LITR 4232 American Renaissance 2012 Student Midterm Samples #1. Long essay describing and focusing learning, challenges, issues concerning American Renaissance or American Romantic literature. (6-8 paragraphs)

Valerie Mead

Outside Looking In: My Double Life as a Literature Major and a Normal Human Being

          As a Literature major, most people in my family, as well as my boyfriend, and circle of friends, have absolutely no idea what I do in class all day, let alone how I can turn an activity that is becoming more and more negatively perceived, reading, into a worthwhile and sustainable career for my and others’ future.  I try to explain to them that art history majors do this all the time, so why should I not do the same myself?  However, this seems to be an unacceptable answer to most of the people in my life, as sarcasm, though usually a highly respected and utilized tool in the literary world (and one that goes back to Biblical times, no less!) does not seem to translate as well as I thought it would to non-Literature majors.  The only people who fully know and comprehend what exactly it is that I do are my peers in this field, who go though virtually the exactly the same problems as I do when it comes to explaining what we learn in our core classes, why it is relevant, and for what purpose we learn this select information.  Though there are the rare cases where your professor might actually remember (or at least try to remember) what it was like to be a student in this constantly changing and increasingly demanding field, for the most part, we Literature students are on our own, especially when it comes to explaining what we study and why.

          When studying a new subject, by far the most commonly repeated (and annoying) question is that of “why?”  If the question ever arose as to why I am studying the American Renaissance period and its literature, I would be quick with many answers to satiate the asking person’s interest.  First and foremost, I study this period of Literature because I want to focus on American Literature when I finally begin graduate school in the Fall.  The introduction to this period, the texts introduced, the history entwined with it, as well as the terms, objectives, and larger issues involved are all necessary for me as a student now and as well as helping me to get a solid base on which to build for my future educational goals.  Simply put, I am taking this course because I need to understand this period in order to do well in my chosen educational path.  I have taken many American Literature classes simply because of this, and this course is no exception.  However, I am also taking this course because I love this period in American history and I adore the reading material that came from that era.  Though I need this class to finish my current and future educational goals, I am also taking American Renaissance Literature simply because I am interested in the topic and wish to learn more about it.  I am genuinely curious as to what the influential authors of that day have to say, as well as what they have to contribute to the literary canon, and how their lives and works affected the society and culture around them.  This was a revolutionary time in our country’s history, which is obviously and subtly reflected in the literature of this period, which is why I find it so appealing.  With a literary education, everything seems to connect together, and you wind up learning much more than compared with other classes, as literature combines history, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and, of course, the actual aspects of the course that are literary in nature; this is the crux of why I love literature courses, and the basis for why I chose to sign up for one about the American Renaissance in the first place.    

          Once the initial question of “why” is sufficiently answered and put to rest, I would begin to focus more intensely on the issue itself (and probably giving my friends and family more than they ever wanted to hear on the subject!).  The person may then ask if I find the course worthy of staying in when they hear of the workload and assigned reading, or he or she could ask if the class met my expectations or not.  I would then reply that the course is turning out better than expected, since I prefer this professor and have a good number of friends attending the class with me.  This definitely helps to set a certain tone as it relates to the learning environment, making it a calm, safe, and wonderful way to learn and interact with my fellow classmates through active participation in discussion (which I NEVER do in other classes).  This environment makes it much easier to learn what is being taught because I am not intimidated by the professor, who seems to genuinely care about and respectfully listen to what the students are saying, and seems very passionate about everything to do with his chosen career path to boot.  This, combined with the fact that I have many good friends with which to learn, reflect, bounce ideas off of, and simply blow off steam with, certainly helps to lead to an environment that is conducive with learning and retaining the vital information about this chosen literary time period.  With student presentations every class, the professor has found a way to make us get involved and be active in our own education, as well as give us a means in which to avidly debate the meaning and importance of a specific work from this period.  This gives the class a sense of kinship that I personally feel is missing in all of my other classes.  Though there are student presentations, the professor leads the most important discussions, which assures me both that he cares about the class and that we all learn, but it also showcases how much he knows about the topic (which is always a lot!) and gives us a chance to interact on an intellectual level with someone who respects our thoughts and opinions, even though he knows more than all of us on the subject.  All of these aspects lead to an intellectual’s playground—we learn, but we can also love coming to class, which is rare at best.  Because the professor has set up such an educationally stimulating environment, I find that it is very easy to learn and remember the information that is covered in class, which should be something more educators make a priority in their teaching practices and methods.

