In sections 15 of “Song of Myself,” Whitman lists persons such as “the quadroom girl [. . .] sold at the auction-stand,” “the woolly pates [. . .] in the sugar field,” and “the overseer” (414), and in section 16 he insists that he is “A Southerner soon as a Northerner” (416). What is the view of America that this poem articulates? What are the political implications of the self that Whitman theorizes?
Please remember to bring your Dickinson poems to class, as well as your course packets.
In the last section of Specimen Days that covers the Civil War, Whitman writes, “the real war will never get in the books” (401). Read that section and explain what that comment means. Does the real war get into his book, as I’ve excerpted it here? How could you argue both yes and no?
Once you have read all of the underlined poems, choose either poem 620 or 1476 and perform a line-by-line close reading of it. Interpret what each line means (looking up words on the Oxford English Dictionary if you unsure of them) and then give a one-paragraph explanation of your understanding of the poem as a whole.
For up to 5 points added to your semester grade, you may read a work not included in the syllabus but written by one of the writers we have studied or will study. Write 750-1,000 words relating or comparing your chosen text to an idea or topic we have investigated in class discussion. For example, you could read Melville’s Billy Budd and investigate how it presents an idea of obligation similar to or different from that encountered in Emerson’s Self-Reliance; or you could read the preface to Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” and compare its idea of encountering things to Thoreau’s in “Saturday.” Other topics that we have discussed include: the self, reading, detection, madness, nationality, passivity, morality, perversity, autobiography and political resistance (among others). Of course, you will want to use quotations and closely read them (by contextualizing, interpreting, and analyzing) to build your answer.
This assignment is due, with proper MLA citations, any time up until our last class meeting (on 12/5).
We’ll discuss the text through page 362, so read up until Babo shaves Benito Cereno.
At the beginning of Benito Cereno, the narrator sets the scene: “Everything was mute and calm; everything gray” (339). Choose either “mute” or “gray” and explain how the adjective describes at least one other element (for example, a character, a plot detail, an event, or the writing style) in the text.
The Library of Congress holds archives on slavery that are available to the public. In class on Monday, we’ll discuss two sets of holdings: Images of African-American Slavery & Freedom and the Works Progress Administration Slave Narratives. The image collection is self-explanatory, but you can read an introduction to the narratives to learn more about them. You can also read an interesting note about the use of language and how the interview transcriptions were approached.
Your assignment is to choose one narrative or image to study in depth. Some fascinating options are featured in “Voices and Faces from the Collection”; if you choose one of these, make sure to click through the link “Read the rest of this narrative.”
Write the following (one paragraph for each instruction):
1. Summarize the text/object. What is the narrative about? Or, what does the image look like?
2. Analyze the text/object. How does the text use language or graphics to make a particular point?
3. How is analyzing these non-fiction texts and objects different from writing about literature?
Does literacy end up being Douglass’s “pathway from slavery to freedom” (248), as we discussed in class on Wednesday? Build a case to argue either yes or no, and be sure to explain how you are defining the idea of literacy in your answer.
In “The Purloined Letter,” Dupin claims that the mathematicians “have insinuated the term ‘analysis’ into application to algebra” (220). How does Dupin’s analysis differ from the Prefect’s algebraic reasoning?
Is Thoreau’s idea of “civil disobedience” democratic? Can it operate within a democracy? Support your answer to these questions by citing and explaining the text.
What does Thoreau mean when he asks, “Who is most dead,–a hero by whose monument you stand, or his descendants of whom you have never heard?” (86). How do you think he would answer the question, based on what he writes in “Wednesday”?
