RALPH BAUER3126 Tawes HallDepartment of English and Comparative LiteratureUniversity of Maryland,College Park, MD 20742

Phone: 301 405 9647E-Mail: bauerr@umd.eduwebsite: "http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/home.html"

CMLT277/ENGL278L: LITERATURES OF THE AMERICAS

Office hours: T/TH 2-3pm

Lecture:

o T/TH........ 12:30pm- 1:30pm (KEY 0106)

Discussion

o Section 0101(67863): F......... 9:00am- 9:50am (BPS 1124)

o Section 0102(67864): F.........10:00am-10:50am (BPS 1236)

o Section 0103(67865): F......... 9:00am- 9:50am (TLF 1103)

o Section 0104(67866): F.........10:00am-10:50am (TLF 1103)

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o Section 0105(67867): F.........11:00am-11:50am (PLS 1158)

o Section 0106(67868); F.........12:00pm-12:50pm (PLS 1119)

Course Webpage: http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/teach/index/CMLT277/home.html

1. Course Description

In this course, we will comparatively study the literatures of several North, South, and Central American cultures with a focus on the specificities, similarities, and divergences of their literary and cultural texts from the fifteenth century to the present. Some of the topics we will consider include the literatures of the European discovery and conquest, the cultural encounters in the early Americas, colonialism and colonial cultures, the independent movements, and the neo- and post-colonial American nation states.

2. Learning Outcomes:Students in the class will gain familiarity and facility with the basic vocabulary and concepts of the literatures, histories, and cultures of the Western hemisphere, as well as of the legacies of the colonial encounters between multiple cultures in the Americas from the late fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries. They will develop their critical skills in the evaluation of primary literary and cultural archival materials of the Americas. They will practice their ability to formulate a thesis related to comparative literary and cultural studies and to support the thesis with evidence and argumentation. They will learn about fundamental concepts and methods that produce knowledge about plural societies and human diversity. They will learn to analyze literary and cultural traditions in relation to the specific cultural, historical, political, and social contexts of the colonial and postcolonial Americas. And they will study comparative, intersectional, or relational framework to examine the diverse historical experiences of the various cultures comprising the Western hemisphere.

3. Texts (on order at the UMD Book Center and the Maryland Book Exchange)

Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead ISBN 978-0140173192 The Wadsworth Themes in American Literature, vols. 1 and 4. ISBN 978-1428262409/

978-1428262386

RigobertaMenchú, I, RigobertaMenchú. ISBN B0042F1F5I

Gabriel GarcíaMárquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude. ISBN 978-0060883287

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Sab and Autobiography. ISBN-13: 978-0292704428

Herman Melville, Bartleby and Benito Cereno. ISBN-13: 978-1420925494

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Anon., Xicotencatl ISBN-13: 978-0292712140

Additional materials will be made available via the on-line course syllabus

4. Assignments and Grading:

A) Papers: There will be two 5-7 page papers of literary analysis. Each paper will account for 20% of your final grade. For paper deadlines and topics, see the class syllabus. Each paper will involve one preliminary draft and one final draft, due two weeks apart from one another. The preliminary draft is not graded but required in order to receive a comment. COMMENTS WILL BE GIVEN ON PRELMINARY DRAFTS ONLY. NO COMMENTS WILL BE GIVEN ON FINAL DRAFT. Your final draft will only contain your grade.

B) a one-page, single-spaced response paper to one of the movies we will be watching as part of this course. The response paper is due twelve days after the movie is shown (10%).

C) Short Response Exercises. There will be frequent short response exercises during lectures and discussions. These exercises will not be individually graded but figured in collectively with your participation grade.

D) midterm exam (10%).

E) final exam (20%). The questions from the final exam will be selected from a study hand-out, which will be distributed one week before the exam.

F) Participation (20%). You will be expected to participate in class discussions frequently. In both lecture and discussion sections, there will be brief writing exercises in which you will be asked to reflect on your reading. (See "Short Response Exercises").

