American Definitions of the Good Life
and Descriptions of How to Find It
September 2-October 7
Thursday, September 2
Write
a letter in which you try to explain Americans and life in America
to people who have just arrived to live in this country. In other
words, try to help them understand who we are by identifying
some of the characteristic behaviors and beliefs that define
us. Insofar as possible, try also to explain why you think we
are the way we are.
Because
this is a letter, it can be written in an informal style. The
letters will be shared with other members of the class at our
next session. Be sure to e-mail your letter to "lknoles"
before our next meeting. Also remember to bring your e-mail disk
and a copy of your letter on disk with you to class.
In-Class:
Make
a quick list of images, events, habits, and phrases that you
regard as typically American. As an aid to your thinking, you
will find an assortment of Letters
to New Americans written by your colleagues in the course
posted on our web site.After you have completed your list, compare
it to the list offered by a Canadian observer at his web-site:
http://ted.educ.sfu.ca/people/staff/jmd/americanisms.html.
Are his views of Americans the same as yours or different?
Discussion
of letters and James Atlas's "The Art of Failing" (to
be read in class). Tour of course web resources, and discussion
of commonplace books
Web
Treasure Hunt: Use the course web-site
to find several texts or images that tell us something about
how earlier Americans thought about our national identity. There
are several routes you might want to explore.
Starting at our Search
Engines Page , you can find a link to the Making
of America site at the University of Michigan where you can
do an advanced search for works containing the word American
in the title. Select one or two articles or books that sound
interesting, and see what you can deduce about the American identity
by looking at them.
Alternatively, you might want to use
the Search
Engines Page as a gateway to art sites, so that you can think
about whether artists have anything to tell us about what it
means to be an American.
At the Resources
for the Study of 19th Century American Literature at the Lyceum
page, you will find a collection of sites and documents related
to American culture.Select one to visit, and see what vision
it offers of the American identity. On that page youll even find
a link to a site called Women in America that allows you to read
the observations of women who visited the U.S. early in our history.
(Its always interesting to get an outsiders view.)
If you visit the course page that offers
Resources
Arranged by Topic, you will be able to find materials on
subjects that reflect different aspects of American life. Why
not visit some of the sites listed under Progess and Technology,
for example? One thing you will be able to find there is a fascinating
group of web sites dedicated to Americas expositions.
Wealth, Culture, and Equality as Themes
in Writing from the Colonial and Early National Periods
Tuesday, September 7
Readings:
Winthrop: "A Model of Christian Charity," 107-110 and
116 ff; Anne Bradstreet, "Here Follows Some Verses Upon
the Burning of Our House," 143, and "To My Dear Children,"
144 (both poem and letter that follows).
On-line
Resources: The
Puritan Tradition and American Memory, and The
Mayflower Web Pages. For a sample of the mood of Puritan
thought, you might want to
Reflection
Questions: What vision of society is Winthrop trying to communicate
in "A Model of Christian Charity?" What reasons might
have led Winthrop to choose that particular model; what hopes
and fears might he reasonably have harbored about the future
life of the Puritan community once they arrived in America? (You
might want to read the farewell
letter written to the Puritans who voyaged to America by the
Mayflower, written by their pastor.)
What
does Anne Bradstreet's writing add to your understanding of the
Puritan way of looking at life? If you have the opportunity,
visit the "Fire
and Ice" site dedicated to the writing of the Puritans
and think about which of the passages selected as a "Quote
of the Day" might most have appealed to Anne Bradstreet.
Thursday, September 9
Crevecoeur,
"Letters from an American Farmer," no. 3, p. 293; Jefferson,
"Letter to John Adams," 338; Paine, "Common Sense,"
309. Reflection Question: In a sense, both Winthrop and Crevecoeur
expect America to serve as a "shining citie on a hill,"
but do they agree or disagree about what kind of model it should
provide to the world? If these men were alive today, would they
believe that American life had fulfilled their expectations?
Specifically, what in particular do you think they would find
pleasing, displeasing, or just surprising?
Online
Resources: letter
written in 1737 by Cleemens Studenbecker and Peder Studenbecker,
immigrants to Pennsylvania, describing life in America;
essay written by Gottleib Mittleberger on the
Misfortune of Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania in 1754.
Tuesday, September 14
Franklin,
excerpts from the Autobiography, 223. Reflection Questions:
Does Franklin's vision of American have more in common with Winthrop's
or Crevecoeur's ideals? Also, Franklin's Autobiography proved
to be particularly popular in the nineteenth century. What qualities
or ideas do you believe might have made him attractive to Americans
in an industrial and entrepreneurial age? (Here is a hint: Franklin's
name and face were often used on the covers of magazines and
newspapers published for young men in the nineteenth century.
What do you make of this magazine
cover?)
On-Line
Workshop: Visit
the Speakeasy Cafe and join a table to exchange ideas about
Franklin's Autobiography. For a list of the discussion
questions, see Franklin at the
Lyceum.
