Fall 2000 Professor:  Dr.  Battenburg  jbattenb@calpoly.edu Office:  47-25D Phone:  756-2945 Office Hours:  M, W 1-2; T 10-11, 1-2;  or by appointment Course Description:  This course will focus on major Puritan and Colonial writers:  Bradford, Winthrop, Williams, Wigglesworth, Bradstreet, Rowlandson, Sewell, Mather, Edwards, Crèvecoeur, Paine, Franklin, Jefferson, Wheatley, and Freneau.  Students will be exposed to a wide range of genres, such as poems, sermons, histories, and narrative accounts.  Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding the tensions and paradoxes of Puritanism.  Both primary works and important criticism dealing with this period in American literature will be considered. Because the class is structured as a seminar, students will be required to lead out in and participate in discussions.  A two-hour written exam will be given, and a 18-20 page critical research paper will be assigned.  Students will be expected to present and defend their research findings.  In-class activities and reading assignments will be supplemented by accessing and creating websites in American literature. Student will be required to use the computer to participate in these online activities. The URL (or address) for my American Literature to 1860 website is as follows:  http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jbattenb/amlit/  Texts:  Baym, Nina, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature 1620-1865.  5th ed.  Vol  1.  New York:  Norton, 1998.  Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647.  With Intro. by Francis Murphy.  New York.  Modern Library, 1981.  Crèvecoeur, J. Hector St. John de.  Letters From an American Farmer and Sketches of 18th Century America.  Ed. with Intro. by Albert E. Stone.  New York:   Penguin American Library, 1981.  Irving, Washington. The Sketch Book.  With Afterword by Perry Miller.  New York:   Signet, 1961.  Morgan, Edmund S.  The Puritan Dilemma:  The Story of John Winthrop.  Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1958.  Paine, Thomas.  Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings.   With Intro. by Sidney Hook.  New York:  Meridian, 1969.  Class Requirements and Grading Procedure:  1)  Attendance is required.  More than three absences will significantly lower your final grade.  2)  No late assignments, exams, or papers will be accepted.  Incompletes will not be given except in the case of death or severe illness.  3)  Class participation:  25%  4)  Midterm exam:  35%  5)  Critical paper:  40%  Schedule:

Monday, September 18 Introduction Wednesday, September 20 Smith From The General History of Virginia  (NA 102-119) Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation  (1-182) Monday, September 25 Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation  (183-385) Wednesday, September 27 Winthrop  "A Model of Christian Charity" (NA 169-180) From Journal  (NA 181-187) "Letters of the Winthrops" (On Reserve) Williams From A Key into the Language of America  (NA 188-196) From The Bloody Tenet of Persecution  (NA 89-91)  Monday, October 2 Wigglesworth  "The Day of Doom"  (NA 197-198) Bradstreet   "The Prologue"  (NA 200-201) "Contemplations" (NA 204-209) "The Flesh and the Spirit" (NA 209-212) "Poems in Memory of Grandchildren" (NA 217-218) "As Weary Pilgrim" (NA 220-221) Wednesday, October 4 Rowlandson The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. R. (NA 244-275) Sewall From The Diary  (NA 301-318)  Monday, October 9 Taylor From Preparatory Meditations  "Prologue"  (NA 278-279) "Meditation 22" (NA 281-282) "Meditation 38" (NA 282-283) From God's Determinations  "The Preface" (NA 286-287) "Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children" (NA 292-293) "Huswifery" (NA 295) "A Fig for Thee, Oh! Death" (NA 295-297) Wednesday, October 11 Morgan The Puritan Dilemma  (1-205)  Monday, October 16 Online Assignement Due Mather From The Wonders of the Invisible World  (NA 318-324) From Magnalia Christi Americana  (NA 324-344) From Bonifacius  (NA 344-355) Wednesday, October 18 Edwards "Resolutions"  (On Reserve) From Diary  (On Reserve) "Personal Narrative" (NA 379-391) "A Divine and Supernatural Light" (NA 392-405) "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (NA 412-423) "A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God"  (On Reserve) Monday, October 23 Crèvecoeur  "Letters I-IV" (35-126) "Letter IX" (166-179) "Letter XII" (200-227)  Wednesday, October 25 Paine Common Sense  (23-72) From The American Crisis  "Number I" (75-82) From The Age of Reason  (NA 720-725)  Byrd  From The Secret Dairy  (NA 362-368) From The History of the Dividing Line  (NA 368-379) Monday, October 30 Franklin Autobiography  (NA 487-600)  Wednesday, November 1 Franklin "The Sale of the Hessians" (NA 456-457) "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America"  (NA 464-468) "Speech of Miss Polly Baker"  (On Reserve) "Old Mistresses Apologue"  (On Reserve) Jefferson From The Autobiography  (NA 726-733) From Notes on the State of Virginia  (NA 733-743) "Letter to Peter Carr" (NA 744-747)  Monday, November 6 MIDTERM EXAM Wednesday, November 8 TBA Monday, November 13 Freneau  "The Wild Honey Suckle" (NA 806-807) "The Indian Burying Ground" (NA 807-808) "To Sir Toby" (NA 808) "To a New England Poet" (NA 813) Wheatley "On Being Brought from Africa to America" (NA 815) "To the Univ. of Cambridge in N. E." (NA 815-816) "On the Death of Rev. Whitefield" (NA 816-817) Wednesday, November 15 Irving  "The Author's Account of Himself" (13-15) "The Voyage" (16-21) "English Writers on America" (56-64) "Rural Life in England" (65-71) "The Country Church" (99-104) "Traits of Indian Character" (272-282) "Rip Van Winkle" (37-55) "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (329-360) Monday, November 20 Presentations Wednesday, November 22 ACADEMIC HOLIDAY Monday, November 27 Presentations Wednesday, November 29 Presentations

CRITICAL PAPER due on Wednesday, November 29

Presentations continued during Final Exam Period