Monthly Archives: November 2013

Here is a brief clip from a PBS special on Walt Whitman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOo4kqkhYag

Cheers,

Prof. Scanlan

Reading Poetry Handout:

How-to-read-poetry-fall2013

Hi Class,

For Thursday, we will finish discussing Harriet Jacobs “Incidents” (768-91). Please have questions or comments prepared; I would like everybody to have something to say.

Then we will shift gears and discuss Walt Whitman. Please read the introduction: 1236-38. Then read three poems:

1. “Beat! Beat! Drums!,” 1296

2. “The Wound Dresser,” 1298-1300

3. “Reconciliation,” 1300

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Hi Class,

For Tuesday, November 19, please read Harriet Jacobs (763-91), and answer these questions in your notebook:

1.What was the Fugitive Slave Law?

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850

2. What is the purpose and the style of Jacob’s “Letter from a Fugitive Slave”?

3. What do you find surprising about Jacob’s “Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl”?

4. Why do you think that Jacobs wrote anonymously or under different names?

I’ve updated the schedule for the rest of the semester.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Hi Class,

Here is the extra credit assignment (20 points):

Watch this 9 minute TED talk on metaphors by James Geary. Then write a one-page metaphor review of Emerson’s Transparent Eyeball. Go beyond what the footnote says; what do you think he means by this term? See page 657.

Regular Homework: Read Margaret Fuller: 737-43.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan