LITTERARIA: Pawel Jedrzejko's Academic Home Page

Below, please find a class by class description of our meetings, including links to materials we will be using in class. Please, study this section thoroughly to avoid potential misunderstandings concerning what is due for which class.

Note: As we have agreed, my office hours will be held every Wednesday (13:00-14:30) and Thursday (by appointment) Should you, however, feel the need to talk to me at a different time, do not hesitate to e-mail me or call me to make a separate appointment - especially if it is about your paper.

DATE	SUBJECT OF THE MEETING	DURATION
Wednesday Nov. 8th room 305 Żytnia 10 11:20-13:00	Meeting One: An Introductory Meeting The initial meeting is dedicated to Tutor’s introduction of the assumptions of the course, requirements, and principles of crediting. Also, a general introduction to issues addressed throughout the course, which follows the technical discourse, sets off a debate on how we perceive . This leads to the elementary question of the meeting: how do we distinguish what we know about from what we imagine about her? Why is it that we study RP and General Standard American English in Polish schools? What is the reason why none of other dialects of English – such as Australian, Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, or numerous African dialects – never ”made it” into Polish foreign language classrooms? Homework: Read Native American creation myths (Iroquois, Pima) What was the Tower of Babel? Who were the Androgynes? In the KJV of the Bible, read the story of the creation of the world (Genesis) and the prolog to the Gospel According to John	90 minutes
Wednesday Nov. 18th room 305 Żytnia 10 11:20-13:00	Meeting Two: , phallogocentrism, Colonialism The second introductory lecture is dedicated to the importance of the Judeo-Christian creation story as presented in the Bible and to the metanarrative differences between the Western concept of the structure and organization of the universe and the concepts presented in Native American creation myths. Discussion will address the following questions: What is a "metanarrative"? In what way is religion related to language? In what sense are religions "therapeutical"? How is religion related to philosophy? To the shape of the world as we know it? What is "theodicy"? What is the importance of the Tower of Babel? How do we know that the word decent means two different things when used in the phrase “a decent woman” and in the phrase “a decent man”? How do Native American myths envisage the creation? Why would the earlier translator see them as similar to the Bible and later translators would acknowledge a very dissimilar set of values organizing the Native American universe? What is the position of the human in the Native American metanarrative system? What is history in the context of cultures transmitting the values of the past through song? In what sense our power of nomination is the power of creation? How do we create ? What are the dangers of this process? Homework: Read: Bartolome de las Casas: excerpts from the Norton Anthology of American Literature N. Cabeza de Vaca: excerpts from the Norton Anthology of American Literature Toni Morrison: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness in Literary Imagination Daniel Defoe: excerpts from Robinson Crusoe Watch: The Mission (with Robert De Niro)	90 minutes
Wednesday Nov. 25th room 305 Żytnia 10 11:20-13:00	Meeting Three: Mapping Words: the Conquest This time, we will take a closer look at a phenomenon of “colonizing thinking.” Our goal would be to underpin the mindset of the European colonizers in the context of what we already know about our own capacity to “invent” realities by applying our own language to a different metanarrative. The questions include: What is the relationship between the dominating culture and the dominated culture? Why would Columbus wish to send Natives to so that they can learn to speak? How does The Key to the Language of America by Roger Williams approach the Native languages? The Natives? Why would the Spanish abduct translators instead of learning the language? What was the Requerimiento? How do Europeans imagine the colonial Other? How does the “hybrid” character of Friday testify to the fact that the colonial discourse marginalizes and, effectively, obliterates the Other, replacing it with its own colonial fantasy? How do we perceive beauty? Nudity? Order and disorder? What do we do when we face disorder? Kawanatanga and Rangatiratanga: what were the consequences of inventing “empty” vocabulary in ? How is writing related to history? What is the status of writing? Homework: Read: applicable chapters in Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych and The Columbia Literary History of America be able to discuss Puritanism in the context of reformation be able to discuss the problematic status of history	90 minutes
Wednesday Dec. 1st room 305 Żytnia 10 11:20-13:00	Meeting Four: The Rise of Puritanism in the Context of Colonial Expansion The central problem of our discussion is that of the birth of Puritanism in the light of important cultural phenomena related to Reformation and Counterreformation on the one hand and to the transformation of the European concept of the world after the discovery of the New World. Issues raised will include: Martin Luther and John Calvin as Champions of Reformation In what sense was Reformation a turning point in the European cultural history? What were the consequences of the fact that Roman Catholicism lost control over the interpretation of the Bible? What was the importance of the emergence of translations of the Holy Scripture into national languages? What was the legacy of Henry VIII in terms of cultural and economic development of ? How important was the Act of Supremacy? What were its consequences? What is the difference between a heresy and a schism? What was Anglicanism? What was Puritanism? What processes took place in after Henry’s death? What was Mary Tudor’s politics with respect to non-Catholics? What was the position of those, who