Sharon M. Harris
University of Nebraska
sharris@unlinfo.unl.edu
Women's Texts and Contexts Required Texts:
Harris, ed. American Women Writers to 1800
Hensley, ed., The Works of Anne Bradstreet
Shields, ed., The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley
Faugères, The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker
Rowson, Charlotte Temple
Foster, The Coquette
Rush, Kelroy
Namais, ed. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison
Sedgwick, Hope LeslieAims of the Course: To examine the writings and diverse cultures of early "American" women. We will integrate close readings of primary texts with discussions and presentations on colonial and early federal culture. Book introductions and secondary texts will supplement the cultural context of the writings and introduce students to feminist theoretical issues in relation to the primary readings. You should read all introductions and/or afterwords to assigned books, as they will provide you with necessary biographical commentaries on the authors as well as a diverse spectrum of theoretical analyses of the works. The assigned theoretical essays should additionally enhance your analyses and interrogations of the con/texts under study this semester.
Requirements of the Course: In addition to careful readings of the assigned texts, participation in class discussions is required and encouraged. Grading: 15% on class participation; 85% on seminar paper. Short writing assignments will also be assigned throughout the semester; while these assignments will not be graded, they must be completed as a requirement of the course. Note: short writing assignments are a maximum of two typed pages in length.
Reading and Writing Assignments
Week 1 - Introduction
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AN OVERVIEW: BEGINNINGS TO THE EARLY FEDERAL PERIOD
Week 2 - AWW, General Introduction, Parts I & II ("The Ages of Women" & "Emerging Feminist Voices");
"Pohaha"(handout)
Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986), (on reserve): Chapter 1
Annette Kolodny (on reserve): "Letting Go Our Grand Obsessions: Notes Toward A New Literary History of the American Frontiers." American Literature 46 (Mar. 1992): 1-18.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------COLONIZING THE "NEW WORLD"
Week 3 - From Heath Anthology (on reserve): John Smith, "The General History of Virginia"; John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity"; Roger Williams, "A Key into the Language of America"
Sections from AWW: "First Women"; "Spiritual Narratives"; "Epistolary Exchanges"; "Poetry"
Writing assignment: Select an issue of interest that arose out of your readings. Explore
the kinds of questions the issue raises; that is, how would these questions lead to further study?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PURITIANS & REVOLUTIONARIES: WOMEN AND BODY POLITICS
Week 4 - The Works of Anne Bradstreet
Ivy Schweitzer (on reserve): "Anne Bradstreet Wrestles with the Renaissance." Early American Literature 23.3 (1988): 291-312.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 5 - Sections from AWW: "Captivity Narratives and Travel Journals" and "Petitions, etc."
Mary Rowlandson's narrative (and introduction) in William Andrews' Journeys in New Worlds (on
reserve)From Heath Anthology : Cotton Mather, "The Wonders of the Invisible World"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN
Week 6 - From Heath Anthology: Thomas Paine, The Crisis #1; Thomas Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence"
Sections from AWW: "Revolutionary War Writings" and "Histories"
Kerber, Women in Revolutionary America (on reserve): Chapter 9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 7 - The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley
Dana D. Nelson, The Word in Black and White (on reserve): Chapter 1
Writing assignment: In her discussion of "race" and early U.S. literatures, Nelson asserts that
"Representation is the (concealed) intersection of the aesthetic and the social" (20). How
might Phillis Wheatley's writings figure in such a definition of representation?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EARLY U.S. NARRATIVES
Week 8 - The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker (includes the works of Ann Eliza Schuyler Bleecker and her daughter, Margaretta V. Bleecker Faugères)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 9 - Rowson, Charlotte Temple
Shirley Samuels, Romances of the Republic (on reserve): Chapter 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 10 - Foster, The Coquette
From Redefining the Political Novel (on reserve): Harris, "Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette:
Critiquing Franklin's America"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 11 - Rush, Kelroy
Writing assignment: If this is the era in which U.S. citizens are supposed to be creating American
literature, what is "American" about this novel? How is "America" constructed in our
readings to date?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 12 - A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 13 - Sedgwick, Hope Leslie
Lucy Maddox, Removals: Nineteenth-Century American Literature & the Politics of Indian Affairs (1991), (on reserve): Introduction and section on Sedgwick
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 14 - University Holiday
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 15 - Priscilla Wald, "Terms of Assimilation: Legislating Subjectivity in the Emerging Nation," Cultures of United States Imperialism, ed. Amy Kaplan and Donald E. Pease, pp. 59-84. (on reserve)
Assignment: Read Wald's essay. It raises significant questions about constructions of
subjectivity. Wald focuses on the period of 1790-1835; having read extensively now in
the earlier period, how would you add to her discussion by considering women's writings
from "beginnings" to 1790?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week 16 - SEMINAR PAPERS DUE; discussion of students' explorations in their papers.
Class Presentations
Class presentations are intended to serve a twofold purpose: first, to give you experience in researching cultural issues that affect the literature of this period; and second, as an efficient means of exchanging such information with other seminar members.
Your oral presentations are NOT TO EXCEED 15 minutes. This point is very important--sometimes it will be necessary to have more than one presentation per session and anyone who exceeds that time limit is not only intruding upon other presenters' time but also upon the entire class's time for discussion of the primary work assigned for that week. So be courteous and plan ahead.
Copies of a one-page, typed summary of your presentation should be distributed to all members of the seminar at the beginning of your presentation..
Your presentations should be selected from the following topics. As will become readily apparent, you could not possibly cover such topics in their entirety in 15 minutes; therefore, select some aspect of the topic upon which you wish to focus your research and discussion.
CLASS PRESENTATION TOPICS
1) Status of African-Americans in pre-Revolutionary America.
2) Status of African-Americans in the United States, 1776-1830.
3) Status of American Indians in pre-Revolutionary America.
4) Status of American Indians in the United States, 1776-1830.
5) Childbirthing and birth control methods in early America.
6) Women and sexuality in early America.
7) Class structures in pre-Revolutionary America.
8) Class structures in the United States, 1776-1830.
9) Women and education in pre-Revolutionary America.
10) Women and education in the United States, 1776-1830.
11) Women and the law in the colonies or nations.
12) Virtue and the social constructs of "Woman" in early America.
13) Gender and reading in early America.
14) Women and war in pre-Revolutionary America.
15) Women and religion in early America (in colonial or tribal societies)
16) A topic of your own choice [must be approved].