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Full summary of the course 'English Literature III: Topics in American Literature'
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Full summary. Taught by prof. Pieter Vermeulen in .
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SESSION 1: INTRODUCTIONMaking America Great, Building Back Better
To read:
Samuel Danforth, “Errand into the Wilderness” (Toledo)
Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”
Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” (Toledo)
—Emory Elliott, “The American Jeremiad” (Toledo)
Commonalities between Trump & Biden (2 extremes):
o Resilience (better past)
o Crisis (and invocation of a better past: link to American cultural and literary history)
o Exceptionalism (both believe America is quite a unique thing in the world; belief in
special mission of America)
Trump: #makeamericagreatagain
o “again” (invoke glorious precedent)
o Complaint about the present crisis
o Still committed to “tremendous potential” resilience
o Blame on those in power (moral responsibility)
moral/psychological weakness, lost confidence
Trump opposes himself to current politicans and leaders
o Emphasis on action, on worldly success (carry higher meaning)
o Concern with image of America in the rest of the world exceptionalism
(America wants to be an example for the whole world, but now they are failing and have to
be great again)
Amanda Gorman: “The Hill We Climb” (speech)
…
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished.
…
And yes, we are far from polished,
far from pristine,
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of
man.
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the gold-limned hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution,
we will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover
1
, …
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it,
if only we’re brave enough to be it.
o World is watching when talking to America
o Crisis: mismatch between reality and a higher idea (=Trump)
o Poem acknowledges that not everything is great, but also says that we can overcome
that (also here weird resilience)
o Need to recognize shortcomings as a nation, but also trust in a better future
o Ending of the text: moral: US is fundamentally great. weirdly optimistic
o What can save us now, is thinking back to norms/ideals… that codified the American
past
o ‘Sunbaked south’: during the civil war there was a division, so as a black person not a
good association with the south (so why ‘sunbaked’?). Because we should not dig too
deep in the fact that there was racism and slavery then. tension between a better
past and a past build on slavery
st
21 century:
o Crisis
o Resilience, trust
o Exceptionalism (particular/universal)
Vs. 17th century:
o Migration (people fled from England to the US), suffering
o Religion (also fleeing from England because of religion), scripture, divine plan
o Exemplarity
American Literary History (as/vs.) English Literary History
Key terms: exceptionalism, frontier, wilderness
1. Context for English settlements in America
o French, Dutch, Spanish: there already had been attempts by French, Dutch and Spanish
settlers, but the English settlements became dominant (earlier there was more diversity)
US was very multilingual society in 17th century
o Roanoke Colony (now known as “Lost Colony”) in 16th century (Volksjury episode!)
Theories: this colony somehow had been taken care of by ‘local population’ and
integrated (but we don’t know) (mystery: they disappeared)
This event postponed English settlements until 17 th century
o Early 17th century (only then real wave of English migration)
Protestantism: Anglican State Church vs. Dissenters (wanted a more faithful
version of Christianity)
Calvinism: depravity, predestination, irresistible grace
(idea of irresistible grace: if chosen by God to receive grace, you can’t resist that)
Clergy (bishops), ceremonies
o 1608, 1620: Pilgrims: Scrooby (town) Holland (was not good there) Virginia
Massachusetts (separatists)
Plymouth colony: first successful settlement
First wanted to go to Holland, then Virginia but didn’t make it, so settled in
Plymouth
2
, (May Flower: boat on which the pilgrims set out to find America. Failed, caught by a
storm ended up in Massachusetts)
Separatists: follow divine mission by separating with the rest of the church
(they thought everything in Europe had been separated from God: the future of
God’s chosen people was in America)
o 1630 Massachusetts Bay Colony (10 years later new colony)
1625: death of James I; 1629 dissolution of Parliament
Was a group of people who no longer found a way to express their believe in
England
Quickly became dominant economic force (good trade relations…)
Group of non-separatists (kept connections with England) ‘City on the Hill’
(felt they had to serve as a city on the hill, America has to be the ‘city on the hill’ to
the. World); ‘Model of Christian Charity’ (Winthrop) (they thought they were doing
right, thought they sent them out to save all people)
!! both were commercial ventures (agriculture vs. French: trapping, hunting, trading) (& both
were religious)
People invested in them because they believed these colonists would make the people very rich.
