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Early American Literature lecture notes |
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Enlightenment, Age of Reason > Romanticism Enlightenment / Romanticism
Founders challenge:
If "all men are created equal" with "unalienable rights," what is meant by men?
Are American ideals universal, or limited to people like the Founders? (propertied white men)
Temptation of America's riches and opportunity: Can we be governed? Can we govern ourselves? Or do we just "go for it?"
Charlotte Temple
What kinds of problems is Charlotte Temple trying to solve or deal with?
Woolman notes
mixed feelings:
admiration, emulation
lack of indulgence, comfort, human bonds of ease, indulgence
4 literacy
10 love of God > love for Creation
14-15 silence, watch for pure opening
22 cf. Thoreau voluntary simplicity
26 slaves, treatment varies > conversation
27 cf. Crevecoeur
31 inward stillness
35 deep-rooted customs, though wrong
38 plain style
40a bounds to our desires
45 cf. Crevecoeur on South
46 rationalizations of slavery + 48 biblical Cain, Ham
50 x-negro marriages
51 no contract
51 literacy for slaves + universality of God
56 questioning improvements
62 universalism, Thomas a Kempis
63 keeping down to that root from which our concern proceeded > sympathy
66 beyond family
68 too much labor x plainness, things useful
71 Indians in way of American Dream
71 solve social problems by becoming better people [Romantic?]
74 natives as well as negroes
76 magician episode; no use to the world
78 sailors, exampled
84 animal rights
Reading Woolman's Journal is like reading the life of a saint. What pleasures or rewards? What benefits and risks of reading moral or pious literature in public schools?
14-15 silence, watch for pure opening
31 inward stillness
62 universalism, Thomas a Kempis
66 beyond family
76 magician episode; no use to the world
What kinds of moral quandaries does Woolman face that prevent simple yes-no moralism? [43]
35 deep-rooted customs, though wrong; + compromises of business
62 universalism, Thomas a Kempis
How does Woolman differ from the Enlightenment?
10 love of God > love for Creation
56 questioning improvements
How does Woolman recall Plain Style & preview Thoreau and Civil Disobedience, voluntary simplicity, etc.
22 cf. Thoreau voluntary simplicity
38 plain style
40a bounds to our desires
68 too much labor x plainness, things useful
71 solve social problems by becoming better people [Romantic?]
Woolman as preview of Crevecoeur
45 cf. Crevecoeur on South
88
So
great is the hurry in the spirit of this world, that in aiming to do business
quickly and to gain wealth, the creation at this day doth loudly groan. . . .
Crevecoeur
3.2 no aristocratical families (Romanticism as common)
3.4 [melting pot]
3.5 this American, this new man?
3.6-7 American exceptionalism
3.7 principle of nature: self-interest (capitalism)
Letter IX. DESCRIPTION OF CHARLES-TOWN
9.3 chosen race, unfortunate one
9.5 minority vs. immigrant experience
9.6 For whom must they work?
9.7 Oh, Nature, where art thou?--Are not these blacks thy children as well as we? Declaration of Independence
Woolman as preview of Crevecoeur
45 cf. Crevecoeur on South
Letter 12, “Distresses of a Frontier-Man”
12.1 uncontaminated simple manners (noble savage)
[12.2] Their system is sufficiently complete to answer all the primary wants of man, and to constitute him a social being, such as he ought to be in the great forest of nature.
[12.5] By what power does it come to pass, that children who have been adopted when young among these people, can never be prevailed on to re-adopt European manners?
12.7 in their social bond something singularly captivating, and far superior to any thing to be boasted of among us; for thousands of Europeans are Indians, and we have no examples of even one of those Aborigines having from choice become Europeans!
12.8 more closely connected with nature than we are; they are her immediate children, the inhabitants of the woods are her undefiled offspring . . . .
Woolman 71 Indians in way of American Dream
Woolman as Romanticism
22 cf. Thoreau voluntary simplicity
38 plain style
40a bounds to our desires
68 too much labor x plainness, things useful
71 solve social problems by becoming better people [Romantic?]
10 love of God > love for Creation + 56
cf. Jonathan Edwards, Personal Narrative 4, 5, 6
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason 15, 18, 21, 23
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature 5 (nature and soul), 6-7
Whitefield
Whitefield: After the Constitution's separation of church and state, where does religion matter? What about Whitefield's sermons is potentially Romantic or contrary to Romanticism? What features of popular evangelical Christianity are familiar even today?
