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LITR 4328: American Renaissance  |
Final Exam Essays 2015 Sample answers
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Rachel Morris
11 May 2015
The Importance of the American Renaissance
For
me, this course has been a valuable learning experience, as it has enriched my
knowledge of American Literature. Up till know most of the authors I considered
great were of European origin, primarily British; I now have a new appreciation
for authors of my own country. The biggest idea I have learned this in this
course is the uniqueness of American literature. While American literature can
trace its origins to British traditions, such as Romanticism and the gothic,
what it does with those traditions independently is what makes it worth reading.
For example, American literature during this time period adapted the gothic
genre beautifully to capture the hellish conditions present in the iron mills of
West Virginia in Rebecca Harding Davis’ “Life in the Iron Mills.” James Fenimore
Cooper adapted the gothic tradition of ancient ruins and castles to the American
forests in “The Last of the Mohicans.”
The
research I did as a part of this course also extended this learning. For my
research, I examined the earliest form of the American gothic, and the factors
that influenced the first American novelists. This gave a good idea of what the
foundation for American gothic novelists was: the religious influences, the ways
it began to vary from the British Gothic, and specific adaptations. I also
researched further adaptations of the American gothic in contemporary female
novelists’ work, such as Flannery O’Connor and the grotesque. This gave an even
greater concept of how American authors made use of the genre, as well as
looking at the subject through the work of feminist critics, as I have learned
in other classes.
One of the highlights of this semester for me was the way the two literature
courses I took, this one and Genres and Perspectives, seemed to go hand in hand
for several weeks. This happened specifically as it applies to poetry. The two
courses coincided in the time period and kind of poetry studied, lyrical. Both
courses have taught me methods of reading and writing about poetry that I had
not approached before. I have always felt a kind of intimidation when it comes
to working with poetry, and I believe between reading and writing about poetry
in the two courses I have now overcome that.
I also found the literary-historical studies incredibly interesting. In our
dealings with slave narratives from this time period, we read “Incidents in the
life of a Slave Girl,” which I had read last semester for minority literature.
American Renaissance Literature, however, brought this book into a whole new
light for me. The new idea was looking at this historical literature through the
lense of the American Renaissance, and seeing the story as not only historical,
but also as a romance narrative. This new view brought a level of meaning to the
way the text was crafted that I had not encountered on previous readings. I
found the balance of historical texts to strictly literary texts to be rather
even. My only observation is that the historical texts seemed to be more
frequent specifically in the latter half of the semester, which I believe worked
well as far as the structure of the presentation of material goes, because I
allowed us as students to get a fairly comprehensive idea of what the American
Renaissance and its styles of writing were before applying these concepts to
historical texts.
I believe that studying the literature we did this semester will have a strong application to my career. As I plan to teach Secondary English, I believe what I have learned will have a positive impact on the literature I incorporate into my classroom studies. For example, in the 9th grade class during my internship, the students studied the figures of speech in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, as well as considering his allusions to Lincoln. I believe that, should my students study the MLK speech, it would also be important to understand the factors of the Lincoln speech he references, which is where tying in a mini-lesson on American Romanticism would be important. I also feel that I am now comfortable working with poetry and therefore better equipped to teach it. This semester I had to work closely with poetry and its conventions and overcome the level of intimidation I felt towards this form of writing. I have always found interpreting poetry a daunting task, but having looked at many poems from this era closely, I find myself not only being able to work with them, but also finding a level of enjoyment and appreciation as well.
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