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THE END OF THE WORLD
AS THEY KNEW IT
English 303 SPring 2001
SYLLABUS
INDEX:
8 METHODOLOGY : Week1 * Week 2 * Week 3 * Week 4
8 NATIVE APOCALYPSE: Week 4 * Week 5 * Week 6 * Week 7
8 HOPE: Week 7 * Week 8 * Week 9 * Week 10
8 DESPAIR: Week10 * Week 11 * Week 12
PROFESSOR: Laura Arnold (503 771-1112 x7329); Laura.Arnold@Reed.edu
TIME: Mondays & Wednesdays 3:00-4:30 p.m. Vollum 120
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Earthquakes, Monstrous Births, Witchcraft, Bestiality, Rapture, Satan in our midst: Is it the end of the world or merely the beginning of American culture? This course offers a study of the methods of American Studies by focusing on the apocalyptic fervor in the Native American and Puritan communities of the colonial New England. Our goal will be both to understand the intricacies of colonial culture and to understand what this end-like beginning has meant for later American culture. We will examine the a variety of texts from the period, including oral tradition, religious tracts, poetry, histories, autobiographies, artwork, architecture, tombstones, and other material culture.
REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
8 Attend, Prepare for, and Participate as a Speaker and Listener in Conference
8 Complete all Web-based Assignments (See end of syllabus or Reader)
SCHEDULE OF READINGS:
Week 1: WHAT IS AMERICAN STUDIES? WHAT IS CULTURAL STUDIES?
M 1.22 INTRODUCTION: Why Study Beginnings & Ends
W 1.24 REQUIRED WEB SEMINAR: Library 18
Weeks 2-4: METHODS & DEFINITIONS
M 1.29 What is American Studies?
Margarita Zamora, "Historicity and Literariness: Problems…American Colonial Texts" MLN, Vol. 102. Issue 2. (Mar. 1987): 334-346. (ON-LINE)
Henry Nash Smith, "Can 'American Studies' Develop a Method?" (ON-LINE) American Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 2, Part 2. (Summer, 1957), 197-208.
ANNOTATIONS by
3. Jacob Fenton
Facsimiles
W 1.31 WHAT IS CULTURAL STUDIES?
William P. Germano, "Why Interdisciplinarity Isn't Enough," The Practice of Cultural
Analysis, ed. Mieke Bal (Reader)
Jonathan Culler, "What is Cultural Studies?" The Practice of Cultural Analysis, ed
Mieke Bal (Reader)
ANNOTATIONS by
Questions
M 2.5 WHAT IS THE APOCALYPSE? TIME
Frank Kermode, "Millenium and Apocalypse," The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to
Come, ed. Frances Carey (Reader)
Joel Robbins, "Secrecy and the Sense of an Ending," excerpt (Reader)
Text: Winton Salberg, Puritan Illustrations about the Sabbath (Reader)
ANNOTATIONS by
2. Julie Brown
3. Alex Nydell
Calendars, Diaries, & Journals
W 2.7 WHAT IS THE APOCALYPSE? SIGNS
The Book of Revelation (Reader)
Thomas Davis, "The Traditions of Puritan Typology" (excerpt) Typology and Early
American Literature, ed. Sacvan Bercovitch. (Reader)
"Edward Taylor and Typology," Karen Rowe, MLA, 1979 (Reader)
Text: Outline of Revelation, Edwards' Early View of the Apocalypse (Reader)
ANNOTATIONS by
1. Clint Sallee
3. Anji Keating
M 2.12 WHAT IS THE APOCALYPSE? SPACE: MAPPING A NEW ENGLAND
J.B. Harley, "Deconstructing the Map," Writing Worlds, ed. Trevor Barnes (Reader)
Text: Maps of Virginia & New England from Smith's Generall Historie (Reader)
Winthrop "Model of Christian Charity" (Reader)
ANNOTATIONS by
1. Kate Peebles
2. Ryan Stuewe
MAPS
Week 4-7: NATIVE APOCALYPSE: WHO WERE THE NINNIMISSINOUK?
W 2.14 The Problem: The case against the plaintiffs claimed that the "Indian" identity of the Mashpee had been lost, over and over, since the mid-seventeenth century. Can you build a case for the plaintiffs through the colonial documents included in the reader (or any others you desire to use)? What are the defining characteristics of Ninnimissinouk culture upon which a claim for continuity might be based? What is culture?
The Problem Staged: James Clifford, "Identity at Mashpee," The Predicament of
Culture, pp. 277-346 (Reader)
William Simmons, Spirit of New England Tribes, 3-36 (Bookstore)
M 2.19 REQUIRED LIBRARY SEMINAR & WORKSHOP (Meet in L18)
The librarians will review researching strategies and tools and provide time to
assist each group in finding their resources. By the end of the library session
each group must post the readings they will be using for the next week and
a half.
