EARLY and 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN CIVILISATION
FALL, 2009
LMA III COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Instructor: Mihai Mindra
This course consists in discussions of American social, political, and literary texts. Each text comes with background information. The course instructor will briefly introduce students to the texts to be perused for the next class. The course sourcebooks are An Early American Reader, Ed. J.A. Leo Lemay, Washington: USIA, 1992 (mentioned in the weekly schedule as EAR) and a Nineteenth-Century American Reader, Ed. M. Thomas Inge, Washington: USIA, 1989 (NCAR). You can find them in the American Studies Room (Room 4) and the Pitar Mos Faculty Library. This course, in workshop format, will focus on social and political documents in U.S.A., between 1600 and 1900.
WEEK 1: Organizational matters. Brief presentation of the Course texts; historical and cultural background.
WEEK 2: Textbook: EAR. THE AMERICAN DREAM. Versions of Success: America as a Model: John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity”, 1630, pp.13-25; Explaining America. Urban America: Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography, 1771 and 1784, p.61, pp.105-115. RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN EARLY AMERICA. Puritanism. Emigration and First Settlements: William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, Book One, 1620-1630, pp. 187-211; The Great Awakening. Awakening the Spirit: Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, 1742, pp. 311-323. Puritan Poetry: Anne Bradstreet, p. 211, “Contemplations”, ca. 1612-1672, pp.214-215; Edward Taylor, pp. 232-233, From Preparatory Meditations, Second Series: “Meditation 1”, p. 246, “Meditation 3”, p. 248.
WEEK 3: THE INDIAN AND THE FRONTIER. The Classic Account: Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, 1682, pp.434-468. Indian Heroes and Culture. Mythic Encounters: Captain John Smith, The General History of Virginia, 1624, p.389, pp.390-402. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. Political Writings and Documents. The...