wished to purify the Church of England of all the remnants of Roman Catholicism during the reign of Elizabeth I? Who were the English Men of God (Puritans)? Why would they wish to leave for Holland? What were the elementary principles of their faith (The Five Points of Calvinism - TULIP) What was the “biblical typology” and in what sense has the reading of reality through such a lens contribute to the emergence of the American project? In what sense had been invented before she came into existence? Homework: Think of the earliest reports the Europeans would receive from and of their impact upon European imagination, especially after Hernan Cortez’s capture of Aztec gold. How would primogeniture influence the interest of the English in colonizing ? J. Smith: excerpts from The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles, W. Bradford : excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation	90 minutes
Wednesday Dec. 1^st room 305 Żytnia 10 11:20-13:00	Meeting Five: History and Providence: Early Colonial Concepts This time we will concentrate upon three visions of history that chiefly contributed to how came to be imagined in . Beginning with a light deconstructive look at the well-known story of Pocahontas, we will pass on to the discussion involving the following issues: How is the Disney story different from the account offered by John Smith? Who was John Smith? What was his position in the political world if he could receive a whaling patent from the King and a governorship of Jamestown, even though young nobles accompanied him during his expedition? Why would he write his history in three distinct narrative voices? Why would he build a heroic discourse around his encounters with the Natives suggesting at the same time that the Natives are as easily impressed by Western technology as they are scared of the rapport of Western guns? How does historiography today recount the history of John Smith’s encounter with Powhatan, the Great Chief of Powhatan’s Confederation, and his daughter, Pocahontas? How do we account for the differences? Could John Smith have mistaken the ceremony of admission to family for a ceremony of execution? Is the story of Pocahontas and Smith an attempt to build a myth of miraculous survival owed to love for its own sake? Could there be political or personal implications? How would Smith’s history be different from Puritan histories? Why would the Puritan leaders write histories? How does the fact of history writing relate to their Calvinistic worldview? How does the discourse of biblical typology propel the Puritan historiography? What are the main characteristics of Of Plymouth Plantation and Magnalia Christi Americana? Why would the doctrine of predestination and election and the doctrine of the perseverance of saints contribute to the birth of histories and diaries? Homework: Read: The Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop Poetry by Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor and Michael Wigglesworth Captivity narratives	90 minutes
	Meeting Six: The Model of Christian Charity and the Preparatory Meditations This meeting is dedicated to the importance of the sermon in shaping the vision of . The issues involved would include: The importance of literacy in the Calvinistic tradition How can one explain the power of the discourse of the Biblial Typology in the context of the Puritanical projects of the City upon the Hill? New Jerusalem? New Adam? What is the structure of John Winthrop’s The Model of Christian Charity? How does this sermon organize social interaction within the Massachusetts Bay Colony to be? What purpose did the religious sanction on lending, giving and forgiving serve? How is this sermon different from those potentially based on Taylor’s Preparatory Meditations? Why would Taylor refrain from the publication thereof? Homework: Think of the faces of god in Puritanical literature What was Deism? Read the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of Angry God”
	Meeting Seven: The Great Awakening and the Birth of the Age of Reason The debate of this meeting will revolve around the social, material, philosophical, political and theological conditionings of the transformation of the colonial culture in the first half of the 18^th century. The issues raised will include: How is God presented in Michael Wigglesworth’s poetry? In Anne Bradstreet’s poetry? In Edward Taylor’s poetry? What was the Great Awakening? What were its origins? What was the Half-Way Covenant? What were its consequences? What intellectual transformations took place in Europe? What were the characteristics of the Age of Reason? What was Deism? What were the main tenets of empiricism? What were the main assumptions of rationalism? How can one indicate the relatedness of a deistic vision of the Universe and Encyclopaedia? Why could Puritanism and Deism coexist in Towards the twilight of Puritanism Homework: Read: the writings of Benjamin Franklin Read: The Common Sense Read the Declaration of Independence Read the Constitution Read the Federalist Papers
	Meeting Eight: Revolution and Beyond This lecture will concentrate upon the birth of political writing and the emergence of a new project of as an incarnation of 18^th century theory of state. The problems discussed in this lecture will include: What were the major differences between the European Enlightenment and the American Enlightenment? Homework: Read: “The Indian Burying Ground” and “To the New England Poet” by Philip Freneau Read: Rip van Winkle and The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow Read: The Tell-Tale Heart , The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado
	Meeting Nine: History Romanticized: The American Frontier historiography Homework: Read: “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson Walden by Hendy David Thoreau The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Moby Dick by Herman Melville
	Meeting ten: Transcendentalism vs. Existentialism We will concentrate upon: How Homework: Read: Poetry of the Brahmins Summarize what we have learned so far