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American Literature 3A summary DLT I
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A summary of all the texts on the syllabus.
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Literature 3A: American Literature to 1865Week 1
11/09/2023
Beginning: natives with Europeans
1620 English pilgrims and
1865 American Civil War
American Renaissance
What are some other dates we could use to name this class?
o
Where should we begin?
o This can be different depending on culture and the country where you get the
information from
What is centered by using the starting point 1620?
o That America started with the arrival of the English, but we have seen that
they are not the most important or groundbreaking. As we have seen the
English were important but so were the Dutch and Spanish.
What constitutes “American literature” before 1789?
What factors determined the canonization of primarily English language texts from a multi-
lingual, multi-colonial, and native population?
1. Factual Questions:
What is the main topic of the text?
Who are the key individuals, organizations, or entities mentioned in the text?
Where and when does the text take place?
What are the major events or facts in the text?
2. Contextual Questions:
What is the background or context of the text?
Are there historical events or trends relevant to understanding the text?
Who is the author, and what is their background or expertise?
What is the purpose of the text? What is the author trying to achieve?
3. Content Questions:
What are the main arguments or positions presented in the text?
What evidence is used to support these arguments?
Are there counterarguments or other perspectives addressed in the text?
What are the implications of the positions taken in the text?
4. Style Questions:
What writing style is used in the text (e.g., formal, informal, technical,
rhetorical)?
Are there literary techniques or rhetorical devices used (e.g., metaphors,
irony, repetition)?
How does the style contribute to conveying the message or influencing the
reader?
5. Personal Reflection Questions:
, What is your own opinion or reaction to the text?
Are there parts of the text with which you agree or disagree? Why?
Are there aspects of the text that you find confusing or need more
information about?
6. Connecting Questions:
How does the text relate to other texts, books, or sources you've read?
Are there similar real-world situations, events, or issues that the text relates
to?
What broader societal issues are raised in the text?
,Week 2
18/09/2023
Before class readings:
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, “Chronicle”
1. Factual Questions:
What is the main topic of the text?
The white men meeting the Indians and getting to know their customs.
Who are the key individuals, organizations, or entities mentioned in the text?
De Vaca himself, the people of Isla sel mal Hado and companions of De Vaca;
Dorantes, del Castillo and Estevánico.
Where and when does the text take place?
It takes place in the New World on an island called Isla sel mal Hado.
What are the major events or facts in the text?
The white European men meeting the natives and learning from their
customs.
2. Contextual Questions:
What is the background or context of the text?
It’s about two worlds meeting, and one having respect for the other.
Are there historical events or trends relevant to understanding the text?
Yeah, the Native Americans being suppressed by the Christians Spaniards.
Who is the author, and what is their background or expertise?
De Vaca, he is the one who wrote this travel narrative. There is a change that
he most certainly met with them and came across the natives.
What is the purpose of the text? What is the author trying to achieve?
At the time of writing, he is accused of enslaving the natives and blacks. With
this text he hopes to justify that.
3. Content Questions:
What are the main arguments or positions presented in the text?
It presents a whole other way of how the white Christian Spaniards behaved
in the New World, according to the other stuff we know and is told to us.
What evidence is used to support these arguments?
The evidence that he is not in line with the other Christians in the New World
maybe.
Are there counterarguments or other perspectives addressed in the text?
Not in the text itself, but in the profile about De Vaca there is. He has a benefit
of projecting the truth different than that it really was.
What are the implications of the positions taken in the text?
De Vaca is against the enslavement of blacks and natives in the way most
Spaniards did it at the time.
4. Style Questions:
What writing style is used in the text (e.g., formal, informal, technical,
rhetorical)?
Formal, De Vaca is addressing the King, so he is writing in a formal way.
Are there literary techniques or rhetorical devices used (e.g., metaphors,
irony, repetition)?
, The Island of Fate could be an irony. The natives on the island are all starving
because of the lack of food on the island. So, you could ask yourself; is it really
an island of fate.
The clear way to Christianity might be a metaphor for something else.
How does the style contribute to conveying the message or influencing the
reader?
It is overly written, with exaggerating the hunger and starvation and the
customs of the natives, as well as the way he thinks and lived among the
natives. A comment can be made for this.
5. Personal Reflection Questions:
What is your own opinion or reaction to the text?
It is not a really relabel text, because it is written in a certain way that is in
favour of the writer, De Vaca.
Are there parts of the text with which you agree or disagree? Why?
I disagree with the part that the Christians were far worse than De Vaca, and
that they were the only one that wanted to make slaves of the natives. I think
all these travellers were the same and wanted the same: money. Which they
could get with selling the slaves.
Are there aspects of the text that you find confusing or need more
information about?
About why De Vaca is the only one getting punished for the slavery.
6. Connecting Questions:
How does the text relate to other texts, books, or sources you've read?
It relates to the stories like Columbus in America at first.
Are there similar real-world situations, events, or issues that the text relates
to?
Just the way that the whites were handling the natives in the New World, and
the problems the natives struggled with.
What broader societal issues are raised in the text?
Natives versus the new white people.
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