This unit plan contains all of the assignments and exercises we will use in this unit, along with some discussion designed to help you study the material. Think FastBelow are some writing exercises designed to help
you master the knowledge and skills covered in this unit.
DiscussionHistoryAmerica actually began in two different places for two different reasons. In 1607, some 100 men and boys sailing from England landed in present-day Virginia and founded Jamestown. Inspired by the success of Spanish explorers who had found gold in South America, these adventurers hoped to get rich. Instead of gold, however, they found a hostile environment that probably would have destroyed the colony, but for the resourcefulness of Captain John Smith, who managed to organize and motivate the settlers and save them from starvation. In 1620, a group of English men and women came to America with a different mission. Having given up on the Church of England, which they thought had become too much like the Catholic Church, these Separatist Puritans sought to establish an ideal church in America. Led by William Bradford, these Pilgrims arrived in present-day Massachusetts on a ship called the Mayflower. Ten years later, John Winthrop led a different group of Puritans to the same general area, only this time with the plan of setting an example for the church back in England.Over the next century or so, Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were joined by other colonies, including Pennsylvania, settled largely by Quakers fleeing persecution in England; Connecticut, established by a man fleeing persecution by the Puritans in Massachusetts; Maryland, which the English king granted to an English Catholic named Lord Baltimore; and Georgia, which had been established for English debtors. By the 1760s, England and its 13 American colonies were quarreling over settlement, government, and taxes, especially those imposed by the Stamp Act of 1765. Finally, in 1775, skirmishes broke out in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. In 1776, Thomas Paine rallied colonists with a pamphlet called Common Sense, and Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence.Over the next five years, General George Washington led the Americans against the British. In 1781, a surrender of some 8,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia--coupled with growing resentment against the war in England--led the British to give up the colonies. England officially recognized American independence in the Treaty of Paris, negotiated by Benjamin Franklin and others in 1783.From the establishment of Jamestown to the Treaty of Paris and to some extent even afterward, American culture strongly resembled British culture. As literary critic David Shields has noted, American taste in both commerical goods such as wigs and snuffboxes and in literature closely paralleled British taste. It would be a mistake, however, to think of America as merely a transplanted England. Immigration from a variety of places not only caused the population in the colonies to grow from 250,000 in 1700 to 2.5 million in 1775, but resulted in a diverse populace. Records from 1790 show that 50 percent of the colonists could trace their heritage back to England, 19 percent to Africa, 15 percent to Scotland or Ireland, 7 percent to Germany, 9 percent to Wales, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Spain, or Portugal. Many of these men and women were farmers or tradespeople. A select few attended America's early colleges--such as Harvard, established in 1639, and William & Mary, established in 1693--and worked as lawyers or politicians. All of the colonists had to settle for far fewer high-brow cultural diversions than their counterparts in London, Paris, or Vienna. Plays, concerts, and museums were all rare in the colonies, even in the major cities--Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston. Still, Americans found entertainment in folk music, conversation, a handful of books, and newspapers. By 1750, every major city had a newspaper, and by the first half of the 18th century some colonists could even borrow books from America's first subscription library, established by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. LiteratureBenjamin Franklin once noted that the business of
making a nation restricted literary activity in Colonial America. Franklin
seemed to think that people needed a stable government and economy before
they could make great advances in cultural pursuits such as literature,
music, and painting. Indeed, between the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia,
in 1607 and the treaty ending the American Revolution in 1783, Americans
did lag behind their English contemporaries in the production of epic poetry,
drama, and fiction. Still, Colonial America did produce an impressive body
of literature, much of it in the form of nonfiction prose, such as autobiography
and sermon.
Some central themes emerge from this literature. Because of the nature of their endeavor, for example, Captain John Smith and other chroniclers of settlement in the 17th century often addressed the subjects of will and work, the relationship between humans and nature, and the differences between European and Native American cultures. In this same century, Puritans such as Anne Bradstreet and John Winthrop wrote about their spiritual feelings and quests, Bradstreet in very personal poems and a journal, Winthrop in both a famous public sermon and an intimate journal. This tradition continued into the following century, when Puritan Jonathan Edwards and non-Puritans such as Phillis Wheatley and John Woolman reflected on their faith in poems and journals. Other writers, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, produced more public literature designed to entertain people or further their political aims. In its emphasis on human potential and reason, much of this literature reflects the prevailing sentiments of its era, often called the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. BibliographyShields, David S. Oracles of Empire: Poetry, Politics, and Commerce in British America, 1690-1750. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.Think AgainChoose one of the topics below and respond to it
in a clear, thorough, detailed, and insightful 500-word essay.Include
each essay in your portfolio.
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