LITR 4328: American Renaissance

Model Assignments Final Exam Essays 2016 assignment Sample answers for A1. Overall Learning

Eric Howell

06 December 2016

The Absolute Diversity of the American Renaissance

          In regards to the American Renaissance, an era that produced a booming social affect and whose remnants can still be felt present day, there lies an almost boundless wealth of knowledge, taking form as complex nuances. Such a far-reaching period of American history must certainly be defined by the revolutionary moments of the time; however, almost paradoxically, when we attempt to define and describe such an intricate cycle, we inevitably leave out key characterizing components, which creates an inadequate explanation.

          This windy explanation of the immensity concerning the American Renaissance was exactly my experience this semester. Just as I thought I understood this particular time period, most particularly the literary elements hailing from this epoch, another aspect would roll in a thunderous manner, shaking my grasp and leaving me reevaluating the American Renaissance period as a whole. Concepts such as Romanticism, the gothic, and transcendentalism, to name a scant few, all have there own innate characteristics and elaborate branches of complexities. Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Frederick Douglass, prolific literary giants who could have entire classes devoted to their individual works, created an atmosphere of major league proportions and highlighted the semester with variation to style and delivery, providing a glimpse of just how innovatively different this era was. For the first time in American history, authors started producing works that went widely recognized, yet at the same time, American history started producing authors that seemingly have withstood the test of time.

Although an entire dissertation could be written over these authors and elements, as a future educator, I believe that one of the most important ideas concerning not only the literature of this period but the period of study itself within Dr. White’s class was the simple fact that there was just so much going on in this time period. A key reason for my emphasis on this aspect is the humbling of my own intellect. No matter how much I believe I know there is still always more to learn. For example, this particular era of time gave birth to not only Romanticism and the gothic, two major fissures stemming from American literature in which are widely known, but it was also one of the first moments in American history in which African American authors began to have a voice, and that voice began to be heard.

Albeit familiar with the names such as Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass and a vague sense of their works, I could not have told you these two iconic figures of literature surfaced from the roots of the American Renaissance before this class. These two authors in particular, although not producing nearly as much literature as fervent writers such as Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman, produced works that carry a multifaceted importance that perhaps goes beyond literary standing into a humanistic realm. Douglass’s A Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave provides readers with a historical sense of the time period while also alluding to Romantic elements throughout his work. For example, Douglass uses vivid Romantic stylization such as, “…make the dense old woods, for miles around, reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once the highest joy and the deepest sadness” allowing the audience to become enveloped in his own reality. In addition to Douglass, Sojourner Truth paves a path and provides insight to the happenings of the time. Truth’s tenacity is transcended through history by her speech Ain’t I a Woman? Asserting, “[the clergymen] says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.” Although Truth was unable to neither read nor write, her character and speech embody what the American Renaissance was and meant: progression.

Tying in with certain personal maturities and professional uses in regards to what the design of my curricula should be based on within classrooms, this particular class has taught me to view things with as wide a scope as possible. There should be as much diversity in an educational setting as possible in order to accurately and honestly depict the “big picture” of human society.  Why simply focus solely on Poe or Henry David Thoreau? Why briefly touch on Emily Dickinson? Why not try to expose students to as many faces of this vastly rich period literature? Obviously time is an educator’s arch nemesis; however, innovation and determination have provided many with still greater results, much like those surfacing from the American Renaissance.