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(2013
midterm assignment) Index to Sample Student Midterm answers 2013 #1: Long Essay |
LITR 4232 |
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Britini Pond
The Richly Historical yet Challenging
American Renaissance
So far this semester in Dr. White’s American
Renaissance literature course the vast amount of knowledge that I have acquired
is insurmountable in comparison to previous classes thus far in my literature
degree. I have not only gained knowledge in regards to the literature of this
time period but I also learned a lot about the time period in which the works
were created. Dr. White provides such an enormous amount of information through
prose, poetry, novels and short stories while also focusing on the terms and
objectives of the time period.
Many literature courses that I have taken have talked
endlessly about the work produced in respective literary movements throughout
history, but rarely have they taken the time to explain why the time period is
what it is, or what it means to be involved in such a time throughout history.
This semester’s use of multiple forms of literary expressions have not only
expanded my knowledge on the subject, but has made me extremely interested in
this time during history and especially this type of literature.
The ability that the texts we’ve read so far
this semester to express the emotions and feelings of the people living during
this time is so profound because it adds a historical context to the work that
is palpable. While reading some of the poems I felt connected not only to the
work but to the poet as they were writing the work. Edgar Allan Poe is a
powerfully talented man. Reading Poe’s work, especially when explained in the
context of the American Renaissance and Romanticism, has had the ability to
change my outlook on poetry. I, admittedly, dreaded poetry and would just skate
my way through class hoping not to be called on because I not only did not enjoy
it but I did not understand it.
Poe’s
“Romance” and its ability to infuse the theme of nature in its lines makes it
possible for me to understand that the romantic period of literature and works
of romance are usually heavy laden with nature imagery.
I also learned this semester that works of romance include many other
characteristics, such as desire and loss, which are two emotions that readers
can feel in stanza 6 of Poe’s Romance,
“My draught of passion hath been deep/I reveled, and I would sleep/And
after-drunkenness of soul/Succeeds the glories of the bowl/An idle longing night
and day/To dream my very life away” (lines 1-6). Learning about the historical
context of the American Renaissance and all of its facets, helps me understand
the works produced because I can relate them to one another.
I also was able to relate societal
happenings to the current society I live in today, sometimes close to two
hundred years post the American Renaissance. For example, this semester we read
The Last of the Mohicans. This novel
was not only richly embedded with real emotions that generations of people had
felt in regards to the Native Americans and their slaughter after the
colonization of America; but it touched on a still controversial topic in
today’s society – interracial relationships. Uncas and Cora face much scrutiny
for their love for one another – it is taboo, not right, forbidden – but they
cannot help their feelings for one another even though they are not allowed to
be together. Interracial relationships are, to this day in some families,
completely forbidden. In some ways I do understand this way of thinking because
of some cultures’ completely opposite views and beliefs – thus leading there to
be an inability to mix peacefully. However, the fact that today’s society is not
the only time period that has faced such problems when it comes to love is a
revelation within itself. It is a look into the past that is so similar to my
present – though with some changes of course – that offers more insight into
this time period than I could have imagined it would.
The terms that I have learned this semester
have aided in my ability to identify with a text I am reading. Romanticism,
gothic, sublime and transcendentalism are all words that probably mean nothing
to a student who is going after a business degree – but to a literature major, I
can take those seemingly meaningless words and apply them to so much of what I
have previously read and apply them also to things I happen to read in my
future. We read the short story Rip Van
Winkle, and elements of the sublime and romance are textually evident
throughout the work. The story itself is a romance because at its roots, a
romance is a story that allows the reader to escape. Readers see Rip not only
trying to escape from his angry wife, but we also see him sleep twenty years of
his life away! If that is not an example of an escape then I do not know what
is. The sublime is indicative of something that is larger than life, over the
top, extreme which is seen when Rip goes to the mountains to find his escape.
Rip describes his view from the mountain by saying that one “could
overlook all the lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw
at
a distance the lordly Hudson,
far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the
reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there
sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands”.
These words bring to mind something so much more powerful and moving than what
the word “mountains” does. This is an example of the sublime, something that is
higher than one can even imagine.
The gothic is
also a major term in the American Renaissance. Gothic is described as including
aspects such as; light and dark, haunted houses or woods, blood or the color
red, amongst many other things. The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow embodies all of these descriptions. Irving, when
describing the town of Sleepy Hollow says that the people of the town
“frequently
see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood
abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions”. This
description gives life to the gothic nature of the rest of the story. Readers
now expect a spooky, mystical tale that would be typical of a gothic romance. I
repeat, understanding these terms is a vital part of understanding not only the
course itself, but understanding the works within the course and what they mean
for society and for history.
The American Renaissance embodies so much more than I could possibly put into
words in one essay. There are so many facets to not only this time period in
literature and the works that were produced during this time. They are rich with
historical influence and yet challenging in their meaning, lesson and
interpretation. The works we have read thus far this semester are timeless and
their applications are still felt to this day. The works have not aged as the
rest of the world and I believe that is the beauty of literature – its ability
to bypass all time and remain effective in its application to everyday
situations and current circumstances, regardless of when it was written. The
amount of knowledge I have learned this semester, I repeat, has been more than I
ever imagine and could have expected. I truly feel that I have a better grasp of
literature as a whole, midway through this course than I have felt my entire
literary career. The American Renaissance period has easily become my favorite
period in literary history.