5. Attendance

Attendance is required and will be considered in the computation of your participation grade. You can take up to three unexcused absences without adverse effect on your participation grade. Beyond the first three, every unexcused absence will affect your participation grade adversely. In order to have an absence excused for medical or other legitimate reasons, you will have to provide documentation.

6. Academic Integrity

It is important for you to be aware of UMD's policies on academic integrity and of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity, please visit http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/whatis.html.

7. Course policy w/r to University's Emergency Preparedness

In case of an extended closure of the University due to an emergency, all course assignments, lectures, and notes will be posted via email. Papers will be submitted via email. Discussion

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sections will meet "virtually" during regular times and communicate via the On-Line Discussion Forum.

8. Special Needs

If you have a registered disability and wish to discuss accommodations with me, please let me know. Disabilities can be registered through Disability Support Services (4-7682 or 5-7683 TTY/TDD).

Course Schedule PART I: THE LITERATURES OF THE COLONIAL AMERICAS

o WEEK I.

T 9/1: Introduction

TH 9/3: Christopher Columbus: Diaro and Letters (on-line). Presentation.

F 9/4: Discussion, co-ordination, organization.

Movie of the week: Ridley Scott, 1492, the Conquest of Paradise (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on TH, 9/3, pm at 6:30 Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

o WEEK II.

T 9/8:

Bartolomé de Las Casas, from The Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (on-Line) (Presentation).

ÁlvarNúñezCabeza de Vaca,The Account(on-line). (Presentation)

TH 9/10: Florentine Codex ,Songs of the Aztecs, and PopulVuh (in Wadsworth Themes). Presentation.

F 9/11: Discussion

Movie of the week: NicolásEchevarría, Cabeza de Vaca (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 9/10, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

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o WEEK III T 9/15: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, from The True History of the Conquest of

Mexico (on-line) (Presentation)

TH 9/17: no class. (Begin reading Xicotencatl).

F 9/18: Discussion

o WEEK IV

T 9/22: from Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, La Florida del Inca (on-line). Presentation.

TH 9/24: no class (continue reading Xicotencatl.

F 9/26: Discussion. DRAFT PAPER # 1 DUE. For suggested topics, click here

Movie of the week: Bruce Beresford, Black Robe (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 9/24, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

o WEEK V

T 9/29: Marina de San Miguel and Luis de Carvajal (on-line). Presentation.

TH 10/1: Presentation.

Anne Hutchinson (on-line).

Salem Witch Trial Papers (on-line).

Cotton Mather (on-line).

F 10/2: Discussion

Movie of the week: Philip Leacock, Three Sovereigns for Sarah (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 10/1, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

o WEEK VI

T 10/6: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, The Answer and poems (on-line). Presentation.

TH 10/8: Phillis Wheatley, Selected Poetry, and Hamond, "An Address" (in Wadsworth Themes). Presentation.

F 10/9: Discussion

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FINAL DRAFT PAPER 1 DUE

Movie of the week: Maria Luisa Bemberg, I, the Worst of All (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 10/8, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

o WEEK VII T 10/13: Equiano, The Interesting Narrative (on-line). Presentation.

TH 10/15: Midterm Exam

F 10/16: Discussion

Movie of the week: Michael Apted, Amazing Grace. (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 10/15, 7 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

PART II: THE EARLY AMERICAN NATION STATESo WEEK VIII

T 10/20: Presentation

Bolívar, "Jamaica Letter" (in Wadsworth Themes)

Heredia, "To Niagara" (in Wadsworth Themes)

Bello, "Agriculture in the Torrid Zone" (in Wadsworth Themes).

TH 10/22:Xicotencatl(in paperback) Presentation.

F 10/23: Discussion

o WEEK IX

T 10/27: Avellaneda, Autobiography and Sab (in paper-back). Presentation.

TH 10/29: Avellaneda, Sab, cont.

