Autobiography: History

Great Works 143

Fall 2011

vosm@hanover.edu

Sarah McNair Vosmeier

Classic 106, 866-7210

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Studying autobiographies provides both pleasure and practical benefits. Reading an autobiography can be like taking a time machine into the past: it takes only a little imagination to feel like you are there. Reading, discussing, and writing about autobiographies also provides the practical benefits that are at the core of a liberal arts education. Autobiographies help us to understand other people's motivations and self-understandings, for instance. Other practical benefits include learning to analyze historical arguments, to make historical arguments, to use historical imagination, and to appreciate great works.

This term, we will also consider the paradox of "American Slavery, American Freedom." Freedom (for the pursuit of happiness and individual success) has always been central to our culture, and yet, paradoxically, freedom and individual success for some has often come with slavery or disadvantage for others. We will explore these themes in a variety of contexts, from the first contacts between Native Americans and European colonists to the youth culture of the twentieth century.

Calculating Grades

Writing

10% Short Essay

10% Analytical Paper

20% Research Paper

10% Diary and Final Essay

Optional Paper

10% Prepared Interview

5% Article Presentation

10% Participation

12% Midterm Exam

13% Final Exam

Nota Bene

Our class time provides an opportunity, rare in modern life, to focus for an extended time on a single task and conversation. Please do not multitask - to avoid distraction for others and temptation for ourselves, we will not use laptops, cell phones, etc. in our classroom.

Late papers will be penalized, and in-class assignments cannot be made up. Students with emergencies who wish to request an exception to this rule should contact me before the due date.

About items needed for this class

All assigned readings are available on reserve at the Duggan Library or online. As our discussions will be based on close readings of the texts, you will need to bring them to class (ie the book, photocopies, print outs, or your own extensive notes). Thus, you should budget appropriately for printing and photocopying. You will also need a Jefferson County Public Library card. The following are available at the bookstore:

Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers (sixth edition, 2009).

Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away (2007)

Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (1975)

a bound journal

three-ring binder

About Participation, Papers, Presentations, and Exams:

Participation: Students are expected to participate fully in all discussions, which will be based on close analysis of our texts. There will be occasional brief assignments to complement the regular work of the class.

People who excel in participation show evidence of careful preparation for discussions; they make useful comments in class or ask helpful questions; and they adequately complete all the brief assignments, handing them in on time.

Short Essay: Students make an argument about a great work. (500-1000 words)

Analytical Paper: Students make a historical argument supported by evidence from specified primary sources. (1200-1500 words)

Research Paper: Students make a historical argument supported by evidence from research in primary and secondary sources. (1500-2500 words)

Diary and Final Essay: Students will keep a nineteenth-century style diary, and they will write a short final essay about it and other autobiographies we have studied.

Optional Paper: For students who choose to write the last paper, the writing portion of their final grade will be based on five assignments instead of four.

Presentations: The prepared interview is an oral presentation of self and of history, similar in form to a job interview; the article presentation is a more formal presentation of a historian's argument.

Exams will include identifications and essay questions.

Assignments

Great Works: History and Film

September 1, 2011 (Thurs) Lecture: "Defining Terms."

September 2, 2011 (Fri) Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat, 1988 (pp. 1-12, 97-118, on reserve).

September 5, 2011 (Mon) Ebert, "Great Movies," 2000 ( online).

September 5, 2011 (Mon), 9:00pm Special combined class session: American Graffiti, 1973 (video on reserve, or attend Sept. 5, 7:00pm showing).

September 6, 2011 (Tues) No class.

September 7, 2011 (Wed) Workshop: Diaries. Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away, 2007 (pp. xvii-9, 56-58); historic diaries ( online). Lecture: "The History of Autobiography."

September 9, 2011 (Fri) Happy Days, 1974-1984 (video on reserve, or attend Sept. 7, 3:00pm showing).

September 12, 2011 (Mon) Workshop: Composition and Revision. Hacker, ch 1-4, 8, 16. Short essay due.

September 13, 2011 (Tues) Workshop: Working with Sources. "Chicago Manual Footnote Style" ( online); Hacker, ch. 51, 53. Meet in Duggan Library computer lab.

September 14, 2011 (Wed) Workshop: Primary source research. Meet in Duggan Library archives.

Autobiography and Seventeenth-Century Virginia

September 16, 2011 (Fri) Lecture: "The History of Autobiography."

September 19, 2011 (Mon) Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (1975), 3-24, 375-87.

September 20, 2011 (Tues) Morgan, 71-91.

September 21, 2011 (Wed) Writing workshop: Prose Mechanics. Hacker, ch. 13, 16-18, 22a, 23.

September 23, 2011 (Fri) Capt. John Smith, True Travels, 1630 (excerpts online).

September 26, 2011 (Mon) Capt. John Smith, General History of Virginia, 1624, and other autobiographical material (excerpts online).

September 27, 2011 (Tues) Frisch, "American History and the Structures of Collective Memory," 1989 (online); "Memorable Americans," 2011 ( online).

September 28, 2011 (Wed) Speaking Workshop: Prepared Interview (Margaret Krantz, guest).

September 30, 2011 (Fri) Bibliographic Instruction: Tertiary Sources. Meet at Duggan Library computer lab.

October 3, 2011 (Mon) Pocahontas, autobiographical fragments, c. 1608-1616 (online). Rountree, "Powhatan Indian Women," 1998 (online).

October 4, 2011 (Tues) Rolfe, letter to Dale, 1614 ( online); Mann, "America Found, and Lost," 2007 ( online).