John Adams: How is "southern preaching" representative of the Great Awakening? What religious values of New England does Adams pose in opposition to those of the Southern USA?
1.1-2 family values under siege
1.4 early, primitive Christians
1.6 paranoia, conspiracy? cf. Salem Witch Trials
1.10 the great importance of Family Religion
1.11 you are fallen creatures--contrast Romanticism
1.11 by nature lost and estranged from God; and that you can never be restored to your primitive* [original] happiness, till by being born again of the Holy Ghost, you arrive at your primitive* state of purity
1.11 deep sense of God's free grace
2.1 a fallen world
2.2 egalitarian?
2.4 worldliness
2.9 new-birth cf. Emerson
2.10 hidden, powerful presence of Christ
2.10 feeling, sweet
2.10 natural state as hell
2.10 millennium, judgment day
3.3 Apostolic generation
3.5 partaker of the Divine Nature cf. Emerson
3.5 had he continued holy
3.5 partaker of the devil's nature
3.13 cf. Puritan covenant
3.18 x-worldliness, worldy status
3.21 life hidden; cf. Romantic inside
early novels
origins & forms of the novel--evolving genre
What are the identifying features of fiction or a novel?
Jefferson's letter on the novel--risks of Romanticism?
What is Romantic (or occasionally anti-Romantic) about the contents of early American novels?
If these are "bad novels," what do you learn about what makes good fiction?
Charlotte Temple
America as hyper-modern society
Problem
posed to generational love, continuity; cf. Declaration; Crevecoeur on “new”
Romanticism: Personal feelings & conscience must prevail in impersonal system
Evidence of literate culture: letters, notes
Displacement of villainy, but generational cycle continues,
family instability
Sample of epistolary novel: Pamela
Novel as private life x public life of real people
Narrative &
dialogue:
Belcour, La Rue as craft w/o heart
French villains < French Revolution 1789
Surprise: how much the story is about consequences for
Montraville
epistolary novel: Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)
1.3 15 years old
1.5 musket ball from the Americans
1.6 I never think of the future
1.9 a romantic attempt
2.2 small estate, independence, thrift
2.9 neat apartment [prison]
2.14 tear falls, emblematic
2.16 innocence x insult and dishonor
2.21 filial affection
3.1 son from rising bourgeoisie meets son of affluence
3.3 so specious was his manner
3.4
I gave my child a caution to beware of him, and to look on her mother as her
friend.
3.8 the truly brave soul
is tremblingly alive to the feelings of humanity
3.12
avowed his passion for
Lucy; declared her situation in life would not permit him to marry her; but
offered to release me immediately, and make any settlement on her, if George
would persuade her to live, as he impiously termed it, a life of honour.
3.20 both gone?
4.5
creditors
seized my house and
furniture
4.13 I can feel
4.26 marry for money?
5.1 never felt another’s woe
5.2
her heart unfeeling, her passions impetuous
5.5 the most affluent fortune would bring no increase of happiness unless Lucy
Eldridge shared it with him; and the knowledge of the purity of her sentiments,
and the integrity of his own heart
5.11 little cottage, dairy, garden [garden of Eden, domesticity]
Cut space at end of ch 5
6.2 Dangers of LaRue and international society
6.2 bolding and font
6.6 levity of conversation
6.9 handsome young soldier
6.10 direct address to sober matron
6.12 O my dear young girls [addresses reader]
7.2, 7.4 LaRue’s cunning manipulation of innocent (cf.
serpent)
7.6 hypocritical tears
7.12 choice b/w mother and peer
7.21 going to
7.26 authorial intrusion; diabolical envy
7.27
Mademoiselle eyed the unsuspecting
8.1 walking together in the garden
8.3 spoil her
8.4 mother + meek submissive duty of wife
8.7 example set
by best of mothers (cf.