F 10/30: Discussion.

Movie of the week: Maria Luisa Bemberg, Camila. (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal

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viewing on Thursday 10/29, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

o WEEK X

T 11/3: Melville, Benito Cereno (in paper-back). Presentation.

TH 11/5: Melville, Benito Cereno

F 11/6: Discussion

Movie of the week: Stephen Spielberg, Amistad. (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on TH 11/5, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

PART III: MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURESo WEEK XI

T 11/10: José Martí, "Our America"; Rubén Darío, "A Roosevelt/To Roosevelt" (on-line). Presentation.

TH 11/12: RigobertaMenchú, I, RigobertaMenchú (in paper-back). Presentation.

F 11/13: Discussion

Movie of the week: Gregory Nava, El Norte. (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 11/12, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

o WEEK XII

T 11/17: Gabriel GarcíaMárquez, "The Solitude of Latin America" (on-line) One Hundred Years of Solitude (paper-back). Presentation.

TH 11/19: GarcíaMárquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, cont. Presentation

F 11/20: Discussion

Movie of the week: Mike Newell, Love in the Time of the Colera. (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 11/19, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

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o WEEK XIII T 11/24: GarcíaMárquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, cont.

Presentation

TH 11/26: Thanksgiving break

F 11/27: Thanksgiving break

o WEEK XIV

T 12/1: Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead (paper-back). Presentation.

DRAFT PAPER 2 DUE. For suggested topics, click here

TH 12/3: Silko, Almanac of the Dead, cont.

F 12/4: Discussion

o WEEK XV

T 12/8: Silko, Almanac of the Dead cont.

TH 12/10: Review

F 12/11: Discussion

Movie of the week: Chris Eyre, Smoke Signals. (Note: you may download the film and watch it on your computer or attend the communal viewing on Thursday 12/10, 6:30 pm at Non-Print Media Services, Hornbake Library)

FINALS WEEK

o Friday, December 18, 1:30-3:30: Final Exam. For the exam study page, click here. FINAL DRAFT PAPER 2 DUE

RESOURCES

On this page, you can find printed and on-line sources that are suggested for further reading and reference. If you choose to use these (or any other) resources in your written work, be sure to document your use properly.

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Basics

In your papers for this class, you can use either of the two styles of citation customary in the Humanities---the MLA Style or the Chicago Style. You can find a brief summary of these two styles of citation here.

Expectations and Standards

By university policy, a grade of "A" stands for "excellent;" "B" for "good;" "C" for "adequate," "D" for "inadequate," and "F" for "Failing."

In this class, the criteria for evaluating papers are as follows: 1. does the paper closely engage and work with the primary readings? 2. does it articulate an original and interesting idea, thesis, or claim about the primary

reading?

3. does it develop a coherent and persuasive argument?

4. does it support its points with specific textual evidence?

5. does it pay attention to literary/rhetorical form, style, and language?

6. does it display awareness of the text's historical context?

7. does it provide a critique of authorial perspective?

8. does it scrutinize the text's strategies of representation?

9. does it use language effectively, lucidly, and grammatically?

10. does it accurately document its sources?

Suggested further background readings for the first part of the course ("The Literatures of the Colonial Americas") at McKeldin Library:

Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy.

Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest

Edmundo O'Gorman, The Invention of America: An Inquiry into the Historical Nature of the New World and the Meaning of its History

TzvetanTodorov, The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other.

Gordon Brotherston, Book of the Fourth World: Reading the native Americas through their Literature

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Gordon Sayre, Les SauvagesAmericains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Colonial Literature

Greene, Roland. Unrequited Conquests: Love and Empire in the Colonial Americas

David Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment Greene, Roland. Unrequited Conquests: Love and Empire in the Colonial Americas

Octavio Paz,Sor Juana, or the traps of faith

Henry Louis Gates, The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism .

