Location: [Reed College] [Department of English] [Laura Arnold][ Nation and Narration]Daily Readings
SCHEDULE:
Thursday 2/26 Finish Walden Readings. Class meets in Library 18 for Webworkshop
Tuesday 2/29 Readings for 2/29 as scheduled (Begin Blithedale Romance)
Review Walden readings & your notes--make-up class in p.m.??
For our final discussion of Walden I would like to think about (at least!) two things with respect to Walden. One, to continue our discussion of point of view & setting and two, the narrative overlap between Walden and painting of this era. For Thursday, please read David Miller's article on art and iconography, "The Iconography of Wrecked Ships," and finish Walden. We will discuss these meetings during the make-up class the next week (you will receive pizza as a bribe).
The following are some questions that might focus your attention as you read the specific chapters:
1. Chapters 3-6 might be seen as comprising a section entitled "Find Life." What is the life that Thoreau seeks? What role do Sounds, Solitude, and Visitors play within it?
2. Chapters 7-12 comprise a new section which might be entitled "The Works of Innocence" (or Summer). Now that we have discovered what we truly are, what can we do that is "original" in Emerson's sense and that is also either innocent or sacramental?
3. In chapter 9 we are again overwhelmed by the power of water. How does Thoreau's philosophical understanding of water compare to that of Emerson, Hawthorne, and Fuller?
4. How do Thoreau's "Higher Laws" compare to those of Emerson?
1. For Tuesday, I have asked you to begin to read Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance (1-47; the introduction is highly recommended). In addition, please read the accompanying essays and cultural texts:
The Idea of Community pp. 333-40, 347-52 (The Blithedale Romance, Bedford Cultural Edition)
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities pp. 1-36 (1991 edition, or pp. 11-40 1983 edition).
Please pay particular attention to Anderson's discussion of the importance of religion for imagined communities and his discussion of time and the novel. What binds this community? How does this help us understand national identity during this period?
2. Point of View: What type of narrator do we find in this text? How would you characterize him? How does this relate to Leverenz's arguments about American masculinity?
3. Masculinity: this is the second of a number of bachelors we will meet in the literature of the American Renaissance. How does Coverdale characterize bachelorhood? How does his experience compare to Thoreau's? To what extent is bachelorhood a narrative stance?
4. Feminism: What is Coverdale's position on feminism? How is our image of Zenobia shaped by his assumptions?
Laura.Arnold@Reed.edu