Slavery was convenient: black labour could be imported from Africa.
the French learnt hunting etc. from native Americans
<-> agriculture: needing more and more land, exploiting = violent history.
2. 17th-century literature
o Age of metaphysical poetry: John Donne, Herbert, Marvell ( Bradstreet)
( conceit, long metaphors. Poetry: deep intellectual, religious and sensual)
Metaphysical poetry = kind of outlook on life that puritans hated. Intellectual ambition was
seen as dangerous.
o Puritan, ‘plain style’ (poetic didactism) (didn’t think the point of life was to enjoy
beautiful things, thought that pleasure was morally wrong)
they hated poetry, closed down theatres.
“God’s altar needs not our polishing” = metaphor, but good kind of metaphor
= useful metaphor for fallen creatures (people who do write poetically)
true words have already been spoken by. God, all we need to do is try to understand that
o Anti-literary, anti-figurative, anti-theatrical impetus
3. Transatlantic constellation
o Colony until 1776 (‘colonial era’: American history until 1776); political (and economic)
power still in London.
o Financial connections: settlements were there to make money
o 17th century: hardly any printing presses
o John Smith: first author (Jamestown settlement)
First American author in English
Went to the states to establish the Jamestown colony
Ruler + wrote several books about these colonies
boasting how beautiful they were to make people go work there
o Anne Bradstreet: first American poet
Wrote poetry in Boston as the wife of the prominent leader of the community
Did not publish it (pleasure poetry did not exist in America, only about survival and
3
, religion; published in England)
o Shakespeare: The Tempest (1611) idea of this going back and forth between America and
England. Was deeply inspired by e.g. John Smith (cultural transfer).
4. Events in England continued to affect American society
Things changed in English culture, had an influence on American literature; Puritans flee to England
o 1649: Cromwell takes over return migration (because Puritans are in power)
Many of these settlements get evacuated and rush back
Think they earn a place in England
o 1659: end of Protectorate (Cromwell dies)
influx of new immigrants to America
Tensions with original settlers
‘Half-Way covenant’: 1662 (allowed the children of baptized but unconverted
church members to be baptized and thus become church members and have
political rights: inclusion of Puritan children in church)
interdependence, but very quickly (in 17th century already) American literature became thing on its
own
Drive away from England (road to independence): YET soon developed dynamic of
its own
1. Idea of America
Promise, new beginning, no old regime or medieval remainders. Idea of a
nation not part of old Europe, but idea of a new beginning was there already in 16 th
century (idea of America popped up in utopical writing)
Exceptionalism (20th century term!)
Conveniently forgets native Americans
Prepared before settlements:
Place preserved by God (Exodus). Exodus: existing of people chosen by
God (Jews). Exodus: prefiguration of migration to America (typological
relationship: Bible gives type, history fulfils type)
16th century accounts of wondrous, paradisiacal land
First generations: legitimation + condemnation of European
corruption (Smith, Bradford)
Pressure for initial settlers to succeed: if they failed they let God down (God’s divine
plan); psychological pressure)
2. Geography (frontier)
Pioneers and settlers making their way south, but there were already people living
there
Unhabitable and therefore uninhabited: notion of ‘wilderness’: what settlers
encountered there was wilderness (<-> civilization)
Idea of a ‘virgin land’
Notion of the ‘frontier’: pushing the frontier (boundary), Americans explore and
settle the frontier until the west coast. Mindset: unknown territories turning into
something of your own. ‘Frontier thesis’ (Frederick Jackson Turner): American
mentality (doing and making things, taking new realities on): found on the
geographical fact that they had a lot of territory to push through. (17 th-18th century)
Initial settlers: agricultural orientation, pushed them westwards (with religious
orientation)
Canadian settlement (‘frontier’ vs. ‘bush country’)
4
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