On-line Resources Discoverers Web Christopher Columbus and Early European Exploration. A Guide to the Collections of

the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the New York Public Library.

The Columbus Landfall Homepage

Columbus and the Age of Discovery

Suggested further background readings for the second part of the course ("THE EARLY AMERICAN NATION STATES") at McKeldin Library:

Belnap, Jeffrey, and RaúlFernández, eds., José Marti's “Our America”: From National to Hemispheric Cultural Studies.

Brickhouse, Anna. Transamerican literary relations and the nineteenth-century public sphere.

DeGuzman, Maria. Spain's Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness, and Anglo-American Empire.

Goudie, Sean. Creole America: The West Indies And the Formation of Literature And Culture in the New Republic.

Gruesz, Kirsten. Ambassadors of Culture: the transamerican origins of Latino Writing

Handley, George. Postslavery Literature in the Americas.

---. New world poetics : nature and the adamic imagination of Whitman, Neruda, and Walcott.

Jehlen, Myra. American Incarnation. The Individual, the Nation, and the Continent

Kazanjian, David. The Colonizing Trick. National Culture and Imperial Citizenship in Early America

Lazo, Rodrigo. Writing to Cuba: Filibustering and Cuban Exiles in the United States

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Mautner-Wasserman, Renata. Exotic Nations: literature and cultural identity in the United States and Brazil

Murphy, Gretchen. Hemispheric Imaginings: The Monroe Doctrine and Narratives of U.S. Empire

Nwankwo, Ifeoma C. K. Black Cosmopolitanism: Racial Consciousness and Transnational Identity in the Nineteenth-Century Americas

Suggested further background readings for the third part of the course ("MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURES") at McKeldin Library:

BenítezRojo, Antonio,.. The Repeating island : the Caribbean and the postmodern perspective.

Cohn, Deborah. History and Memory of the Two Souths: Recent Southern and Spanish American Fiction.

Cox, Timothy. Postmodern Tales of Slavery in the Americas: From AlejoCarpentier to Charles Johnson.

Fitz, Earl, Rediscovering the New World. Inter-American Literature in a Comparative Context.

Gale Chevigny, Bell, and GariLaguardia, eds., Reinventing America. Comparative Studies of the Literature of the United States and Spanish America.

Hiraldo, Carlos. Segregated miscegenation: on the treatment of racial hybridity in the U.S. and Latin American literary traditions.

Kaup, Monika, and Debra Rosenthal. Mixing Race, Mixing Culture: Inter-American Literary Dialogues.

Muthyala, John. Reworlding America: Myth, History, and Narrative

Pérez Firmat, Gustavo. ed., Do the Americas have a Common Literature?

Saldívar, José David. The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History

Zamora, Lois Parkinson. Writing the Apocalypse Historical Vision in Contemporary U.S. and Latin American Fiction

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Appendix B: Paper Assignment # 1

1. Compare Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative to the writings of Christopher Columbus.2. Compare the versions of the conquest of Mexico in the "Aztec accounts of the conquest" and in

Bernal Díaz del Castillo's True History of the Conquest of Mexico.

3. In much of the literature we’ve discussed so far, the New World is represented as a more ‘primitive’ version of the Old. By comparing two texts of your choice, discuss the ‘primitivism’ in European representations of America.

4. Compare the text of Cabeza de Vaca to that of Bernal Díaz del Castillo in respect to the philosophy of Bartolomé de las Casas.

5. Compare the story of Juan Ortiz in Garcilaso’s The Florida of the Inca to the story Doña Marina in Bernal Díaz del Castillo's True History of the Conquest of Mexico

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6. Focusing on one or two texts of your choice, discuss the tension between tradition and experience in the literature of the European discovery of America.

7. Discuss the issue of “inter-culturalism” in early Native American literatures. Themes you might focus on include the encounter between mono-theistic and poly-theistic religions or the encounter between alphabetical and non-alphabetical forms of textuality.

