Images of Native Americans 4219-SC151
1. Introduction: Native Americans in the eyes of the Puritan settlers
2. Early gothic representations of Indians: Charles Brockden Brown
3. The Indian in the poetry and criticism of the Early Republic (Philip Freneau, William Cullen Bryant, Walter Channing)
4. Non-fiction representations of Native Americans (William Bartram, Washington Irving)
5. Indians and the Founding Fathers: Appropriation of the “white” discourse (William Apess)
6. The Collapse of the Five Civilized Nations and its echoes (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lydia Maria Child)
7. The “domestication” of the Native American (Lydia Maria Child, Catharine Maria Sedgwick)
8. Cooper’s “ig/noble savages” (James Fenimore Cooper)
9. The “metaphysics” and politics of Indian hating (Robert Montgomery Bird, James Hall)
10. Literary ethnography outside the canon (William Gilmore Simms, William Snelling)
11. A Native American epic (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
12. In search for Native American Traces (Henry David Thoreau)
13. Concluding individual discussion on term papers
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
1. KNOWLEDGE
The student has a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the representations of Native Americans in the 19th century till the Civil War, understands the variety of those representations in terms of literary conventions and ideas, as well as the part played by Native Americans in the dominant "white" culture.
2. SKILLS
The student can make critical statements about texts of culture, analyze texts of different kinds, set research tasks related to the topic of the course.
3. SOCIAL COMPETENCE
The student is sensitive to social discrimination in terms of race, becomes aware of the origin of today's multicultural society.
Assessment criteria
Participation in class discussion (60%), term paper (40%)
Bibliography
1. Primary literature
Apess, William, “Eulogy on King Philip,” in Barry O’Connell, ed. On Our Own Ground. The Complete Writings of William Apess, a Pequot
Bartram, William, Travels (excerpts)
Bird, Robert Montgomery, Nick of the Woods (excerpts)
Brown, Charles Brockden, Edgar Huntly (excerpts)
Bryant, William Cullen, An Indian at the Burying Place of His Father”
Child, Lydia Maria, Hobomok (excerpts)
Child, Lydia Maria, “The Church in the Wilderness,” “Willie Wharton,” “An Appeal for the Indians,” in Carolyn R, Karcher, ed. A Lydia Maria Child Reader
Cooper, James Fenimore, The Last of the Mohicans (excerpts)
Cooper, James Fenimore, The Wept of Wish-ton-wish (excerpts)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, “Letter to Martin Van Buren,” in Len Gougeon and Joel Myerson, eds. Emerson’s Antislavery Writings
Freneau, Philip, “The Indian Burying Ground”
Hall, James, “The Indian Hater,” “The New Moon,” in Edward Watts, ed. The Indian Hater and Other Stories by James Hall
Irving, Washington, A Tour on the Prairies (excerpts)
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, “The Song of Hiawatha” (excerpts)
Sedgwick, Catharine Maria, Hope Leslie (excerpts)
Simms, William Gilmore, The Wigwam and the Cabin (excerpts)
Snelling, William Joseph, Tales of the Northwest
Thoreau, Henry David, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, “Ktaadn” (excerpts)
2. Secondary literature
Barnett, Louise K., The Ignoble Savage. American Literary Racism 1790-1890
Bergland, Renee L., The National Uncanny. Indian Ghosts and American Subjects
Drinnon, Richard, Facing West. The Metaphysics of Indian Hating and Empire Building
Fieldler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel
Gardner, Jared, Master Plots. Race and the Founding of an American Literature 1787-1845
Maddox, Lucy, Removals. Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Politics of Indian Affairs
Pearce, Roy Harvey,Savagism and Civilization. A Study of the Indian and the American Mind
Pearce, Roy Harvey, “The Metaphysics of Indian Hating. Leatherstocking Unmasked,” in Historicism Once More. Problems & Occasions for the American Scholar
Sayre, Robert F., Thoreau and the American Indians
Tompkins, Jane, Sensational Designs. The Cultural Work of American Fiction 1790-1860
Ziff, Larzer, Writing in the New Nation. Prose, Print, and Politics in the Early United States
Additional information
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