Autobiography: History

Great Works 143

Fall 2012

Sarah McNair Vosmeier

vosm@hanover.edu

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Course Description

   

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%    Primary Source Analysis
20%    Research Paper
10%    Diary and Final Essay
        Optional Paper

    Speaking
10%     Prepared Interview
  5%    Article Presentation
10%    Participation

    Thinking
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.   You will need to bring them to class in paper form (ie the book, photocopies, print outs, or your own extensive notes).  This is because our discussions will be based on close readings of the texts and because you will need notes in the form of marginalia.    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:

    Henry Bibb, The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave (2001 edition)
    Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (1975)
    Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers (sixth edition, 2009).
    Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away (2007)
    a bound journal
    three-ring binder





About Participation, Presentations, Exams, and Papers:

Participation:  Students are expected to participate fully in all discussions, which will be based on close analysis of our texts.  Also included in participation will be occasional brief assignments that 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.

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.

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

Primary Source Analysis: 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.
    Assignments




Great Works: History and Film
August 30, 2012 (Thurs)    Introductions and background.   Lecture: "Defining Terms."
August 31, 2012 (Fri)        Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat, 1988 (pp. 1-12, 97-118, on reserve).

                

Week 1    September 3, 2012 (Mon)      Ebert, "Great Movies," 2000 (online).
                    7:00-10:00 - Showing and discussion of American Graffiti, 1973 for both “Autobiography” sections (video on reserve).
September 4, 2012 (Tues)     No class meeting.
September 5, 2012 (Wed)     Workshop: Diaries. Historic diaries (online); Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away, 2007 (pp. xvii-9, 56-58).  Lecture: "The History of Autobiography."   
September 7, 2012 (Fri)     Happy Days, 1974-1984 (video on reserve; Sept. 5 showing at 3:00).

              

Week 2    September 10, 2012 (Mon)     Workshop:  Composition and Revision.  Hacker, Rules for Writers, ch 1-4, 8, 16.  Short essay due (two copies). 


Autobiography and Seventeenth-Century Virginia
September 11, 2012 (Tues)     Lecture: "The History of Autobiography."
September 12, 2012 (Wed)     Workshop: Working with Sources.  "Chicago Manual Footnote Style" (online); Hacker, ch. 51, 53.  Meet in Duggan Library computer lab.
September 14, 2012 (Fri)     Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (1975), 3-24, 375-87.

               

Week 3    September 17, 2012 (Mon)     Morgan, 71-91.
September 18, 2012 (Tues)     Writing workshop: Prose Mechanics. Hacker, ch. 13, 16-18, 22a, 23. 
September 19, 2012 (Wed)     Capt. John Smith, True Travels, 1630 (excerpts online).
September 21, 2012 (Fri)     Capt. John Smith, General History of Virginia, 1624, and other autobiographical material (excerpts online).
               

Week 4    September 24, 2012 (Mon)     Bibb, Life and Adventures (1850), 4-9, 175-178, 193-197.  Workshop:  Archeology and Henry Bibb, meeting location and time t.b.a.
September 25, 2012 (Tues)     Frisch, "American History and the Structures of Collective Memory," 1989 (online); "Memorable Americans" (online).
September 26, 2012 (Wed)     Speaking Workshop: Prepared Interview (Margaret Krantz, guest).   “Art of Interviewing” (handout).
September 28, 2012 (Fri)     Bibliographic Instruction: Tertiary Sources.  Meet in Duggan Library computer lab.

               

Week 5    October 1, 2012 (Mon)     Pocahontas, autobiographical fragments, c. 1608-1616 (online). Rountree, "Powhatan Indian Women," 1998 (online).
October 2, 2012 (Tues)     Rolfe, letter to Dale, 1614 (online); Mann, "America Found, and Lost," 2007 (online).
October 3, 2012 (Wed)     Prepared interviews (schedule t.b.a.).
October 5, 2012 (Fri)     Prepared interviews (schedule t.b.a.).

               

Week 6    October 8, 2012 (Mon)     Prepared interviews (schedule t.b.a.).
October 9, 2012 (Tues)     Review.
October 10, 2012 (Wed)     Midterm exam.


Autobiography and Benjamin Franklin’s America
October 12, 2012 (Fri)     Lecture: "Colonial America."  Hand in diaries (at least 18 entries).


MIDTERM BREAK

               

Week 7    October 17, 2012 (Wed)     Franklin, Autobiography, part one, 1771 (excerpts online).
October 19, 2012 (Fri)     Franklin, Autobiography, part two, 1774 (excerpts online).

               

Week 8    October 22, 2012 (Mon)     Larson, “Benjamin Franklin's Youth, His Biographers, and the ‘Autobiography,’” 1995 (online).
October 23, 2012 (Tues)     Workshop: Mechanics and Integrating Sources. Hacker, ch. 9, 12, 19, 20, 54.


Autobiography, Slavery, and Civil War
October 24, 2012 (Wed)     Lecture: "Slavery and Civil War"
October 26, 2012 (Fri)     Workshop: Mechanics and Copyediting. Hacker, ch. 32, 33, 37, 41, 42, 44b.  Primary Source Analysis - penultimate draft due (two copies).
               

Week 9    October 29, 2012 (Mon)     Primary Source Analysis due.
October 30, 2012 (Tues)     Assignment t.b.a.
October 31, 2012 (Wed)     Bibb, Life and Adventures, 11-56.
November 2, 2012 (Fri)     Bibliographic Instruction: Primary Sources:  Meet in Duggan Library computer lab.

               

Week 10    November 5, 2012 (Mon)     Bibb, 57-111.
November 6, 2012 (Tues)     Hacker, ch. 50.  Bibliographic Instruction:  Secondary Sources. Meet in Duggan Library computer lab.
November 7, 2012 (Wed)     Bibb, 112-151, 175-192.
November 9, 2012 (Fri)     Paper consultations.

               

Week 11    November 12, 2012 (Mon)     Article presentations.
November 13, 2012 (Tues)     Article presentations.
November 14, 2012 (Wed)     Article presentations.
November 16, 2012 (Fri)     Paper consultations.

               

Week 12    November 19, 2012 (Mon)     Research paper due.  Workshop: Adkinson letter collection. Meet in Duggan Library archives, time t.b.a.
November 20, 2012 (Tues)     Workshop: Adkinson letter collection. Meet in Duggan Library archives, time t.b.a.

THANKSGIVING  BREAK

               

Week 13    November 26, 2012 (Mon)     Workshop: Archival research.  Meet in Duggan Library archives.


Other Forms of Self-Representation
November 27, 2012 (Tues)     Portraits and Autobiography, assignment t.b.a.
November 28, 2012 (Wed)     Clarke, "So Lonesome I Could Die," 2007 (online).
November 30, 2012 (Fri)     Adkinson letters (online).

               

Week 14   
December 3, 2012 (Mon)     Autobiography and oral interpretation.  Assignment t.b.a.  Optional paper due.
December 4, 2012 (Tues)     Assignment t.b.a.
December 5, 2012 (Wed)     Workshop: Analyzing diaries. Nelson, "Writing for an Imagined Audience" (2012, online), Lieberman, "Diaries: A Healthy Choice" (2012, online), Bell and Gemmell, "Our Digital Selves" (2012, online). Hand in diaries (at least 40 entries).
December 7, 2012 (Fri)     Review. 






    LADR Objectives and GW143/GW144 “Autobiography”

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.