HUM 2450.B01/B02 Assignments
07/19-07/23/04 (Week 4)


Assignments can be updated at needs/speed of the class; you will be notified of updates by e-mail, and are responsible for checking the page after notification. Click on links for online readings.

  • for MONDAY July 19
    -- online notes for this section, "Defining 'America'" available now!
    -- Pohl Ch.4 185-194
    Online reading:
    -- Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" [both 1819]. (CAVEAT: do not depend on either the Walt Disney animated or Tim Burton live-action versions. They vary widely from Irving's original tales.) In these famous tales, the United States' first successful and internationally-acclaimed writer, Washington Irving, creates moody scenes collected out of New England's immigrant past. Irving approaches the folklore and customs of early Dutch-English colonial settlements, and places them on a par with Aesop, the Grimm Brothers, and Francois Perrault. A wonderful window into the early 19th-Century's attempt to see the distinctiveness of "America." As you read, ask yourself: what idea of "America" does Irving give in his tales? What view does this 19th-Century writer have of his country's early past?

  • for TUESDAY July 20
    -- online notes for this section, "Defining 'America' Part 2" available now!
    -- Pohl Ch.3 130-171, Ch.4 185-194
    Online readings:
    --Ralph Waldo Emerson, first chapter of Nature [1849]. In this first chapter of Nature, Emerson encapsulates much of the Transcendentalist view toward the possible relationship between the human and natural worlds, focusing on the emotions, intuition, and the child-like.
    --also, a few choice quotations from Emerson to sample his thinking.
    --Henry David Thoreau, the final chapter of Walden, [1854] wherein Thoreau picks up much of Emerson's thought from another text ("Self-Reliance") and writes about trying to put them into practice. (This site is particularly nice for the hyper-notes it offers within the text.)
    --also, a few choice quotations from Thoreau.
    --Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven" [1845]. In this famous poem, Poe conveys much that fascinated the late American Romantic and Transcendentalist mind: the emoitions, intuition, the individual, and the often darker powers of nature and the imagination.

  • for WEDNESDAY July 21
    --Continue with notes and readings listed for TUESDAY:
    -- online notes for this section, "Defining 'America' Part 2" available now!
    -- Pohl Ch.3 130-171, Ch.4 185-194
    Online readings:
    --Ralph Waldo Emerson, first chapter of Nature [1849]. In this first chapter of Nature, Emerson encapsulates much of the Transcendentalist view toward the possible relationship between the human and natural worlds, focusing on the emotions, intuition, and the child-like.
    --also, a few choice quotations from Emerson to sample his thinking.
    --Henry David Thoreau, the final chapter of Walden, [1854] wherein Thoreau picks up much of Emerson's thought from another text ("Self-Reliance") and writes about trying to put them into practice. (This site is particularly nice for the hyper-notes it offers within the text.)
    --also, a few choice quotations from Thoreau.
    --Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven" [1845]. In this famous poem, Poe conveys much that fascinated the late American Romantic and Transcendentalist mind: the emoitions, intuition, the individual, and the often darker powers of nature and the imagination.

  • for THURSDAY July 22
    --new section; BE SURE TO READ
    Course notes for this section available online now!
    -- Pohl Ch.3 171-174, 258-260, 263-66

  • for FRIDAY July 23
    --TBA: stand by for updates
    »» Links:
    Schedule for Week 5
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