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Reading:
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-Norton headnotes, bottom 1263-66 (the timeline on 1267-69 is also 看头)
-Lincoln biography, "Gettysburg Address," and "Second Inaugural" (732-36)
-Chesnutt, "The Wife of His Youth" (1638-48)
-Dunbar biography, "When Malindy Sings," "Antebellum Sermon," "Sympathy," "We Wear the Mask," "Frederick Douglass" (1817-24)
Questions:
---------------Natalie, Tady, Sherry, Rea, Peggy, Iris, Emma
Answers:
-------------Qian Yu 100. How does Lincoln's explanation of the Civil War evolve from the "Gettysburg Address" to the "Second Inaugural Address"? I mean not only the types of arguments he makes, but the kind of language he uses.
Joy 101. I cancelled the reading of Martin Delany's Political Destiny of the Colored Race because it's kind of boring but I can summarize it for you - Delany was a separatist who believed the best course for African-Americans was to emigrate from the U.S., either "back to Africa" or to the black-controlled island of Haiti. Despite his story about "The Heroic Slave" who leads an escape to the Caribbean, Frederick Douglass committed his career to improving the situation of blacks in the U.S. by trying to radicalize American politics in the spirit of the "Declaration of Independence." I want you to write a dialogue between Delany and Frederick Douglass, in other words between the separatist/emigrationist position and the assimiliationist/reform position.
Crystal 102. Should we group Dunbar and Chesnutt with the "local color" or "regional realism" genres discussed on Norton 1263-65. Why or why not?
Clara 103. Compare the scene of reunion with friends or family that you see in various African-American authors we've read (e.g. Equiano pg. 361) to the reunion between Mr. Ryder and "The Wife of His Youth." Why do you think this kind of scene is so common in African-American literature before 1875? How does Chesnutt modify it for new meaning in 1898?
Carol 104. A famous American author and literary critic named William Dean Howells wrote the editor's introduction to Lyrics of Lowly Life. Howells said that Dunbar's poems in"literary English" were "more than very good" but that "several [other] people might have written them," whereas the poems in African-American dialect were "distinctively his contribution to the body of American poetry" and that "[no] one else could quite have written [them]." Do you agree with Howells that the dialect poems are better? Why or why not?Vincent 105. Analyze the poetic meter of "Malindy." I know we haven't practiced this much, so just try your best to count the stressed and unstressed sounds. Then discuss the contrast the poem makes between a technical approach to singing ("lines and dots" - 18) and a spiritual approach to singing ("real melojious music" - 21). Which of the two do you think "Malindy" itself is?
Zoe 106. Why does the preacher of Dunbar's "Antebellum Sermon" insist that he "ain't talkin' bout today," and that the type of freedom he refers to is only "Bibleistic"? Then suppose that it's Dunbar himself making those disclaimers - how would that change the meaning of the poem? How would it help better explain line 87?
Additional Note:
-----------------------I forgot to address question 93 in the last class. Apologies! Alyssa gave a very good answer in her blog post. She said that Douglass would consider slave spirituals like "Moses" and "Sweet Chariot" to be a form of political resistance, likening the condition of the biblical jews in Egypt to that of the blacks in the 1800's United States. Note however that Douglass never discussed this in his books or speeches... you may consider that he is preserving the secrecy of the 'code.' Alyssa also theorized that Jefferson might link Moses to U.S. independence... yes, this was often done in fact with General/President George Washington! However, I think Jefferson would never have considered that the 'stupid' slaves would be capable of forming such a political metaphor themselves. ~ Jane also posted a very difficult about American identity that I would prefer to meekly avoid save for future weeks of the course.