8. Compare one or more early Native American texts as 'writing as resistance.'

9. Compare the cultural function of prophecy in at least two texts that you have read for this class.

10. Compare the Popul Vuh to other creation stories with which you are familiar.

11. In lecture and sections, we have discussed how early modern texts subscribe to a concept of "truth" that is different from our modern concept of truth. Thus, we have observed that the modern category of "fiction" depends in part on a modern idea of truth defined as "factual," while "fact" and "fiction" were not fully disaggregated in 16th- and 17th-century literature. By focusing on two texts of your choice that we have discussed this semester so far, compare their concept of "truth." Particular sub-questions you may want to address include: what are the implications of their notion of truth with regard to the issues of "evidence" and "authority"? What counts as "authority" for the author. What stylistic and thematic devices does the narrator employ to establish his or her claim to authority?

12. In lecture and sections, we have observed that the various European powers in the New World pursued various economic and/or political interests. How do these various interests manifest themselves formally in the texts we have read? By discussing two texts of your choice, you may focus on formal aspects such as style, narration, or imagery.

13. Compare the court documents relating to the trials of Anne Hutchinson and Marina de San Miguel, as well as the trials of the women accused as witches at Salem.

14. Discuss the rhetoric of nature in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's defense of the right of women to learn.

15. Discuss the use of an African poetic persona in Phillis Wheatley's poetry.

General Guidelines:1. If you have an idea of your own you'd like to write about, pls. run it by me or your TA for

approval. We encourage you to formulate your own topic but require that you first discuss it with us.

2. In the header information of your paper, clearly indicate to which question you are responding.

3. As mentioned on your syllabus and on our first day of class, you will need to turn in a preliminary draft in order to receive a comment on your paper. The final draft will contain a grade only, no comment. You are therefore STRONGLY encouraged to turn in a preliminary draft.

4. Secondary research (i.e. references to works other than the primary texts) is encouraged but not expected. If you do choose to consult secondary sources, such as critical commentary, you must properly document and acknowledge it.

5. Papers will be evaluated according to the following criteria: a. does the paper advance an informed, interesting, intelligent, and original thesis about the primary text(s) in question that pertinently responds to the chosen or formulated topic.

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b. does the paper support this idea with points that are clearly pertinent and relevant? c. does the paper support these points with direct references and/or citations from the primary texts? d. Is the paper written clearly, lucidly, and stylistically sound? For further guidelines, see the "Resources" page.

6. If you choose a topic that invites you to “compare” two texts, address both thematic AND stylistic elements of the text in the comparison and discuss both similarities and differences, explaining the significance of the similarities and differences that you find.

7. All citations from the primary texts must refer to the editions used in this class. If there is a reason why you want to use a different edition or version of your text(s) (such as a full-text version, rather than the anthologized excerpts), you must obtain permission from me or your TA BEFORE you submit. your preliminary draft.

8. All papers must be formatted according to one of the two citation styles customary in the Humanities--the "MLA style" or the "Chicago style." For a summary of these two documentation styles, see http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/teach/styles.html

 

Appendix C: PAPER ASSIGNMENT # II

1. Compare the treatment of the issue of race in Olaudah Equiano's narrative and Philis Wheatley's poetry and prose.

2. Compare the poems by Andrés Bello and José María Heredia.

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3. Compare two texts of your choice in their uses of the Romantic idea of the 'sublime'.

4. A number of the nineteenth-century texts that we have read make use of the theme of slavery not only in a literal sense (i.e. Native American slavery, African slavery) but also in a metaphoric sense. Compare two or three texts of your choice in this regard.

5. A number of texts we have read tell an author's life story and oscillate in their representation of the 'self' between an exemplary self and a particular self. Compare this tension between the ideas of the exemplary and the particular self in two texts of your choice.

