Historia Literaria VII: Reading List* 2012-1
Basic text: Norton Anthology of American Literature
Background: Reading as a Colonial: The Tempest (Shakespeare); The Book of Common Prayer
Core Text: Herman Melville. Moby Dick (Active discussion throughout the semester)
Beginnings, Quest for Sense of Self: Writer/Text/Reader
1. Myths of Creation and Invention:
‘Stories of the Beginning of the World’: Creation Myths. [Choose 3 from required text]
John Smith. From ‘The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles’
2. Colonial Encounters (Early Puritans, Autobiography and Travel Writing):
William Bradford. Extracts from Of Plymouth Plantation: ‘The Separatist Interpretation of the Reformation in England, 1550-1607’, ‘Showing the Reasons and Causes of Their Removal’ and ‘Of Their Departure from Leydon [Mr. Robinson=s Letter]’
John Winthrop. ‘A Model of Christian Charity’; selections: The Journal of John Winthrop
Anne Bradstreet. ‘The Author to Her Book’/ ‘The Prologue’ + one more of our choice; ‘Meditations Divine and Moral to My Dear Children’
Mary Rowlandson. ‘A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson’
Sarah Kemble Knight. ‘The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York’ (extracts)
3. The Middle Passage: Slave Narratives
Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney: ‘To the First Slave Ship’ (an introductory poem)
Olaudah Equiano. ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Live of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself’ (extracts)
Harriet Jacobs. ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’ (extracts)
4. Rights/Independence: Outsiders and Insiders
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. ‘Letter III. What Is an American.’ ‘Letter IX. Description of Charles-Town’
Thomas Paine: From ‘Common Sense’
Thomas Jefferson. ‘The Declaration of Independence’ + ‘Autobiography’ (extracts)
Judith Sargent Murray. ‘On the Equality of the Sexes’ (one poem)
Phillis Wheatley. ‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’, ‘To S. M.., A Young African Painter ...’, ‘To His Excellency George Washington’, or others
The Cherokee Memorials [of 3 dates running from 1829-1830]
Sojourner Truth: ‘I Am a Woman’s Rights’
Literary Renaissance: Postcolonial Aesthetics?
D. H. Lawrence. ‘The Spirit of Place’
Washington Irving. ‘The Author=s Account of Himself’ and ‘Rip Van Winkle’
James Fenimore Cooper. ‘[The Literature and the Arts of the United States]’
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet. ‘A Sage Conversation’
Nathaniel Hawthorne. ‘Preface’, The House of Seven Gables
_________________. The Scarlet Letter and ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’
Hermann Melville. ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street’.
E. A. Poe. ‘The Philosophy of Composition’/ ‘The Poetic Principle’ and one story
R. W. Emerson. ‘Self-Reliance’ and Letters
H .D. Thoreau. ‘Resistance to Civil Government’
M. Fuller. Extracts from The Great Lawsuit
Walt Whitman. ‘Preface to Leaves of Grass’/ ‘Song of Myself’/ ‘When Lilacs Last in Dooryard Bloom’d’/ ‘To a Locomotive in Winter’
Rebecca Harding Davis. ‘Life in the Iron Mills’
Emily Dickinson. A selection of her poetry (3 poems)
*This list may change depending on the students’ interests. Please try to read Moby Dick before the semester begins.
Grading system. This is based equally on individual presentations, active and critical class participation and written coursework (essays and/or exam): a pass mark is required in each area.
Please remember: a) Plagiarism or failure to recognise sources in all areas is
prohibited and will be severely punished.
b) Anyone who has not passed English VI should NOT take this class
without permission.