*New* - Pictures from the "Underground Railroad" Museum in Cincinnati:
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Because her wayward son is in Taiwan, 我媽媽 went to visit the family of 我堂姐 for the Thanksgiving holiday. She lives in Cincinnati, which is a city in the state of Ohio that borders across the Ohio River with the state of Kentucky. The relevance to our course is that this was the most common crossing for fugitive slaves from the 南 U.S. to the 北 U.S. This is where the fictional slaves in Uncle Tom's Cabin cross, for example. Nowadays there is a museum on this site to document the history of slavery, particularly the "Underground Railroad," which was the secret network of blacks and white anti-slavery collaborators that helped the fugitives escape. So I asked 媽媽 to take some photos for you. Click the numbers to view... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
I don't want to think I am running away from you after giving the midterm grades, so I will post my availability here as soon as I know it. My wife and I are going to tour some of the tea farms this week (she's a journalist and she's writing a report about them). If you are interested to meet at one of the times below, please email me to arrange an appointment. I'm not just going to wait around in the office for the possibility of someone entering. Then again, you can always try to see if I'm there. You can also email to arrange an appointment at a different time and I'll see what I can do.
***Thursday 11/26, 3:30-7:00***
***Wednesday 12/2, 5:30-8:30***
***Thursday 12/3, 3:30-6:30***
***Tuesday 12/8, 12:00-2:00, 6:30-8:30***
Now some details about the midterm. As I stated today, the average total grade was 77.9%, which is in the range that Kim and Beauregard recommended, but is likely (not guaranteed!) to be lower than your final semester grade. Individual answers were graded on a 30 point scale. Your three scores were then combined to make a 90 point scale, and finally I added 10 to make a 100 point percentile scale. On the whole, I was very pleased with the exams and enjoyed reading them. I can tell that you are understanding my concepts and synthesizing, extending, and revising them to suit your own interests.
In general, answers that were able to develop a complex and unified central thesis scored higher. Answers that were able to give detailed examples from the chosen texts and relate them together scored higher. Sometimes there was a mismatch of sorts between the thesis and the examples, which scored lower. Confusingly organized essays scored lower. Precision of spelling and grammar wasn't really a factor because I was able to understand almost everything you wrote. As I said, I am eager to have your input on the final exam. I am considering the following formats: 1) essay option for your own topic, developed with my guidance, 2) exam option in three parts: a. two or three small questions like the midterm questions, from several choices, b. one big question, from several choices, c. "close analysis" of a paragraph or page of a certain text, from several choices. One certainty is that you cannot avoid discussing Connecticut Yankee on the final exam.
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Savage (19 answers x 23.00 average)
Jefferson (10), Franklin (9), Winnemucca (7), Tecumseh (4), Boudinot (3), Bradford (3), Emerson (3), Freneau (3), Red Jacket (3), Black Hawk (2), Cabeza de Vaca (2), Smith (2), Thorpe (2), Bradstreet, Champlain, Cooke, Turner, the specific combination of Franklin-Jefferson-Winnemucca (4)
The starting point was the idea that "savage" is more an ideological category than a factually descriptive one. Some successful answers discussed it as a term used by Europeans to express or rationalize their superiority across multiple axes or dimensions. Others discussed ways that various authors contested or reversed the term. I was intrigued by one answer that distinguished cultural and biological categories of savagery, and another that considered "savage" as a term for something exotic or strange that increased in vehemence or urgency with closer proximity. Some of you had trouble establishing differences between Jefferson, Franklin, and Emerson. If you find yourself in this dilemma on the final exam, I'd suggest you just change your choices. Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
Nature (16 answers x 22.00 average)
Smith (12), Emerson (7), Thoreau (5), Pima (4), Black Hawk (3), Iroquois (3), Pontiac (3), Freneau (2), Zitkala Sa (2), Bradstreet, Columbus, Crevecouer, Jefferson, Red Jacket, Thorpe, Winthrop
You were quite creative with these answers... there were many interesting plays on the idea of nature as a "resource." I also found some of the author choices surprising, by which I mean delightfully surprising. One problem was aligning American Indian writers with nature in some vague way without giving any analysis or support - at least you're in good company there with Freneau, ha ha. Another problem was the many implied allusions to Thoreau's "Walden." One student specifically asked to write on "Walden" because she read it in another course, and that was fine. But if you're going to do that, you at least need to announce it in your essay. I found no connection whatsoever to "Civil Disobedience" in many of these Thoreau answers, and even if I decode that you are referring instead to "Walden," the references tended to be quite vague. Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