8.10 pleasure as phantom, vain illusion
8.11 devoid of ornament (plain style)
8.11 her name is Content
8.15 her parent is Religion, her sisters Patience and Hope
8.16 authorial / editorial comment
8.18
9.1 imprudence, path of rectitude
9.6 Belcour as individualism, self
9.7 Montraville good-natured but misled by bad friend who encouraged growing passion
9.9
poor
10.1 primogeniture, genteel professions > America
10.3 Senior Montraville's fair advice, warning
11.4, 11.7 love for parents or partner?
11.8 return from America, restored to family
11.9 Charlotte, in an evil hour, consented
"should you, forgetful of your promises, and repenting the engagements you here voluntarily enter into, forsake and leave me on a foreign shore—"
[11.12] "Indeed I do repent," replied
12
12.16 suspense, possibility of escape from romantic destiny
12.27 fainted into carriage
13.1 prefiguring of lost wife and child
13.4 Creator / Mr. Eldridge
13.6 apartment = room
13.11 that French woman, your country (Du Pont) (displacement
of villainy; cf. spoiled aristocracy of Belcour and young man)
13.14 under the protection of a man
14.5 the fatal note, “bear it like a Christian”
14.6 a friendly gush of tears
14.7 a woman’s weakness
14.13 one misfortune worse than death
14.19 make her not a mother
14.21 my dear young readers . . . 14.22 remember your mother
15.1 embark for
15.2 pen and ink
15.4 tears up letter
15.11 bow before the power who inflicts it
15.12
follow the fortunes of
the hapless victim of imprudence and evil counsellors.
16.4 the character of La Rue
16.4 change her battery [plan of attack]
16.4 a feigned tale of distress
16.5 a dupe to the artifice of others
16.7 from under his hand a promise of marriage
16.9
revolution: Belcour for
17.7 he should be obliged to keep his word
17.8 he has changed his mind . . . the case is altered
17.9
A full sense of her own
situation rushed upon her mind. She burst into tears
17.10-11 Mrs. Beauchamp
17.14 the mistress of Montraville
17.15
correspondence
b/w face and heart
18.1
18.1 no friend of her own sex?
18.4
The duteous,
faithful wife, though treated with indifference, has one solid pleasure within
her own bosom, she can reflect that she has not deserved neglect
18.5
poor girl by
thoughtless passion led astray
18.5
no tie but honor,
and that, in a man who has been guilty of seduction, is but very feeble
18.5 a heart of sensibility
18.9 My dear Madam . . .
18.11 we erring mortals, great day of retribution
19.1
Julia Franklin
(add to character list)
19.2 a dreadful fire + Montraville’s general honor
19.2 miniature picture of Miss Franklin
19.3 forgets
19.8 “portrait of my mother”
19.10
I fear I have not
only entailed lasting misery on that poor girl, but also thrown a barrier in the
way of my own happiness
[19.16]
"I am a villain," said he mentally
20.2
unavoidable business
[ventriloquism]
20.4
FRIENDSHIP!
20.6
confidence in his honor
20.7 Belcour knew
but little of the female heart
a woman might fall
a victim to imprudence, and yet retain so strong a sense of honor, as to reject
with horror and contempt every solicitation to a second fault.
20.10 Mrs B, chance, gardens joined
20.12 accident
20.12
heavenly
satisfaction of comforting a desponding fellow-creature
20.13
20.16
who knows but she
has left some kind, affectionate parents to lament her errors, and would she
return, they might with rapture receive the poor penitent, and wash away her
faults in tears of joy.
21.3 we English people, reserve
21.4 spend the day with me
21.7
"I have forfeited
the good opinion of all my friends; I have forsaken them, and undone myself."
21.11-12 letters
22.2 letter to mother
22.3
forfeited the only gem that could render me respectable in the eye of the world
22.5
22.8
"If my child should be a girl (which heaven forbid) tell her the unhappy fate of
her mother, and teach her to avoid my errors
23.1
an independent
fortune, and resolved to be happy with the man of her heart, though his rank and
fortune
23.1
double cruelty in forsaking her at such a time; and to
marry Miss Franklin, while honor, humanity, every sacred law, obliged him still
to protect and support
23.4 sentimental friend
23.10
23.17
Oh Montraville," said
she, "kill me, for pity's sake kill me, but do not doubt my fidelity. Do not
leave me in this horrid situation; for the sake of your unborn child, oh! spurn
not the wretched mother from you."
23.18
entreating him to
believe her innocent, and conjuring Belcour to clear up the dreadful mystery.