6. Compare the 'creole nationalism' of Xicoténcatl to that of one other text of your choice.

7. Compare the use of sentimentalism in two texts of your choice.

8. Compare the character of Sab in Avellaneda's Sab to the character of Babo in Melville's "Benito Cereno."

9. Compare the narrators in in Avellaneda's Sab to the narrator in Melville's "Benito Cereno."

10. A number of texts we have read this semester make use of the figure of the 'noble savage'. Compare how this figure functions rhetorically in two texts of your choice.

11. Several texts we have read this semester fuse the genres of life writing ('autobiography') with the genre of the testimonial, the socially and politically charged narrative of eye-witnessing. Compare how this fusion functions rhetorically in the narrative of Rigoberta Menchú and another texts of your choice.

12. In a number of texts from Latin America that we have read, the 'Anglo' (American) has an ambivalent or even problematic valence. Compare the representation of the 'Anglo' (American) in two texts of your choice.

13. Compare two texts written by Euro-American 'creoles' in their rhetorical use of "indigenism", i.e. their rhetorical use of images of Native Americans (or Native America).

14. In "The Solitude of Latin America," Gabriel García Márquez invokes the accounts of the early European explorers of the New World in order to theorize (Latin) American narrative, where the "crucial problem” (he says) has been a lack of objective linguistic means to render subjective experience believable. Compare this 'chasm' between Old World languages and subjective New World experiences in García Márquez's novel A Hundred Years of Solitude and one fifteenth- or sixteenth-century narrative of discovery or conquest.

15. Compare the role of (New World) history, and the relationship between past and present, in García Márquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude and Silko's Almanac of the Dead.

General Guidelines:1. If you have an idea of your own you'd like to write about, pls. run it by me or your TA for

approval. We encourage you to formulate your own topic but require that you first discuss it with us.

2. In the header information of your paper, clearly indicate to which question you are responding.

3. As mentioned on your syllabus and on our first day of class, you will need to turn in a preliminary draft in order to receive a comment on your paper. The final draft will contain a grade only, no comment. You are therefore STRONGLY encouraged to turn in a preliminary draft.

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4. Secondary research (i.e. references to works other than the primary texts) is encouraged but not expected. If you do choose to consult secondary sources, such as critical commentary, you must properly document and acknowledge it.

5. Papers will be evaluated according to the following criteria: a. does the paper advance an informed, interesting, intelligent, and original thesis about the primary text(s) in question that pertinently responds to the chosen or formulated topic. b. does the paper support this idea with points that are clearly pertinent and relevant? c. does the paper support these points with direct references and/or citations from the primary texts? d. Is the paper written clearly, lucidly, and stylistically sound? For further guidelines, see the "Resources" page.

6. If you choose a topic that invites you to “compare” two texts, address both thematic AND stylistic elements of the text in the comparison and discuss both similarities and differences, explaining the significance of the similarities and differences that you find.

7. All citations from the primary texts must refer to the editions used in this class. If there is a reason why you want to use a different edition or version of your text(s) (such as a full-text version, rather than the anthologized excerpts), you must obtain permission from me or your TA BEFORE you submit. your preliminary draft.

8. All papers must be formatted according to one of the two citation styles customary in the Humanities--the "MLA style" or the "Chicago style." For a summary of these two documentation styles, see http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/teach/styles.html

9. Comparison: Many of the topics are asking you to compare two texts. If you are comparing two things, you need to talk about similarities and differences. Most of all, you need to RELATE THEM TO ONE ANOTHER. In order to compare two things, you need a COMMON DENOMINATOR. That is, when you talk about aspects A, B, and C in text #1, you need to talk about these SAME aspects (A, B, and C) in text #2--and in the same order. When you discuss text #2, make sure that you refer back to text #1. This can be done by using effective transitions. This way of structuring your comparison may be schematized like this:

1. Text 1 1.1. Aspect A 1.2. Aspect B 1.3. Aspect C

2. Text 2 2.1 Aspect A 2.2. Aspect B 2.3. Aspect C

Another way of structuring your comparison would be like this: 1. Aspect A 1.1. Text 1 1.2. Text 2 2. Aspect B 2.1 Text 1 2.2. Text 2 3. Aspect C