Education (13 answers x 23.00 average )
Occam (10), Emerson (9), Williams (8), Franklin (3), Hamilton (2), Paine (2), Zitkala Sa (2), Boudinot, Winthrop, the specific combination of Williams-Emerson-Occam (6)
I will be honest and say that this is the only part of the exam where I sometimes felt frustrated. I wonder why 你們 so easily perceive the argument that a term like "nature," "contract," or "savage" may not have a simple universal meaning, but rather may depend on the context of its use, and that the context of its use by Europeans has generally been a 'false universal' leveraged to justify various forms of inequity. Yet when I present a similar question about education, 你們 just assume that there is one simple universal hierarchy that makes some educated and some not. In other words, why do you accept the Enlightenment category of "education" without any hesitation when you are so eager to submit related Enlightenment categories to a post-colonial critique? Especially given that most of the examples concern linguistic or cultural education rather than something in the natural sciences - many of you agreed enthusiastically in previous classes when I proposed that language is a false universal. I believe there are powerful arguments for the notion of a universal Enlightenment or universal human subject, but at the very least we need to expose all of its possible limitations or distortions, no? Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
America/n (13 answers x 24.08 average)
Crevecouer (8), Red Jacket (4), Black Hawk (3), Winthrop (3), Paine (3), Apess (2), Hawthorne (2), Irving (2), O'Sullivan (2), Jefferson, Pontiac, Smith, Tecumseh, Thorpe, Turner, Winnemucca, Zitkala Sa
This question received the highest average score on the test; it seems to have inspired some very deep thinking. I did notice however that some essays had difficulty incorporating the third author (American Indian). The question is then, can the Indian be considered American? If America is only a geographical place, then yes. This makes them "Native Americans" before all the immigrants from Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. But if America is only an ideological concept, then perhaps Indians are excluded by that concept, which seems to refer specifically to creoles. Then you must consider whether Indians wish to fight that exclusion, or to radicalize it in the creation of a new anti-American identity; we are now asking this same question of the various black activists. As we move forward in history, we will encounter a new concept... the idea that "America" can be plural or multiple, not only in historical sequence but at one and the same time. We shall have to consider what we think of this idea. Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
Frontier (6 answers x 21.50 average)
Turner (5), Red Jacket (3), Black Hawk (2), Crevecouer (2), Smith (2), Boudinot, Irving
This question probably lost popularity because it was similar to "nature" or "savage." The better answers established that the frontier is less a physical place than a psychological condition, a boundary of knowledge, or a cultural contact zone. Some of the weaker ones had difficulty establishing differences between Crevecouer, Smith, and Turner.
Liberty (5 answers x 20.40 average)
Emerson (3), Apess (2), Winthrop (2), Black Hawk, Crevecouer, Edwards, Franklin, Jefferson, Thoreau, Winnemucca, Zitkala Sa
I was surprised that this question was unpopular, but maybe it lost out to "America/n" and had to share with "empire." Many of the answers had an easy time pairing a post-revolutionary creole with an Indian, but then had difficulty establishing a further comparison to a pre-revolutionary creole. This led to the solution of using both Jefferson and Crevecouer, who were probably too similar. (Look at the dates - "American Farmer" was published six years after "The Declaration of Independence." This was the one ambiguity in my A, B, C categories.) A few of you tried Winthrop or Edwards, which was a difficult task, but a well chosen one; we must consider that the modern secular idea of "liberty" emerges in the U.S.A. from the Protestant religious tradition, just as it does on the European continent through Luther, Calvin, etc. This may seem odd given that the radical Protestants were often quite restrictive and xenophobic. But the idea of an individual relationship with the divine may be seen as the foundation of the idea of the individual political subject. One of the clear signals of this point was given by Jefferson, who continued to use the Christian bible but also 'conveniently' crossed out large sections that he found to be ethically dubious or logically clumsy.
Laughter (5 answers x 21.20 average)
Zitkala Sa (3), Apess (2), Edwards (2), Franklin (2), Thorpe (2), Cooke, Hawthorne, Irving, Jefferson
Your answers connected laughter to a range of concepts including disillusionment, happiness, superiority, satire, and socialization. I can't even tell you how shocked I was to see Edwards appear in this question! But as I read, actually I began to see that it makes sense.
