Instructor:  Dr. Anne Myles                                                   Office:  Baker 213

Time:  Weds. 5:30-8:20 p.m.                                                 Phone:  273-6911

Room:  Lang 10                                                                      E-mail: anne.myles@uni.edu

My home phone:  833-7094 (OK for weekends or emergency, before 10:30 p.m.; I’d prefer you to contact me via my office phone or e-mail otherwise)

Office hours: 

Wednesday 4:00-5:00 p.m. (except on weeks when there’s a Department meeting); also available Tuesday 11:00-12:00 p.m., Tuesday & Thursday 3:30-4:00 p.m. 

If this doesn’t fit your schedule, please contact me and I’ll be happy to arrange another time.  I am often in my office at times besides scheduled office hours; please feel free to knock if you see me in.

Description:

This course will examine the constructions of both masculinity and femininity in pre-1800 American writing and culture, with some consideration to how colonial images are recast in 19^th- and 20^th-century contexts.  We will consider such questions as how gender categories are applied to individuals and create different models of selfhood; how metaphors of sexual difference permeate discourses of religion, social order, and political identity; and how ideas of gender and sexuality interact with other categories such as race. We will read extensively in the primary literature, including selections from autobiography, religious controversy, poetry, and the novel, with special focus on the issue of women's religious dissent in the seventeenth-century and writing in the era of the Revolution/new nation.  I have given titles to indicate the focus of each week’s reading and discussion. 

Books to purchase:

Ø      Mary Beth Norton, Founding Mothers and Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society

Ø      Michael McGiffert, God's Plot: Puritan Spirituality in Thomas Shepard's Cambridge

Ø      David Hall, ed., The Antinomian Controversy: A Documentary History

Ø      Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola, ed., Women's Indian Captivity Narratives

Ø      J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America

Ø      William Hill Brown/Hannah Webster Foster, The Power of Sympathy / The Coquette

Ø      Charles Brockden Brown, Ormond

There will be additional readings; I will give you shorter selections in photocopied form; other selections will be on reserve (I will probably establish an informal reserve system based in the English office, rather than going through the library red tape).

Web resources:

There is an increasing amount of early American material on the net (not much literary criticism, but some primary sources and good historical/cultural background materials).  For a starting point, go to the Early American resources page on my homepage:  http://fp.uni.edu/myles/amlit.htm.  In addition to links to individual sites I think are worthwhile, I have links to the most important research libraries in the field, most of which have searchable catalogs.

I will be setting up an e-mail list so I can contact you all easily; I also hope we can continue some discussion in between class meetings.

Required work:

A.         Weekly responses

On ten weeks during the semester (which gives you some weeks off), I want you to submit a two- to three-page written (typed) response* to the week’s readings.  I would appreciate you sending this to me by e-mail if you have it done in advance (by 4 p.m. Wednesday); otherwise bring it to class with you. 

These responses are meant to be informal:  I would like to see you discuss gender issues or other points of interest in the primary readings and/or secondary readings, to consider how different primary texts seem to be related/contrasting, to comment on how required or optional secondary readings illuminate the primary texts, or to raise questions about things you don’t understand.  You cannot comment on all these dimensions every week -- pick out one or two aspects that interest you to pursue in a somewhat sustained way.  I am not looking for mini-essays with definite arguments and conclusions, but neither do I want to see a string of top-of-your-head observations on a series of unrelated topics.  The goal is for you to develop your confidence in thinking and writing about this unfamiliar material, and to identify issues and questions that will inform our class discussion.  Each appropriate response turned in on time will receive 2 points, for a total of 20 points in your final grade.

*On January 24 I will need to cancel class because of a medical procedure.  I would like you to write at least a five-page response for this week, to be e-mailed to all class members.

B.            Presentation:   Oral and Written components

By the second week everyone will sign up for one presentation during the semester.  This presentation will be focused on criticism and scholarship related to a particular week’s readings.  Basically, you will be responsible for reading carefully the recommended secondary texts for that week in addition to the required materials, although depending on the amount assigned I may suggest (or you may choose to examine) additional sources as well.

Your presentation will have three stages:

1.      You will prepare a draft of your written presentation (approximately 5 pages), which you will submit to me by e-mail no later than noon on the Monday of your presentation week.  I will give you feedback on it in time for you to (I hope) incorporate any suggestions for your Wednesday presentation.