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3.1. Text 1 3.2. Text 2

 

 

Appendix D: Midterm Exam Study Sheet

ENGL277: Literature of the Americas Ralph BauerMidterm Exam Spring, 2009

The exam lasts for 75 minutes. Spend approximately 5 minutes scanning the rest of the exam and planning your answers. You should plan to spend approximately 15 minutes on Part I, 20 minutes on Part II, and 35 minutes on Part III. You may use notes and printed texts, but no electronic equipment. Write all of your answers into the exam book. (This exam sheet will be thrown away).

Part I [30 points; 15 minutes]

Briefly identify and explain the significance of FIVE of the following terms, giving one example each from the readings of its relevancy to the literature of the Americas.

Reconquista, Converso, Allegory, Representation, Pre-lapsarianism, primitivism. Golden Age , Mysticism, Millenarianism, Ethnocentrism, Cultural relativism, Cultural absolutism, deductivism, inductivism, providentialism, verisimilitude, metis, just war, rights of conquest, natural slavery, natural lordship, Scholasticism/Thomism, Black Legend, Amplification, Hyperbole, sermocinatio, peaceful conquest, hagiography, trickster tale, polytheism, monotheism, syncretism , inter-culturalism, hybridity, diabolism, encomienda. Relación, cultural broker, meritocracy, typology, plain style. Gothic., Baroque, visible sainthood, covenant of grace, covenant of works, Justification, Sanctification, Antinomianism , Armenianism, Calvinism , Bacchanalia, theocracy, American exceptionalism, Jeremiad

Part II [30 points; 20 minutes]

Choose the one answer (a, b, c, or d) that best identifies each passage below.

Part III [40 points; 35 minutes]

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Choose three of the ten passages below and write two brief commentaries for each one as directed below, supporting your answers with specific textual evidence.

a) Comment on the ways in which the passage exemplifies a major theme and/or rhetorical strategy of the text from which it comes.

b) Compare the treatment of the theme you have identified in (b) to its treatment in a text by another author from our syllabus.

GRADING SCALE

Grade  %

A+    100-97 A       96-93 A-      92-90 B+     89-87 B        86-83 B-      82-80 C+      79-77 C        76-73 C-      72-70 D+     69-67 D        66-63 D-      62-60 F        59-0

Appendix E

Final Exam Study Page

 Below, you will find questions, arranged in two sections, A and B. Section A is cumulative and section B focuses on the second half of the course (since the midterm). Your final exam will contain three questions from section A, and four questions from section B exactly as they appear here. In your exam, you will have to answer ONE question from section A (worth 30% of your grade) and TWO questions from section B (worth 10% each).

In addition, there will be a third section, C (not included here), with 10 multiple choice questions asking you to identify passages from the readings (in total worth 30% of your grade). The passages in this section will be taken from the second half of the course (since the midterm).

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Finally there will be a fourth section, D (not included here), where you will be asked to define 5 terms/concepts and to provide examples from the readings. This section will account for 20% of your grade.

The exam will last two hours. You can bring all your notes and books to the exam (but no electronic equipment). You will have to write ALL your answer in the exam book passed out during the exam. 

 

CATEGORY A:

1. In this course, we read texts from the English and Spanish literatures about the New World. Are the literatures in these two languages comparable? By drawing from two texts from different cultural/linguistic origins, discuss common themes as well as differences across these literatures.

2. Beginning with the writings of Christopher Columbus, the New World has often been represented in terms of a Classical “Golden Age” or a Judeo-Christian “Eden”, both of which carried the strong connotation of a primal “innocence” coming before an inevitable decline or fall. By drawing from three texts from various centuries and arranged in chronological order, discuss how the motifs of “innocence” and “fall” persist, develop, and transform in the literatures of the Americas.

