Margaret Fuller

Works Discussed:
* Fuller, "The Great Lawsuit"

Topics Discussed:
* Relationship Between Abolitionism and Women's Movement
* Views of Female Condition and Society
* Assessment of National Ideology
* Views of Gender, Relationship Between Men and Women
* Importance of Individuality, Self-reliance
* Possible Contradictions in Argument
* Role of Transcendentalism in Argument

For Next Class:
* Melville, Benito Cereno

Henry David Thoreau

Works Discussed:
* Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government"

Topics Discussed:

* Manifest Destiny and Slavery
* Radical Individualism: Differentiation Between Individual and Government
* Duty of Individual, Direct Action
* Views of Voting, Political Majority and Minority, Taxes Individual's Relation to Government, Society/Community
* Ideal Government

*Autobiography

Due Next Class:

* Fuller, "The Great Lawsuit"

Edgar Allan Poe

Works Discussed:

*Poe, "The Raven;" "The Tell-Tale Heart;" "The Masque of the Red Death;" "The Purloined Letter;" "The Philosophy of Composition;" "The Poetic Principle"

Topics Discussed:
* Poe's Literary Voice: National vs. Cosmopolitan
* Influence of Romanticism
* Gothic Fiction: Grotesque and Arabesque
* Nature of Knowledge: Pure Intellect vs. Intuitive Reason, Elusive Beauty, Transcendental Meaning--Similarities and Differences With Emerson
* Significance of Human Psyche, Mystery, Chaos
* Literary/Poetic Theory: Aim of Poetry, Length, Subject Matter

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Works Discussed:

* Emerson, "Nature"; "Self-Reliance"
* Kant, from Critique of Pure Reason (Class Handout)

Topics Discussed:
* Transcendentalist Movement
* American Renaissance: Distinctive American Voice
* Influence of Romanticism, Influence of Kant
* Primacy of Individual: Relationship Between Nature and Individual, Universal Spirit, Importance of Intuition and Mind
* Role of Poet
* Conception of History
* Moral Redemption
* Problems with: Conformity, Travel, Imitation of European Culture, Progress

For Next Class:

*Poe, "The Raven;" "The Tell-Tale Heart;" "The Masque of the Red Death;" "The Purloined Letter;" "The Philosophy of Composition;" "The Poetic Principle"

William Cullen Bryant

Works Discussed:

Bryant, "Thanatopsis"; "To a Waterfowl"; "Sonnet--To An AMerican Painter Departing for Europe"; "The Prairies"

Topics Discussed:

* American Myth Making: Symbols of American Cultural Identity, Creating Mythologized Past

* American vs. European Culture; View of American Art

* Problems With Expansionism

* Democratic Ideas

* Vision of Nature; Ties to Romanticism

James Fenimore Cooper

Works Discussed:
* Cooper, from The Pioneers

Topics Discussed:
* Influence of Romanticism
* Making of American Myth
* Significance of Wilderness/Frontier
* Contradiction Inherent in Pioneering
* Individual's Relation to Society
* Criticism of Society, Institutions
* Consequences of Expansion: Native Americans, The Individual, Old Systems of Culture, Environmental Impact

Washington Irving

Works Discussed:
* Irving, "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow," "Rip Van Winkle,"

Topics Discussed:
* National Feeling: Dislocation and Newness
* Need for National History: Mythology
* Construction of the American Self
* Significance of American Landscape
* Town vs. Country
* Literary Identity: National or Cosmopolitan?
* Cultural Relationship to Europe: Romanticism
* Depiction of Women