2.      You will present your work orally in class, reading your draft and adding any further informal commentary you wish, and responding to questions from the class.  You should listen attentively (and, of course, contribute) to the rest of the evening’s discussion, and take notes on ideas raised during the class that might spur you to add to, qualify, or rearticulate your discussion.

3.      By the class meeting following your presentation, you will turn in to me the revised/final version of your written presentation, along with a short written reflection on how, if at all, the class discussion led you to further develop or modify your ideas.

Again, this presentation is not about doing “background research” but about immersing yourself more deeply in critical reading(s), being able to explain clearly the arguments and evidence so those who have not read the piece(s) you have can grasp the main points, and being prepared to open up for the rest of us some of the questions, insights, or issues raised by your reading. 

Some questions you might want to consider:

Ø      Is the author of a particular source a historian or a literary scholar, and what difference does it make in his/her approach?  What are her/his critical investments?  What other scholars does s/he position herself in relation to, and how?  Where/why did you find this piece illuminating or persuasive, and/or where/why problematic?  What does the category of gender seem to mean to this scholar -- what is included or not included in it?  How is the category of gender related (or not) to other significant dimensions such as politics, religion, race, literary genre, etc?

Ø      Which (aspect) of the primary reading(s) did this secondary source seem most applicable to?  How and why?  Can you give an example of how you would interpret a particular passage as informed by this source?  At what points did the source not seem to apply?  Are there texts we read in previous weeks that this source seemed to illuminate retrospectively?  Are there new questions or perspectives you found yourself thinking about as you read?

Ø      How would you relate a particular critical source to others assigned for the same week, or for other weeks?  If two scholars are discussing the same text, how do their readings differ?  Are these differences of focus/emphasis, or true interpretive disagreements?  How can you explain the conflicts, and what’s at stake in them?  If you find one reading more useful or more persuasive, why?  Can you make connections to works of criticism or theory you are reading in other classes?

C.            Midterm paper

You will have a choice of several options for this paper, which I envision being 10 pages or less in length:

1.      Develop a conference proposal for the (imaginary, for the moment) session “Early American Literature:  Gender and Discourse/Discourses of Gender” at a regional graduate student conference.  Such a proposal should clearly state in a maximum of three double-spaced pages what your paper will argue, how you will approach it and why your topic is worthy of interest.  This should be accompanied with an annotated bibliography of sources you would draw on in actually developing the proposed paper.

2.      Write a critical introduction to the 1702 tract by Nicholas Noyes, “An Essay Against Perriwiggs” (which I will provide), designed for undergraduates or advanced high-school students who would be reading this text in either an introductory American culture or gender studies course.  In this introduction you should open up the issues in the text and explain some of what these readers would need to understand about its historical and intellectual context(s).

3.      Analyze one of the other captivity narratives from the Derounian-Stodola collection (or from other sources I can direct you to -- men wrote captivity narratives, too!), drawing on ideas from the secondary sources we discussed in class as well as several additional critical sources.  Or write an essay comparing some element in two of the narratives we read or otherwise taking up issues we didn’t get to in those texts.

4.      Drawing on the Hawthorne texts we discussed in class plus at least one other short story, poem, or novel (I can direct you to lists of appropriate sources, though you will probably need interlibrary loan to get hold of them -- or at least a trip to Iowa City), write an essay exploring some facet of the nineteenth-century literary rewriting of seventeenth-century Puritan or Quaker women.

D.        Final Paper

This should be a well-argued, researched essay in the 20-page range, connected to the topics we have discussed throughout the course.  It may well be an expansion of your midterm paper, if we both agree there is room for further productive work on that topic.  I will be happy (indeed, will expect) to discuss topic possibilities with you during the semester.

If you are teaching or planning to teach at the secondary level, I am open to helping you design a more curriculum-oriented final project; if you’re interested in this option, please consult with me no later than mid-semester.

Grading

10 weekly responses: 20 %

Oral/written presentation: 20 %

Midterm paper: 20 %

Final paper: 30 %

Attendance and contribution to class discussion:  10 %

Your semester grade will be based on the following percentage scale (this also indicates the numerical value of letter grades given on written work):

            A            95%                 B-            80%                 D+            67%

            A-            90%                C+            77%                 D            64%

            B+            87%                C            74%                 D-            60%

            B             84%                 C-            70%

Weather emergencies

In case of weather severe enough to cast doubt on whether class will be held, I will e-mail all of you as soon as I have anything definite to report.  This being a once-a-week class, however, I will probably cancel only under impressively horrific conditions (though I will dismiss early more readily).  If you live outside the metro area and feel that driving conditions make it unsafe for you to come in, let me know by phone or e-mail and I will be understanding about your absence.