Trust/Contract (3 answers x 26.00 average)
Emerson (2), Franklin, Winthrop (2), Black Hawk, Boudinot, Jefferson, Tecumseh
I don't know why, but this question was one of the most productive of strong answers. Click the comment reply below for a complete high-scoring anonymous sample answer.
Empire (3 answers x 23.00 average)
Tecumseh (2), Columbus, Crevecouer, Hamilton, Jefferson, Red Jacket, Smith, Thoreau
Either 你們 find this topic boring, or 你們 feel like it is my possession and you should leave it alone! Which makes me the emperor of the empire topic. How odd.
Equality (2 answers x 22.50 average)
Black Hawk, Boudinot, Cabeza de Vaca, Crevecouer, Emerson, Jefferson
Perhaps I'm remembering wrong, but wasn't this a student-generated topic? Answers were similar to "liberty," not surprisingly. Although I still think they're different concepts. Liberty carries the implication of "liberty to X" or "liberty from Y." And it does not imply equality by itself, unless you extend liberty to X or from Y to all people.
Literature (2 answers x 18.00 average)
Black Hawk, Bradstreet, Columbus, Freneau, Iroquois, Thoreau
This was the one topic on the exam that I would call unsuccessful. We have repeatedly made connections between literary form (poetic form, narrative form, certain metaphors, certain rhetorical constructions) and our broader political/cultural issues. But perhaps it was too difficult to address all this in the short space!
Territory/Alienation/Women (3 answers, 23.67 average)
Winthrop (2), Black Hawk, Bradstreet, Emerson, Irving, Jefferson, Winnemucca, Zitkala Sa
Three student-generated topics, all fairly successful. I'm particularly glad for "Women," because the student found an area I had unfairly ignored in the course and used her "self-reliance" to address it on the exam; click the comment reply below for a complete high-scoring anonymous sample answer. But even so I must say that the most witty remark on the entire exam came in the "Territory" essay, which had as its secondary title, ""I take it, you go bye bye."
Class will meet as usual, from 15:20-18:10. No weird scheduling!
Follow-up:
-You can watch the Obama/Wright video here. I forgot to mention the politics of Obama's name when we were speaking of Equiano. Of course "Barack Obama" is controversial for some (white) Americans, not because it sounds African (like his Kenyan father), but because it sounds Arabic (which it is). Or I guess more specifically because it sounds like "Osama." So guess what Obama called himself for the first 30 or 40 years of his life? "Barry" Obama, which is a more English-sounding first name. Later he considered it to be a personal truth to be Barack, even though it was probably a political disadvantage.
-Carol asked for some additional internet resources about slave life. This one has some good illustrations.
-Lucille pointed my attention to this book from the 1970s which documents the experience of African-American slaves. It was later made into a famous U.S. television show. I also want to tell you about Toni Morrison, who is probably the greatest African-American novelist, and has written books about black experience that span in setting from 1500s-1900s. Indeed many argue that she is the greatest of all U.S. novelists... I think certainly one of the best five. You can read her Nobel Prize acceptance speech here. Unfortunately we may not read Morrison in the spring because her books are too long and we have so much else on the schedule.
Reading:
-Slave Spirituals (photocopy)
-You can listen to "Go Down, Moses" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" by following these links.
-Harriet Jacobs autobiography, 804-05
-Harriet Jacobs, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," 805- middle of 820.
-Norton Headnote on "Slavery, Race, and the Making of American Literature," 748-49
-Frederick Douglass autobiography 920-23
-Frederick Douglass, "The Heroic Slave" (photocopy)
Questions: Vincent, Joy, Qian Yu, Sharon, Sherry, Sydney, Ken
Answers:
93. (Alyssa) What would Thomas Jefferson say about the possibility that slave spirituals like "Go Down Moses" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" contain coded political messages? What would William Apess or Frederick Douglass say?
94. (Caleigh) Why does Jacobs argue that "slavery... is far more terrible for women" (816)? Why is this topic well calculated for her reading audience?