Online
Resources: The World of
Benjamin Franklin ; Benjamin
Franklin: An Enlightened American; The
Will of Benjamin Franklin; The
Way to Wealth; Benjamin
Franklin's Autobiography. For a brief description of Franklin's
life and work and links to a few on-line texts by Franklin (including
"Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania")
go University
of Pennsylvania University Archives & Records Center.
Thursday, September 16
Assessment
of Speakeasy project. Discussion of Franklin continued.
Questions of Success in Nineteenth Century
American Literature
Tuesday, September 21
Hawthorne's
"My Kinsman, Major Molineux," 587, and "The May-Pole
of Merry Mount," 623. In a glance back to the seventeenth
century, read also the excerpt from Bradford on pages 102-105.
Reflection Question: What advice does "Kinsman" seem
to offer about how best to get ahead in America, and is this
consistent with the advice offered by any earlier authors? Think
also about the role "misrule" plays in these two stories.
Does misrule have the same purpose in the two stories? What do
these two stories suggest about whether misrule is a good or
bad thing in American life?
To
help you visualize what you are reading, here's a picture of
some present-day mummers:
Online
Resources: As background for "My Kinsman, Major Molineux,"
you may find it interesting to look at Gouverneur
Morris' Letter to Thomas Penn, May 20 1774 describing class
conflicts. If you want to find out more about the "Lord
of Misrule" (who seems to appear in both "My Kinsman"
and "The Maypole of Merrymount," see THE
ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS OF MAYDAY. For a wealth of information
related to Hawthorne and his writing, see the Nathaniel
Hawthorne Web. Among the resources you can find there are
links to early reviews of Hawthorne's work, including one written
by Herman Melville. In "Hawthorne
and His Mosses," Melville wrote:
And
now, my countrymen, as an excellent author, of your own flesh
and blood,--an unimitating, and perhaps, in his way, an inimitable
man--whom better can I commend to you, in the first place, than
Nathaniel Hawthorne. He is one of the new, and far better generation
of your writer. The smell of your beeches and hemlocks is upon
him; your own broad prairies are in his soul; and if you travel
away inland into his deep and noble nature, you will hear the
far roar of his Niagara. Give not over to future generations
the glad duty of acknowledging him for what he is. Take that
joy to yourself, in your own generation; and so shall he feel
those grateful impulses in him, that may possibly prompt him
to the full flower of some still greater achievement in your
eyes. And by confessing him, you thereby confess others, you
brace the whole brotherhood. For genius, all over the world,
stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole
circle round.
Why
does Melville claim Hawthorne as a truly American author, and
why does that issue matter to Melville?
Thursday, September 23
Conduct
Book Web Workshop--In preparation for this class, peruse one
or more of the resources available on our course web-page dedicated
to Conduct Books and Advice Manuals in
America. Come to class prepared to discuss what kinds of
topics were traditionally covered in such works, and what kinds
of advice you encountered in your reading.
In-class
Speakeasy Discussion: Sit down at a table at the
Speakeasy Cafe and share your thoughts about 19th century
conduct books. Afterwards, we'll have a class discussion and
let each group report on its advice
on advice books.
Tuesday, September 28
Brief
follow-up on conduct book discussion, including comments on Catherine
Beecher's Treatise
on Domestic Economy.
Thoreau:
"Economy," 868; "Where I Lived and What I Lived
For," 910; "Conclusion," 959.
Reflection
Questions:
In
Walden Thoreau offers his own vision of the "good
life" as an alternative to more conventional notions of
success. As you read, identify the elements of life in America
that Thoreau was criticizing in his writing. Does he agree or
disagree with the notions offered by those who were writing conduct
manuals in the same period? What explains their similarities
or differences?
On-line
resources: see The
Writings of Henry D. Thoreau Main Page,
The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau Life and Times of
HDT
Thoreau at the Lyceum.
Thursday, September 30
"Advice for Young Americans" Project
Due.
Workshop on creating web exhibits.
In-Class Discussion:
Looking backwards and forwards.
Twentieth Century American Writers and Questions
of Success
Tuesday, October 5
Read Tocqueville's "Why Americans Are
So Restless in the Midst of their Prosperity," (see packet.)
In-class workshop: Visit the
Speakeasy Cafe and collaborate with the people at your table
to plan a chapter of a commonplace book devoted to one of the
following specific topics: material advancement, social advancement,
moral or spiritual advancement, educational advancement, and
differences between the old world and the new. You are also free
to agree with the others at your table to revise the topic or
exchange it for one of your own choosing.
Your goal is to select quotations related
to your topic that reflect the viewpoints of the authors we have
read up to this point. (Be sure to include Tocqueville, if appropriate.)
You may also include quotations from any other American authors
with whom you are familiar. In addition to proposing quotations,
you should also comment about the significance of the passages
you have selected.
NOTE: You do not have to complete this project
during the class period. We will continue to work on this project
over the course of the semester. However, by the end of your
time at the cafe your group should be prepared to propose a number
of quotations for inclusion in your chapter of our collaborative
commonplace book.
Thursday, October 7
Cather, "Neighbor Rossicky," 1830;
Fitzgerald, "Babylon Revisited," 2141.
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