          After I explain why I am studying the American Renaissance’s literature and the learning environment of the class, I imagine I would be asked the most important question of them all: What are you learning from this course?  To this question, there are many general and individualized answers.  Even though I have only attended five classes, I feel that I have learned a great deal about the American Renaissance in general, the social and cultural mores of the period, the literature produced in this time, as well as a great deal of general knowledge about literature and literary elements as a whole.  I have learned about the history of this time period through the web reviews on the history and important issues that took place then as well as from what can be gleaned from the assigned texts on the culture and the world around the characters and perhaps the authors.  These assigned works act as a base on which to build upon, as historical consciousness is necessary for a student to fully comprehend the written works from a course.  The class would not be a literature class without literature, but we do not simply learn from and study books and what they say (though obviously that is a component of what we do in this class and others), but also larger issues surrounding the works, the ideas behind it, and what goes on before, during, and after these works were published, in the author’s personal life as well as the world around him or her, all of which directly affects how I interpret a work.  I have already learned a great deal from this class, a lot of which came directly from the assigned text, but also from analysis of the unspoken subject matter within and around the work, which helped me to understand, and thus learn from, the issues, topics, and ideas surrounding this said text. 

While it is considered to be mandatory and most definitely should be done if one wishes to learn, the reading in this American Renaissance class is more of a stepping stone to learning a great deal more than about exactly what is written on the page.  This can be done by examining and analyzing the valuable information that can be gleaned from the social, historical, and cultural (or unspoken) contexts from the work.  From the assigned readings, I have learned many larger issues than the ones simply presented though the text, as well as several new (to me) terms, objectives, and themes.  First and foremost, I have learned about what exactly the American Renaissance is.  As a part of Antebellum American history, this literary period focuses on a troubled nation, one that was dealing with many serious problems and was on the cusp of one of the worst wars in our then short history (though it is still relatively short now, of course) as a country.  Once I learned more about the background, it was easier for me to understand the period and learn from it by applying this information to the authors from this time period, as well as how it either negatively or positively impacted the works they wrote.  I have also become aware of the fact that this Renaissance, like others before it, focused primarily on the works of white males.  However, a more recent look at history has given us an “alternative” (mainly women) and “minority” (primarily African Americans and Native Americans) literary Renaissance, showing us works and authors that were previously not considered for this period’s literary canon.  There is a definite and equal mix of these “different” Renaissances within our course, and it is reflected in the assigned works given; various authors, and thus opinions and viewpoints, are studied, including Poe, Whitman (both traditional), Dickinson, Warner (as women, both were considered to be “alternative” writers), Apess, and Truth (both are minority authors).   From this eclectic mix of authors, I have learned that the perspective from which a work comes is crucial to how it will be interpreted and understood.  I have also learned a great deal about the history of the world from which they came, the cultural and social mores these people typically had, as well as their basic priorities and what they valued.  From the assigned readings, I have also seen authors exhibit a definite shift in writing styles depending on when, where, and for what purpose they wrote their works; there is a shift from the Transcendental/Enlightenment methods that came before, to the Romantic elements seen in the American Renaissance, to the Realistic era of American Literature, all of which is captured in the assigned readings (though Romanticism is more predominant and widely studied for this period) for this class.  I have learned a great deal from this course simply by learning the background history, which I can then apply to the written texts that I have to read in order to understand even more than I would have if I had not done otherwise.    