95. (Esther) Jacobs really did hide in a small space in her grandmother's attic for seven years, as you see on 818-20. But we can also consider this scene a kind of literary symbol. Analyze it, and compare it to the similar scene which takes place in Winnemucca's autobiography, on 1582-83.
96. (Jane) How do you imagine the difference reading these texts in a literature class in Taiwan instead of in a literature class in the United States?
97. (Jenny) Why does Douglass name his protagonist "Madison Washington" and refer to the greatness of Virginia on 174? And to the "principles of 1776" on 248?
98. (Lucille) What advantages does the fictional genre of this story offer to Douglass that he would not have in the autobiographical genre that Equiano or Jacobs use (which Douglass would also use in writing three of his own autobiographies)? What disadvantages?
99. (Ted) Many of the West African tribes/nations that had their people taken into Atlantic slavery were matriarchal in their political structure, i.e. dominated by women. So why do you think writers like Equiano, Walker, and Douglass place so much emphasis on the idea that blacks can/should be masculine or "manly"? Does this vision of anti-slavery or anti-racist rhetoric become problematic when we consider the role of female writers like Wheatley and Jacobs?
Thursday 10:15-11:45 = Vincent, Ken, Ted, Sharon, Winnie, Carol, Sydney, Rea, Iris, Peggy, Emma
Friday 10:15-11:45 = Tady, Natalie, Meg, Clara, Jane, Jenny, Crystal, Letitia, Esther, Qian Yu, Teresa, Tracy, Viola, Caleigh, Lucille, Alyssa
Friday 3:00-4:00 (office) = Zoe, Sherry, Ting Ju
Reading:
-Equiano's biography from bottom of 355 to bottom of 356
-Equiano's "Interesting Narrative" from top of 357 to middle of 370 ("and a slave!")
-Equiano's "Interesting Narrative" from bottom of 378 ("In the preceding chapter") to bottom of 383 ("until I had left them.")
-Equiano's "Interesting Narrative" from top of 387 to bottom of 390.
-Wheatley's biography on 419-20
-"To the University of Cambridge, in New England" on 421
-"On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield" on 422-23
-"To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works" on 426-27
-"To His Excellency General Washington" on 427-28
-Walker's biography on 752-53
-Walker's "Appeal in Four Articles" on 753-56
Answers... Due at 9:00 a.m. on 11/19 regardless of which session you are attending.
86. (Vincent) If Equiano is not really from Africa (356), why does he claim so in his autobiography? Paraphrase the Norton editors' answer to this question and give at least one alternate answer of your own.
87. (Teresa) If Equiano is not really from Africa, would you call his autobiography "fiction" or "non-fiction"? Then choose a few details from chapters I and II, and explain why he chose to create/embellish/select them.
88. (Tracy) What is the significance of calling Equiano an "Atlantic Rim" author (356) instead of an American, African-American, British, Afro-British, or African author? Why might this designation suit the African-American literary tradition more generally?
89. (Ting Ju) Many critics have likened Equiano's autobiography to Franklin's. Why? And do you agree with them?
90. (Winnie) Compare Wheatley's characterization of Whitefield to Equiano's. You can skip the obvious fact that one is prose and the other is poetry. Also, compare their relative attitude about the United States versus Britain.
91. (Viola) Consider Wheatley's attitude toward Christianity as a "purer language" ("African Painter," line 32). You learn on 420 that she spoke with Occam about this subject, who held a similar view. What would Wheatley say to a black religious separatist who believed, as Pontiac, Tecumseh, Red Jacket, etc. might have, that Christianity was only a language of cultural enslavement to strengthen blacks' physical enslavement?
92. (Zoe) Why does Walker say that white refutations of Jefferson are inadequate (754)? Describe the particular approach or technique of his refutation. Could Wheatley be considered a refuter of Jefferson? Why or why not?
Questions:
This will be an in-class exercise, no need to prepare any before class!
If you missed the class today, 這是 the revised calendar for the course and 這是 the guide for the midterm exam. Please email me so I know which of the class sessions you are attending next week. You can post any questions about the exam here, or email me directly.
The groups from today's class exercise should also post the three writers they would compare to answer one of the exam questions.