Jan. 10            Background (course, gender issues, Puritan background); discussion of van der Street image and excerpts from Columbus, Hawkins, Drayton, Shepard, Bradstreet

Jan. 17            Masculinity and Anxiety in New England Puritanism

                        Primary texts: Thomas Shepard, Autobiography (and introductory material); Edward Taylor, “On Wedlock, and the Death of Children”; “Huswifery”; one meditation; Michael Wigglesworth, diary excerpt; John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity” (xeroxed).

                        Secondary texts, required:  Mary Beth Norton, Founding Mothers and Fathers, Introduction and as much of Section I as you can; Ed Ingebretsen, “Wigglesworth, Mather, Starr: Witch-Hunts and General Wickedness in Public” 

Secondary texts, recommended:  Ivy Schweitzer, “Introduction:  Gendering the Universal:  The Puritan Paradigm of Redeemed Subjectivity”, from The Work of Self-Representation:  Lyric Poetry in Colonial New England; Michael Warner, “New English Sodom”; Nicholas F. Radel, “A Sodom Within:  Historicizing Puritan Homoerotics in the Diary of Michael Wigglesworth”; Edmund Morgan, The Puritan Family

Jan. 24            No class meeting; 5-page informal response circulated to class members by e-mail by 1/25; online discussion over weekend. 

                        The “Good” Puritan Woman and Literary Expression                   

Primary texts:  Shepard, finish; Anne Bradstreet, poetry (you can find a good selection at http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/authors/abrad.html, or in any American literature anthology; I will give you copies of anything else I want you to read).

                        Secondary texts, required:  Norton, section II, at least Prologue and chap. 4; Ivy Schweitzer, chap. 4 from The Work of Self-Representation

Recommended:  Pattie Cowell, “Puritan Women Poets in America”; Rosamond Rosenmeier, “The Wounds Upon Bathsheba:  Anne Bradstreet’s Prophetic Art”; Patricia Caldwell, “Why Our First Poet Was a Woman: Bradstreet and the Birth of an American Poetic Voice”; Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives:  Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750

Jan. 31             Radical Women I / The Antinomian Controversy

                        Primary texts:  Hall, ed., The Antinomian Controversy (will specify required sections); Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mrs. Hutchinson” and The Scarlet Letter chap. 13 (“Another view of Hester”); these two texts are available at http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/mrsh.html and http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/sl.html respectively.

                        Secondary texts, required:  Norton, as much of section III as you can, but definitely chap. 8; Lad Tobin, “A Radically Different Voice:  Gender and Language in the Trials of Anne Hutchinson”

Recommended, Marilyn Westerkamp, “Puritan Patriarchy and the Problem of Revelation”; Elizabeth Reis, chap. 1 from Damned Women:  Sinners and Witches in Colonial New England; Amy Schrager Lang, chap. 7 (and anything else) from Prophetic Woman:  Anne Hutchinson and the Problem of Dissent in the Literature of New England

Feb. 7              Radical Women II / Quakerism and Gender Transgression

                        Primary texts:  Edward Burrough, A Declaration of the Great and Sad Persecution and Martyrdom; see overview of Mary Dyer’s life at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/dyer.html and print out the copies of her letters you will find there; Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Gentle Boy” (1832) (available at http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/tgb.html); recommended, take a look at Hidden in Plain Sight:  Quaker Women’s Writings, 1650-1700 (reserve).

                        Secondary, required:  Background from Barbour and Roberts, Early Quaker Writing; Anne Myles, “From Monster to Martyr:  Re-Presenting Mary Dyer”

Recommended:  Phyllis Mack, chaps. 4, 5 from Visionary Women:  Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England; Michele Lise Tarter, “Quaking in the Light:  The Politics of Quaker Women’s Corporeal Prophecy in the Seventeenth-Century Transatlantic World”

Feb. 14          Captivity Narratives I

                        Primary texts:  Mary Rowlandson, A True History of the Captivity and           Restoration; narratives of Hannah Dustan by Mather (volume) and others (xerox)

                        Secondary, required:  Derounian-Stodola volume introduction; Christopher Castiglia, from Bound and Determined:  Captivity, Culture-Crossing, and White Womanhood from Mary Rowlandson to Patty Hearst

Recommended:  Michelle Burnham, from Captivity and Sentiment: Cultural Exchange in American Literature; Steven Neuwirth, “Her Master’s Voice:  Gender, Speech, and Gendered Speech in the Narrative of the Captivity of Mary White Rowlandson”; other articles/chapters (1991 or later) from volume bibliography

Feb. 21            Captivity Narratives II

                        Primary texts:  A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison; selected chapters from Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie. 