3. In this course, we have read several texts by authors of non-European ancestry expressing themselves in European sign systems, languages, literary genres, and/or rhetorical conventions. By drawing from three texts from three different centuries and arranged in chronological order, compare how and to what purpose authors of non-European ancestry have appropriated the European media and/or idioms.

4. Since the American independence movements, American authors have often struggled to define a distinctly "American" literature that would  articulate new aesthetic ideals corresponding to the new political realities of the young nation states while yet drawing on the linguistic, literary, generic, and cultural traditions of Europe. Discuss three texts, in chronological order, that manifest different views with regard to an American cultural/literary independence and nationalism while yet having to work, to some degree, within a European literary tradition. How do these writers agree or disagree about what an "American" literature and national identity should be like? Are there any differences with regard to race, nationality, ethnicity, or gender of the authors in question?

5. Several of the texts we have read this semester engage with apocalyptic prophecies foretelling the end of a particular age, society, and/or of a particular social order. Compare how apocalyptic prophecy functions in three texts of your choice, arranged in chronological order.

6. Several of the texts we have read this semester were authored by women writers who engage in a critique of male-dominated society and/or traditions of literary authorship. Discuss by comparing the texts of three women writers from three different centuries.

7. Since the first European arrival (and probably before), the New World has been a place where various religious traditions met, collided, and (to various degrees and in various manners) interacted with one another. Discuss the theme of “religious encounters” in the literatures of the Americas by comparing three texts from different centuries, including the twentieth.  

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8. Since the sixteenth century, the history of the European discovery, conquest, and colonization (or invasion) of the Americas has been closely related to the history of capitalism in the West. Compare how three texts from three different centuries represent the issue of ‘commodification’ (of nature and/or of human beings). What alternatives (if any) to commodification in human relationships to nature and to other humans do these texts imagine?

9. Many of the texts we have read this semester tell (or re-tell) the story of the European ‘conquest of America’—the story of the ‘discovery’ of the New World by the Europeans, the creation of a ‘modern’ social order, and the imposition of Euro-centric ways of life and of understanding the world upon non-European peoples. Yet, some texts also tell the story of the persistence of non-European cultures and ways of knowing the world, despite European colonialism. By drawing from three texts from at least two different centuries, compare how authors imagine the persistence of alternative, non-European cultural traditions and their relationship to the ‘mainstream’ Western culture.

 

Category B 1. Discuss the meaning of any of the words contained in the full title of Equiano's The Interesting

Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. 2. Discuss the political significance of the authors’ choice of poetic form in Andrés Bello’s

“Agriculture in the Torrid Zone” and José Maria Heredia’s “Ode to Niagara.”

3. Discuss the rhetorical use of the ‘Black Legend’  in Simón Bolívar’s “Jamaica Letter.”

4. Discuss the significance of the orphanage motif in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab.

5. Discuss the function of the limited third-person narrator in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno.

6. Discuss José Martí’s concept of “our America.”

7. Discuss the rhetorical function of the first-person-singular narrator in Rigoberta Menchú’s I, Rigoberta Menchú.

8. Discuss the leifmotif of the ‘gringo’ in Gabriel García Márquez’s A Hundred Years of Solitude.

9. Discuss the leitmotif of the snake in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead.   

Appendix F: Role Play: the Valladolid Debate of 1551.

Assignment (work in groups of 3)Each group pick one of the two roles:

a) Juan Gines de Sepulveda b) Bartolome de las Casas

The year is 1551. You have been summoned to appear before the emperor, Charles V, holding court in Valladolid, Spain. The question to be decided by the emperor and his court is whether or not the Spanish conquest of the New World was or was not a ‘just war’. It is

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your task to persuade the king and his court of your position by presenting evidence from the historical literature you have read in this course. Produce 3 reasons why or why not the Spanish conquest was just and be prepared to argue your case in court. Support your position with textual evidence.

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