Readings: To be chosen by Group 1 from the Primary texts in the Reader
Due date: all members of Group 1 post assignment 2a 24 hours before class:
Readings: Roger Williams' A Key Into the Language of America (Reader), Thomas Morton's description of the Indians in New England from New English Canaan, and chapter 7 of Edward Winslow's Good Newes from New England
M 2.26 CRITICAL ARTICLES: GROUP 2
Readings: Article to be chosen by Group 2.
Due date: all members of Group 2 post assignment 2b 24 hours before class
Readings: O'Brien, Jean M. "Peoples, Land, and Social Order." in Dispossession by Degrees: Indian Land and Identity in Natick, Massachusetts, 1650-1790. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1997.
W 2.28 CULTURAL ARTIFACTS: GROUP 3
Readings: Cultural Artifacts posted on-line by Group 3 and articles & primary texts from previous two days
Due date: all members of Group 3 post assignment 2c 24 hours before class
Evaluation
M 3.5 TEST CASE: Lives of Pious Indians
Readings: Mayhew's Lives of Pious Indians, (Reader)
Elizabeth Little, tr. A Nantucket Indian Writing & The Writing of Nantucket Indians (Reader)
Question: if you were preparing evidence for the case for or against the
Mashpee (or Ninnimissinouk in New England more generally), how might the
documents we are reading for today help support your case? Have New England
Native cultures survived even as late as the 1720s?
Weeks 7-10 HOPE: WHO WERE THE PURITANS? WHO IS AN AMERICAN?
W 3.7 The Problem: When the Puritans set foot in Plymouth and Boston, they thought they were helping bring about the end of the world, not starting a new nation. Today historians are split: some identify Puritans' millenarian spirit as central to what makes Americans American. Others decry this move as false historicizing at best, and racist at worst. Who is a Puritan and when can we decide they are "Americans" and not British sojourners? What is an American?
The Problem Staged:
Perry Miller, "Preface," Errand into the Wilderness, pp. vii-x (Reader)
Andrew Delbanco, "God," The Real American Dream pp. 15-43 (Bookstore)
Thomas Shepard, "The Autobiography" (Reader)
M 3.12 MANDATORY WEB SEMINAR
Get more Web Page Making Skills, Meet with Group to Map Out
Upcoming Readings. Meet in Physics 133.
W 3.14 PRIMARY TEXTS: GROUP 2
Readings: To be chosen by Group 2 from the Primary texts in the Reader
Due date: all members of Group 2 post assignment 2a 24 hours before class
Readings: William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantationchapter 4chapter 10
unassigned chapters available on-line: chapter one, chapter two; chapters 3, 4, 8, 36
Group Two's Textual Annotations
Outline of Chapters of of Plymouth Plantation (L. Arnold)
SPRING BREAK 3.17-25
M 3.26 CRITICAL ARTICLES: GROUP 3
Readings: Article to be chosen by Group 3: Chapter One of Puritan Origins of the American Self
Due date: all members of Group 3 post assignment 2b 24 hours before class
Group Three's Annotations
W 3.28 CULTURAL ARTIFACTS: GROUP 1
Readings: Cultural Artifacts posted on-line by Group 1
Due date: all members of Group 1 post assignment 2c 24 hours before class
Group One's Cultural Artifacts
M 4.2 TEST CASE: Anne Bradstreet, read selections in Reader
QUESTION: how do these poems reflect either a Puritan and/or American
spirit?
Week 10-12: DESPAIR: JERMIADS, WITCRAFT, & INDIAN CAPTIVITY
W 4.4 The Problem: How can the Puritan colonies be a "city on the hill" and subject to numerous plagues? The Puritan writers from the 1660s-1700s were faced with this problem as a series of disasters rocked the New England Coast ranging from falling Church membership, Indian attacks, to Witchcraft. How has their solution become part of America's sense of self?
The Problem Staged:
Sacvan Bercovitch, "Introduction: The Puritan Errand Reassessed," The American Jeremiad
Michael Wigglesworth, "The Day of Doom" (Reader)
M 4.9 LIBRARY DAY: Meet in Library 221 (no readings)
W 4.11 PRIMARY TEXT(S): GROUP 3
Readings: To be chosen by Group 3 from the Primary texts in the Reader
Due date: all members of Group 3 post assignment 2a 24 hours before class
M 4.16 CRITICAL ARTICLES: GROUP 1
Readings: Article to be chosen by Group 1
Due date: all members of Group 1 post assignment 2b 24 hours before class
W 4.18 CULTURAL ARTIFACTS: GROUP 2
Readings: Cultural Artifacts posted on-line by Group 2
Due date: all members of Group 2 post assignment 2c 24 hours before class
PNASA CONFERENCE: "Archiving the American Past and Present, Envisioning the Future"
April 19-21, 2001 The Inn at Spanish Head, Lincoln City, Oregon
Week 13 FINAL PROJECTS
M 4.23 & W 4.25 Presentations: Goals, Hopes, and Despairs for Final Project
M 5.7 Final Projects need to be posted on your WebPages.
Reed College, Spring 2001