I will post the assigned questions for next week's class on Tuesday night after the exam. Otherwise it's a bit too depressing, I think. Oh, and 這是 the piece of the "Eminem" movie that we watched.
Sorry this took so long; I was revising the schedule and considering the exam questions. You will see that I am attempting to limit the number of questions/answers to save time for more group activity in class. We'll see how it works.
Reading: Norton Headnotes (748-49, 1255-58), Winnemucca (1579-90), Zitkala Sa (top of 1837 - middle of 1838, bottom of 1845 - end of 1850), Turner (bottom of 1852 - top of 1855, middle of 1856 - top of 1857), Jefferson (bottom of 749 - middle of 752)
Questions: Joy, Zoe, Crystal, Alyssa, Caleigh, Carol, Clara
Answers:79 = Iris. As we discussed last week, we tend to see very vivid and imaginative use of metaphor in the 'internal' American Indian tradition of the 1800s (like the creation stories or Pontiac's speech), but the 'external' writing (by authors like Occam and Boudinot) can sometimes be very restrained or precise. In Winnemucca we clearly see the recovery of the imaginative style for an external (white) readership. Analyze several of Winnemucca's images/metaphor and their literary meaning.
80 = Tady. Analyze Winnemucca's rhetorical usage of well-known references to the Christian bible and to U.S. political ideology.81 = Letitia. Is the Carlisle philosophy of "kill the Indian and save the man" (pg. 1837) compatible with the "universal enlightenment" philosophy of Crevecouer/Paine/Jefferson/Hamilton/Franklin/etc? How does Zitkala Sa use her story to challenge the Carlisle philosophy?82 = Meg. Pretend you are reading the next issue of Harper's Monthly that was published after the issue containing Zitkala Sa's story. Now imagine two letters from (white) readers responding to the story, of about 3-4 sentences each. The first is positive toward the story and the second is negative. Write what the letters might say.
83 = Peggy. The Norton editors discuss Turner's frontier theory as being a challenge to 'Anglo-Saxon' racist theory. But in fact, most Americans believed both of them. Discuss how the two theories could be considered compatible.84 = Rea. Compare Turner to Emerson. Similarities and differences.
85 = Emma. Write a dialogue of 10-12 lines. The first participant in the dialogue is Thomas Jefferson, the political poet of universal human liberty. The second is Thomas Jefferson, the 'scientific' racist and slavery apologist.
Thank you for responding to the surveys carefully. Let me address a few of the comments:
1. The greatest concern was about the exam. We will discuss the format next week, but I want to remind you that you do not need to remember every writer and every concept for the exam. You will be given broad questions to answer and you can choose which specific writers and concepts to use. And I will give the questions for home study prior to the exam, so there will be no surprises. Maybe it helps to understand my philosophy of exams... I like to give students a "map" of the subject with many writers, concepts, historical background, philosophical dilemmas, etc. But I know it is impossible for you to know every area of the map in detail. So you can choose a couple of "areas of the map" that you find easier or more interesting, and concentrate your preparation in more detail there. Indeed if you were strongly familiar with 80% of the major concepts and 40% of the writers, I should think you'd do quite well on the exam. See the interior comment for further description, and feel free to reply, make suggestions, or ask further questions... it would help me fashion the exam.
2. I think the amount of reading and the class time will remain our areas of territorial conflict. I will always want more and you will always want less, and we will try to find a balance. But I do really like the suggestions to have fewer homework questions. I would like to have maybe 7 questions and 7 answers, and leave time for extra discussion or activity. This would also allow for more student participation in class. I'm just happy I have 22 or more weeks of the course remaining to find the right balance!
3. Another understandable area of resistance is the focus on political essays and speeches instead of fiction and poetry. I find this is necessary because it is too difficult to understand the 'pure' literature without proper contextual information (think of "Rip" or "Molineux" or "Big Bear" without it... they'd be total nonsense), and also because some of these 'non-fiction' documents are quite interesting from a literary standpoint (like Apess, Crevecouer, etc.). And, frankly, because they are shorter... we can't read too many novels or long poems in a class of this type. But I can say that the further we move forward in the chronology, the more we will read fiction and poetry. So you may find your satisfaction increasing in the coming months.