Secondary, required:  June Namias, chap. 5 from White Captives:  Gender and Ethnicity on the American Frontier. 

Recommended: Castiglia or other articles/chapters (1991 or later) from bibliography

Feb. 28           Feminist Scholarship:  Uncovering the Hidden Story

                        In-class viewing of film A Midwife’s Tale; prior to class, explore websites http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife and http://www.dohistory.org/book, which contain background on the life of Martha Ballard, the book by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (which I will also make available), and the film.

                        Midterm paper due by 5 p.m. Friday, March 2.

Mar. 7             Transition to the Revolutionary Era:  Liberty for Whom?

                        Primary texts:  short excerpts from William Byrd, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Judith Sargent Murray, Adams letters, poetry (xerox/reserve)

                        Secondary, required:  Mark Kann, from A Republic of Men:  The American Founders, Gendered Language, and Patriarchal Politics; Linda Kerber, from Women of the Republic:  Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America

Recommended:  Kenneth Lockridge, On the Sources of Patriarchal Rage:  The Commonplace Books of William Byrd and Thomas Jefferson; Mary Beth Norton, from Liberty’s Daughters:  The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800; Richard Godbeer, “William Byrd’s ‘Flourish’:  The Sexual Cosmos of a Southern Planter”; video, Jefferson’s Blood

Mar. 14            Spring Break

Mar. 21           Male Sentiment and Masculine Trauma

                        Primary text:  J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America (will indicate required essays)

                        Secondary, required: Albert Stone introduction to volume; Dennis Moore introduction to critical edition of More Letters from an American Farmer; Bruce Burgett, from Sentimental Bodies:  Sex, Gender, and Citizenship in the Early Republic

Recommended: Anne Myles, “Elegiac Patriarchs:  Crèvecoeur, Revolution, and the Conflict of Masculinities”; Andrew Burstein, from Sentimental Democracy:  The Evolution of America’s Romantic Self-Image

Mar. 28            Gender and the Novel I

                        Primary text:  William Hill Brown, The Power of Sympathy

                        Secondary, required:  Carla Mulford introduction to volume Recommended: Cathy Davidson, chaps. 4, 5 from Revolution and the Word:  The Rise of the Novel in America; Elizabeth Barnes, chaps. 1, 2 from States of Sympathy:  Seduction and Democracy in the American Novel; Julia Stern, chap. 1 from The Plight of Feeling:  Sympathy and Dissent in the Early American Novel.

Apr. 4              Gender and the Novel II

                        Primary text:  Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette

                        Secondary, required:  Cathy Davidson, chapter 6, “Privileging the Feme Covert:  The Sociology of Sentimental Fiction,” from Revolution and the Word

Recommended:  Stern, chap. 3 from The Plight of Feeling; Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “Domesticating Virtue:  Coquettes and Revolutionaries in Young America”; other articles from volume bibliography

Apr. 11            Gender and the Novel III

                        Primary text:  Charles Brockden Brown, Ormond

                        Secondary, required:  Mary Chapman introduction to volume

Recommended:  Stern, chap. 4; Heather Smyth, “Imperfect Disclosures:  Cross-Dressing and Containment in Charles Brockden Brown’s Ormond”

Apr. 18            Revolutionary Gender-Benders

                        Primary texts:  Herman Mann, The Female Review:  Life of Deborah Sampson; texts on Jemima Wilkinson, the Universal Public Friend (reserve)

Secondary, recommended:  Judith Hiltner, “‘She Bled in Secret’: Deborah Sampson, Herman Mann and The Female Review”; Susan Juster, “Demagogues or Mystagogues?  Gender and the Language of Prophecy in the Age of Democratic Revolutions” (available at http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/104.5/ah001560.html)

Apr. 25            Soldiers, Indians, Beautiful Women, Long Guns:  The Enduring Fantasy

Viewing of film, Last of the Mohicans (Dir. Michael Mann, 1994); possibly one or two accompanying articles.  Party at my house?

May 2              Final discussion and sharing of research.  Final papers will be due this week at a mutually agreed-upon time.