Aside from learning about the history and texts of the American Renaissance, I have also learned about the writing styles, literary elements, and many other significant literary devices from this period as well.  The fact that the works are from an American Renaissance Literature course narrows the focus as to what terms, objectives, and larger issues are dealt with and discussed.  The terms I have learned from this class are the ones we have discussed the most—romanticism, gothic, and sublime.  Most of the works from the American Renaissance are considered to be romantic in nature, or to at least have some romantic elements within them.  I have learned that the term “romanticism,” when applied to this course, can mean default love stories, but it does not by any means always mean that.  Romance does not always mean the typical “happily ever after” ending, but it could be tragic, or just simply an amplification of an emotion.  A work could be romantic because it focuses on protagonist being tested in a manner which makes him/her a better person in the end, the character is trying to obtain grace through transcendence, and/or physical capture or injury with rescue.  It is important to remember that just because a work is romantic in nature, it does not necessarily have to be pleasant or positive per se, but it simply has to amplify the feelings and emotions that are presented; this is seen a lot in the American Renaissance.  Examples of Romantic works from this period include Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, which has elements of a typical love story, has a capture and rescue, many amplified emotions.  This is also seen in a majority of Emerson’s poetry from Nature, as nature is a very romantic element, especially the way Emerson sees it.  Also, Poe’s “Ligeia” fits the mold as well, as there is an obvious love story and there are definite amplifications of emotions, many of which are not always pleasant.  I also learned a great deal about what these romantic elements mean to the authors and the written work itself, as well as how I could and should apply this information to glean even more from the text.  Learning about the strong presence of romanticism within American Renaissance literature opened my eyes as to what the whole period was truly about. 

Though Romanticism is by far one of the most important themes in an American Renaissance literature class, it has subtopics that we focus on and learn about as well, primarily the ideas of the sublime and the gothic and how they pertain to literature.  The gothic theme as it applies to literature can be seen in many works, including poetry and novels, which are the main focus for study and interpretation of this format in this course.  Gothic literature can be broken into several subcategories, including Psychological, Moral, Space, Suburban, Urban, and Wilderness categories within gothic.  Evidence of the gothic is typically characterized by imagery, which can be seen with things like contrasting colors (typically between red, black, or white), light and dark (sometimes this is physical lighting, but often it is other, more important things, such as skin color), death and decay, repressed fears and desires, and by the concept of haunted places, especially forested areas in colonial America.  Examples of works with gothic elements from the American Renaissance include, but are not limited to, Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, and, of course, virtually any work by Edgar Allan Poe.  Now, if I explain the elements of the gothic to this person, I must then explain to them the elements of the sublime.  The sublime, simply put, is a persistent idea.  Sublime as a term or an idea is only in the academic world, but the concept of it is everywhere around us by way of our language.  This is seen through words and expressions such as “awesome,” “I’m speechless,” and “bodacious.”  Academically, however, the sublime is used to describe topics or written works.  Though the sublime can be used to describe things with sufficient aesthetic merit, it is used fairly differently in this class; this is done mainly by describing things such as danger, the mixture of pleasure and pain, threats, and the idea that beauty can be mixed with terror.  The sublime is something that transcends, overwhelms, even, human perception and expression.  Examples of the sublime can be found in many works from the American Renaissance, including the poetry in Emerson’s Nature, in Poe’s “Ligeia,” and many of Dickinson’s poems.           

Though all of the abovementioned issues are important and worthy of study, one must take into account the events and happenings of the time.  These events certainly influenced the writers from this period, which would then affect the things that they wrote; this alone leads one to believe that the study of world events from that time are important, if not crucial, to studying the works that were written at that time.  Many literary objectives were established or furthered during the American Renaissance, including the idea of Romanticism as well as its subtopics, the development of free verse (as seen specifically in the works of Whitman), and the rise and development of the novel as a literary work.  This period also dealt with the issues of increased literacy rates, which may have led to the massive expansion of the publishing industry.  This boom in the industry may have led to an increase of popular literature (as compared to classic literature) at the time, as well as possibly affecting what authors “should” write in order to make money and feed their families.  All of this would certainly affect the authors, which would most likely been seen in what they write and how they write it.  America at this time was on the verge of war—it was a drastic and deadly political and social climate.  This obviously would impact what was being written as well.  All of this is relevant because for a student to fully grasp what they are studying from this or any period, they must first understand the world as it was when the work was written.     

          So, if I were explaining my position to my loved ones or just to the ignorant masses, I would have just given them a very long-winded (and hopefully not too boring) explanation of what it is that I study and how I learn in a typical literature class, in this case specifically one focusing on the literature from the American Renaissance.  I gave them an overview of what exactly the American Renaissance was and how it is being seen now, because it is surprising how few people truly know what it was, let alone how that translates to the literary world.  After this, I broke down the more important aspects of what I have learned thus far in the course.  I would then end this long and boring conversation by telling the person that I hope the class stays exactly like it is, and that I continue to gain from it as I have been doing.