24.1 servant
24.2
assumed
the part of a tender, consoling friend
24.4
a bribe, prevailed with her to promise whatever letters
her mistress might write should be sent to him.
[i.e., Belcour]
24.5 monitor [conscience]
24.10
I am a seducer, a
mean, ungenerous seducer of unsuspecting innocence
24.11
something in the voice! the manner! the look! that was altogether irresistible
24.13
she loved
Montraville
24.16
honor forbids
25.3 servant + letter
26.4
bent on the
complete ruin of the unhappy girl, and supposed, by reducing her to an entire
dependence on him, to bring her by degrees to consent to gratify his ungenerous
passion
26.6 letter to
26.10
not to use any
sophistical arguments to prevent her return to virtue
27.7
without a friend of my own sex to whom I can unburthen my full heart
27.9
the virtuous part
of my sex will scorn me,
and I will never associate with infamy
27.11
Something like humanity
was awakened in Belcour's breast by this pathetic speech . . . but the selfish
passion which had taken possession of his heart, soon stifled these finer
emotions
27.21 married, Eustatia
27.23
rioted in all the
intemperance of luxury and lawless pleasure.
28.1 reader speaks
28.1
so much fainting, tears,
and distress
28.2
I must request
your patience: I am writing a tale of truth: I mean to write it to the heart
28.3
does not La Rue
triumph in her shame
28.3
What then is the
moral
you would inculcate?
28.4
Remember the endeavors of
the wicked are often suffered to prosper, that in the end their fall may be
attended with more bitterness of heart; while the cup of affliction is poured
out for wise and salutary ends, and they who are compelled to drain it even to
the bitter dregs, often find comfort at the bottom
28.5
For
28.7 Colonel
Crayton was a domestic man
28.7 young Ensign
29.4, 29.8 realistic dialogue
30.2 letter to La Rue
30.3
snow began to fall
30.4-5 a work of this kind, the probability of my story?
31.15 John, fellow-servant
31.15 surgeon bled her
31.15 gave birth to a female infant
32.2
vice had not so entirely seared over his
heart, but the sorrows of Charlotte could find a vulnerable part.
32.4 dreadful images that haunted her distracted mind
32.6 Heaven forbid that I should be deaf to the calls of humanity.
33.1 never before beheld such a scene of poverty (Romantic rhetoric as extreme)
33.2 you are very good to weep thus for me
33.3 honest John
33.5 grant that the sins of the parent be not visited on the unoffending child
33.7 a man about forty (Mr Temple)
33.12 dramatic reunion
33.15 a sudden beam of joy (transcendence)
34.3 servant girl
illness, poverty, and a broken heart
34.4 tortured almost to madness
34.4 a funeral. Almost unknowing what he did, he followed
34.7 if thou wert the seducer of my child, thy own reflections be thy punishment.
34.7 Montraville kills Belcour
34.8 delirium, melancholy, weeps over grave
35 reconstitution of family
35.3 I am the viper
35.4 riot, dissipation, and vice, till, overtaken by poverty and sickness
35.5 striking example
Edgar Huntly
division of early American literature as novels
women's sentimental romances
men's gothic romances
(of course they cross)
1.3 emotions, psychology
1.6 tumult and dismay of soul
1.8 nocturnal journey in districts so romantic and wild as these; congenial to my temper (correspondence)
1.11 his inexplicable obstinacy
1.12 violent murder by night; no traces of the slayer (mystery)
1.15 The impulse was gradually awakened that bade me once more to seek the elm (elm as symbol?)
1.19 craggy and obscure path (wilderness gothic)
1.21 something indistinguishable
1.22 apparition
1.24 gothic lighting
[1.25] A figure, robust and strange, and half naked, to be thus employed, at this hour and place . . . .was it a grave he was digging?
1.26 such mighty anguish, such heart-bursting grief.
1.27 tears . . . . instead of one whom it was duty to persecute, I beheld, in this man, nothing but an object of compassion.
1.31 acted as if he saw nothing (sleep-walking)
1.32 weeping and sighs and more vehemence
1.33 his imperfect dress, the dimness of the light, and the confusion of my own thoughts, hindered me from discerning his features.
1.34 this person was asleep (somnambulism as gimmick)