October 5, 2011 (Wed) Prepared interviews (schedule t.b.a.).

October 7, 2011 (Fri) No class.

October 10, 2011 (Mon) Prepared interviews (schedule t.b.a.).

October 11, 2011 (Tues) Review.

October 12, 2011 (Wed) Midterm exam.

October 14, 2011 (Fri) Steamboat Bicentennial lecture. Hand in diaries (at least 18 entries).

Fall Break

Autobiography and Benjamin Franklin's America

October 19, 2011 (Wed) Lecture: "Colonial America."

October 21, 2011 (Fri) Franklin, Autobiography, part one, 1771 (excerpts online).

October 24, 2011 (Mon) Franklin, Autobiography, part two, 1774 (excerpts online).

October 25, 2011 (Tues) Assignment t.b.a.

October 26, 2011 (Wed) Larson, "Benjamin Franklin's Youth, His Biographers, and the 'Autobiography'" (online).

October 28, 2011 (Fri) Workshop: Mechanics and Integrating Sources. Hacker, ch. 9, 12, 19, 20, 54.

October 31, 2011 (Mon) Workshop: Mechanics and Copyediting. Hacker, ch. 32, 33, 37, 41, 42, 44b. Analytical paper, penultimate draft due.

November 1, 2011 (Tues) Analytical paper, final draft due.

Autobiography and the River

November 2, 2011 (Wed) Zimmer, "The Ohio River: Pathway to Settlement," 1982 (on reserve).

November 4, 2011 (Fri) Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi," 1875 (parts 1-3, excerpted, online).

November 7, 2011 (Mon) Bibliographic Instruction: Secondary Sources. Meet at the Duggan Library computer lab. Hacker, ch. 50.

November 8, 2011 (Tues) Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi," 1875 (parts 4-7, excerpted, online).

November 9, 2011 (Wed) Bibliographic Instruction: Primary Sources: Meet at the Duggan Library computer lab.

November 11, 2011 (Fri) Branch, "'Old Times on the Mississippi': Biography and Craftsmanship," 1990 (online).

November 14, 2011 (Mon) Paper consultations.

November 15, 2011 (Tues) Article presentations.

November 16, 2011 (Wed) Article presentations.

November 18, 2011 (Fri) Article presentations.

November 21, 2011 (Mon) Paper consultations.

November 22, 2011 (Tues) Research paper due.

Thanksgiving Break

Other Forms of Autobiography

November 28, 2011 (Mon) Discussion: "Portraits as Autobiography," assignment t.b.a.

November 29, 2011 (Tues) Discussion: "Jamestown on Film," assignment t.b.a.

November 30, 2011 (Wed) Workshop: Archival research. Meet in Duggan Library archives.

December 2, 2011 (Fri) Discussion: "Steamboat Bicentennial and Autobiography," assignment t.b.a.

December 5, 2011 (Mon) Discussion: "Autobiography and Material Culture," assignment t.b.a. Optional paper due.

December 6, 2011 (Tues) Assignment t.b.a.

December 7, 2011 (Wed) Writing Workshop: "Diaries, Autobiographies, and History." Hand in diaries (at least 40 entries).

December 9, 2011 (Fri) Review.

The following are some suggestions for how this course can help you achieve the LADR objectives associated with Great Works courses.

1. Students can provide criteria for identifying what makes a work "great."

We will consider autobiographical works that are widely considered to be "great," and we will make our own evaluations of greatness.

2. Students can articulate whether there are enduring objective standards for the evaluation of human productions and inventions.

In each course, we will consider a different discipline's approach to evaluating productions of self, and we will consider similarities and differences across disciplines and over time.

3. Students can explain the key ways of knowing and of evaluating evidence in the fine arts and humanities.

In each course, we will approach autobiographies from a different disciplinary perspective, and we will engage in that discipline's "key way of knowing and of evaluating."

4. Students can analyze some of the great works of human creativity, both from the western world and beyond.

We will consider autobiographical works from both the western world and from other cultures, contrasting, for example, autobiographical evidence from Euro-Americans with that of Native Americans.

5. Students can demonstrate the capacity to analyze and interpret primary texts - texts that are considered of enduring value.

We will analyze and interpret primary texts in almost every class discussion and assignment.

6. Students can identify different ways of defining art and creativity.

We will consider autobiographies as art, and we will have the opportunity to do some creative work of our own.

7. Students can reflect systematically and meaningfully on ethical dilemmas and issues that face citizens as they are expressed in works considered "great."

Analyzing autobiographies naturally incorporates ethical dilemmas and issues facing the individual, and we will have opportunities to reflect on them in almost every class discussion and assignment.

8. Students can speak and write effectively.

We will devote significant energy to mastering effective analysis, writing, and speaking. Every class discussion and assignment will further this effort.

The following are some suggestions for how this course can help you achieve overall LADR objectives.

1. Students can explain the kinds of questions that are asked by various disciplines and describe overlapping and complementary interests in various fields of inquiry. They can explain their abilities to view things from alternate perspectives.

Each course will introduce approaches for evaluating productions of self from its discipline, and we will consider similarities and differences in evaluating autobiographical work across disciplines. The study of autobiography naturally lends itself to seeing things from alternate perspectives.

2. Students can demonstrate skills in independent thinking by developing their own thesis statement, supporting that thesis with logical rationale and appropriate evidence, and presenting the thesis in a convincing fashion, both orally and in writing.

We will have significant written and oral assignments. Many class discussions and almost every written or oral assignment or exam will help students master thesis, evidence, and presentation.