Margaret Fuller and Her Culture: Educator, Writer, Journalist 4219-SC0021

The Private Fuller: Autobiographical Writings
“Autobiographical Romance” (1840); “Fictional Autobiographical Fragment” (c. 1841-1842); “A Credo” (1842), in Margaret Fuller, Collected Writings. New York: Library of America, 2025.
The Private Fuller: Journals
Poems and Selections from Journal Fragments (1833–1844)
from S. M. Fuller’s bouquet.—Journal (c. 1836–1837)
from Reflections Journal (c. 1839)
from Bound Journal (c. 1839–40)
from 1842 Journal (August 18–September 25, 1842)
from October 1842 Journal
from Journal Fragments (c. 1840, 1844)
from Manuscript Tracing Journal (1844)
from Italy 1849 Journal, in Fuller, Collected Writings.
Experiencing Nature: Niagara Falls and Ben Lomond
Summer on the Lakes, Chapter I
“These Sad But Glorious Days.” Dispatches from Europe, 1846-1850, Dispatch 5: Lost on Ben Lomond
Native Americans and the Seeress of Prevorst
Summer on the Lakes, Chapter V
Bruce Mills, Poe, Fuller, and the Mesmeric Arts. Transition States in the American Renaissance. Columbia – London: University of Missouri Press, 2006. Chapter 4: “Reading the Self: Fuller’s Magnetic Juvenilia,” 94-113.
Fuller as Educator
Anna Gale and Others, [Fuller as a Teacher in 1838-1839] (26-36); Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, [Fuller’s Conversations in 1839 and 1840] (37-46); Caroline Healy Dall, [Fuller’s Conversations in 1841] (55-62), in Fuller in Her Own Time. A Biographical Chronicle of Her Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates, Joel Myerson (ed.). Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2008.
Obligatory Secondary Literature:
Margaret Vanderhaar Allen, The Achievement of Margaret Fuller. University Park – London: Pennsylvania State UP, 1979. (Chapters 6: “Literary Criticism and the Arts” and Chapter 8: “Margaret Fuller’s America,” 78-96, 112-131)
Fuller as a Literary Critic
“Emerson’s Essays” (1-7); “Edgar A. Poe” (42-45); “Mrs. Child’s Letters” (119-120); [Review of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass] (131-133); [Review of Edgar Allan Poe, Tales] (153-154); [Review of Caroline M. Kirkland, Western Clearings] (267-270); [Review of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven and Other Poems] (271-276); [Review of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poems] (285-292); [Review of Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland; or, the Transformation and Ormond; or, the Secret Witness] (472-475), in Margaret Fuller, Critic. Writings from the New York Tribune, 1844-1846, Judith Mattison Bean & Joel Myerson (eds). New York: Columbia UP, 2000.
“American Literature; Its Position in the Present Time, and Prospects for the Future” in Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846: 122-143.
Fuller as a Social and Cultural Critic
[Henry R. Schoolcraft, Oneota, or the Red Race of America] (80-88); [Our City Charities. Visit to Bellevue Alms House, to the Farm School, the Asylum for the Insane, and Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island] (98-104); [Prevalent Idea that Politeness is too great a Luxury to be Given to the Poor] (128-130); “Asylum for Discharged Female Convicts” (134-137); “The Wrongs of American Women. The Duty of American Women” (233-239); “The Rich Man – An Ideal Sketch” (359-366); “The Poor Man – An Ideal Sketch” (375-383); “What Fits a Man to be a Voter? Is it to be White Within, or White Without?” (386-389), in Margaret Fuller, Critic.
Obligatory secondary literature:
Margaret Vanderhaar Allen, The Achievement of Margaret Fuller. University Park – London: Pennsylvania State UP, 1979. (Chapter 9: “Feminism,” 132-151.)
Cynthia J. Davis, “What ‘Speaks in Us”: Margaret Fuller, Woman’s Rights, and Human Nature,” in Margaret Fuller’s Cultural Critique. Her Age and Legacy. Fritz Fleischmann (ed.). New York: Peter Lang, 2000, 43-54.
Women Underrated and Abused
Woman in the Nineteenth Century, from the beginning to a break in the text (“She has a masculine mind.”). [gutenberg.org edition has no pagination]
On Marriage as Love and Friendship: Exemplars
Woman in the Nineteenth Century, from the break in the text to The Flying Pigeon.
Fuller’s Hermaphroditic Anthropology: The Masculine and the Feminine
Woman in the Nineteenth Century, from “Women of my country! – Exaltadas!” to the end.
Obligatory secondary literature:
Bell Gale Chevigny, “Mutual Interpretation: Margaret Fuller’s Journeys in Italy”; Francesco Guido, “Realism Idealism, and Passion in Margaret Fuller’s Response to Italy,” in Margaret Fuller. Transatlantic Crossings in a Revolutionary Age. Charles Capper and Cristina Giorcelli (eds). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007, 99-123, 156-171.
Entering Rome, Americans in Italy
“The Sad But Glorious Days,” Dispatch 14: Art, Politics, and the Hope of Rome; Dispatch 18: New and Old World Democracy
Revolution in Rome
“The Sad But Glorious Days.” Dispatch 26: Revolution in Rome; Dispatch 28: The Uncertain Future
The Fall of the Republic: Fuller the Italian
“The Sad But Glorious Days.” Dispatch 31: Between the Heaves of Storm; Dispatch 34: Bombardment and Defeat
Final test