english 205 week6

English 205 6A

· Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

   Newspaper edited by Philip Freneau

READ:  Intro: pp. 591-93

Poems:  pp. 593-98

To Sir Toby       

On the Emigration to America

The Wild Honey Suckle

The Indian Burying Ground               

Freneau's house in Matawan, NJ (still a residential home)   

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84)

READ: Intro. pp. 599-601     

Poems:  pp. 602-09

On Being Brought from Africa to America

To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works

A Farewell to America.  To Mrs. S.W.

To His Excellency General Washington   

ALSO:  here is a short (3 1/2 minutes) audio about Phillis Wheatley from the University of Houston:

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi620.htm       

Discussion Board Post：

What do the poems of Freneau and Wheatley reveal about diversity in Revolutionary America? 

Hint, hint . . .

   William Penn's Treaty with the Lenape Indians

   German settlers in early Pennsylvania

250 words. No work cited

English 205 6B

· Washington Irving (1783-1859)

 READ:   Intro:  p. 621-24

Stories:  624-43

The Author's Account of Himself

The Wife

Rip Van Winkle  (you can listen to the audiobook / approx. 40 minutes   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb7QUmj3pTM  )

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

   James Fennimore Cooper, c. 1850

READ:   Intro: 644-47

The Pioneers , Chapter 1 (excerpt): pp. 647-63

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS:   Cooper on Stage and Screen

During his lifetime, a number of Cooper's works were adapted for the stage (interestingly, the plays were more popular in Europe than in the U.S.).  When films became possible, writers and directors again turned to this early American author for stories to serve as the basis of their own productions.  See:   http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/drama.html  to read more about the Cooper's visual legacies. 

Jeffrey Walker (Oklahoma State University) noted that, in general, the films have "rewritten Cooper's plot, miscast and mislabeled his characters, modernized his dialogue, misunderstood his themes, and misrepresented history." [1995 SUNY SEMINAR]  Walker's detailed article, "Deconstructing an American Myth:  Hollywood and the Last of the Mohicans" can be found at:   http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/suny/1995suny-walker.html

If you want to compare two versions, here are YouTube links:  the first is to a 1936 version of Cooper's novel,  The Last of the Mohicans (the link will take you to the entire film, but you can just watch 10 minutes or so to get a sense of the director's vision) and the second link takes you to the last 10 minutes (the battle scene) of the 1992 film version starring Daniel Day Lewis. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpOwp6SDgQM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah9XCamPyKA   

 

Discussion Board Post:

Folk Tales for America

  

From a drawing by Henry Inman ( 1801-1846) for the original edition of Cooper's The Pioneers (Philadelphia, 1823). Judge Temple, patron of the new community on the upstate New York frontier, has accidentally wounded Oliver Effingham, the hero. Leatherstocking is depicted in the background, where he technically belongs in a novel built about upper-class characters. He wears a fur cap and a hunting shirt of deerskin and carries a long rifle, but the artist does not insist on these details.  [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/hnspix.html]

The five “Leatherstocking Tales” written by Cooper are often read as folktales: The Pioneers [1823], The Last of the Mohicans [1826], The Prairie [1827], The Pathfinder [1840], and The Deerslayer [1841].

 

Many of Irving’s stories are loose “translations” of Dutch or German folktales relocated to American geography (such as the Catskill Mountains).

 

Characteristics of folktales

· Simple and straightforward

· Often includes magic or supernatural powers

· Characters often represent human qualities such as good, evil, foolishness, laziness

· Problems and conflicts are clear 

· Ending usually happy or satisfying; cultural values reinforced

· Good usually rewarded; evil punished

The word “folk” comes from the Dutch and German word volk which means “common people” or “men” and most folk tales began as oral tales passed down from one generation to another.

 

Discussion Board:  Why do you think these early American authors found popular success with folk tales?  What about the genre appealed to readers in the first half of the 1800’s?  Can any of the characters in the readings be described as a “folk hero”? Why would this be important for the development of American literature? 

250 words. No work cited.

English 205 week6 comment

(make sure write where is this quote from into beginning of explanation) (you can find a quote from reading in first assignment).

Students will choose a short excerpt / quote from one of the readings of that week, type it in, then add a short (150 words or so) explanation for your choice. Was your selection important because it:

· is an example of beautiful or striking language?

· exemplifies a particular theme or character?

· makes the reader think about something in a new way?

· reflects a particular aspect of French culture?

· was just something that you liked?

For example:

"Whoever gets knowledge from God, science,

and a talent for speech, eloquence,

Shouldn't shut up or hide away;

No, that person should gladly display."  Marie de France

explanation:

In the opening lines to the Prologue to the Lays, Marie de France is providing her readers with an explanation for writing these stories down.  This is a very common and traditional rhetorical move informing readers about the ethos or qualifications of the speaker.  In this case, Marie is claiming that she is knowledgeable and eloquent and that these gifts come from God and therefore should be used.  I think it goes further than that; Marie, like most women of her day,* would have been expected to "shut up" and "hide away" as a matter of course, since women's voices were not welcomed in the public sphere.  By opening her work in this way, she preempts criticism about the appropriateness of her authorship.