Autobiography: History

Great Works 144

Winter 2010

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 back to the past: it takes only a little imagination to feel like you were 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 use historical imagination, to analyze historical arguments, to make historical arguments, 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 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 contemporary success stories.

Available at the Bookstore

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

Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,
ed. by Jean Fagan Yellin (enlarged edition, 2000).

Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Way (2007)

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

a bound journal

All assigned readings are available at the Duggan Library or

. As our discussions will be based on close readings of the texts, you will need to bring the texts to class (or photocopies, print outs, or your own extensive notes on them).

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 (with laptops, cell phones, etc.) while we are together.

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.Calculating Grades

Writing
10% Short Essay
10% Analytical Paper
20% Research Paper
10% Diary and Autobiographical Essay
Optional writing assignment

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

Thinking
12% Midterm Exam
13% Final Exam

About Papers, Exams, Presentations, and Participation:

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 makes a historical argument supported by evidence from research in primary and secondary sources. (1500-2500 words)

Optional writing assignment: For students who choose to prepare an edited transcription of archival material, 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.

Participation: Students are expected to participate in all discussions. 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.

Exams will include identifications and essay questions.

Assignments for Discussion

Great Works: History and Film

January 11, 2010 (Mon) Lecture: "Defining Terms."
January 12, 2010 (Tues) Ebert, "Great Movies," 2000 (online). Discussion times t.b.a.
January 13, 2010 (Wed) Darnton, "Pursuit of Happiness," 1995 (online).
January 15, 2010 (Fri) Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), dvd on reserve.
  Note for Sept. 10 (Thurs):               Hanover 101: "Work Smarter, Not Harder" (7:00pm, CFA) may be useful for you.

January 18, 2010 (Mon) The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), dvd on reserve. Showing and discussion 6:00pm to 9:30pm (no 10:00am class).
January 19, 2010 (Tues) Workshop: Diaries. Goldberg, xvii-9, 56-58; Historic diary (online).
January 20, 2010 (Wed) Workshop: Composition and Revision. Hacker, ch 1-4, 8, 16. Short essay due (two copies).
January 22, 2010 (Fri) Workshop: Transcribing manuscripts. Adkinson letters, 1860s (handouts). Meet at Duggan Library, Archives.

January 25, 2010 (Mon) Workshop: Working with Sources. "Chicago Manual Footnote Style" (online); Hacker, ch. 51, 53.

Autobiography and Seventeenth-Century America

January 26, 2010 (Tues) Lecture: "Autobiography."
January 27, 2010 (Wed) Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (1975), 3-24, 375-87.
January 29, 2010 (Fri) Morgan, 71-91.

February 1, 2010 (Mon) Writing workshop: Prose Mechanics. Hacker, ch. 13, 16-18, 22a, 23.
February 2, 2010 (Tues) Capt. John Smith, True Travels, 1630 (excerpts online).
Note: Bernice King lecture is Feb. 2, at 7:00 p.m. in Parker Auditorium.
February 3, 2010 (Wed) Frisch, "American History and the Structures of Collective Memory," 1989 (online); "Memorable Americans" (online); Bernice King lecture.
February 5, 2010 (Fri) Capt. John Smith, General History of Virginia, 1624, and other autobiographical excerpts (online).

February 8, 2010 (Mon) Carson et al., "New World, Real World," 2008 (online).
February 9, 2010 (Tues) Speaking Workshop: Prepared Interview (Margaret Krantz, guest).
February 10, 2010 (Wed) Pocahontas, autobiographical fragments, c. 1608-1616 (online). Rountree, "Powhatan Indian Women," 1998 (online).
February 12, 2010 (Fri) Bibliographic Instruction: Tertiary Sources. Meet at Duggan Library, computer lab.

February 15, 2010 (Mon) Rolfe, letter to Dale, 1614 (online); Mann, "America Found, and Lost," 2007 (online).
February 16, 2010 (Tues) Prepared interviews (schedule t.b.a.).
February 17, 2010 (Wed) Prepared interviews (schedule t.b.a.).
February 19, 2010 (Fri) Review.

February 22, 2010 (Mon) Midterm exam.

Autobiography and Benjamin Franklin’s America

February 23, 2010 (Tues) Lecture: "Colonial America."
February 24, 2010 (Wed) Franklin, Autobiography, part one, 1771 (excerpts online).
February 26, 2010 (Fri) Franklin, Autobiography, part two, 1774 (excerpts online). Diaries due (at least 18 entries).

WINTER BREAK

March 8, 2010 (Mon) Larson, "Benjamin Franklin's Youth, His Biographers, and the 'Autobiography'" (online).
March 9, 2010 (Tues) Workshop: Writing Mechanics and Integrating Sources. Hacker, ch. 9, 12, 19, 20, 54.

Autobiography, Slavery, and Civil War
March 10, 2010 (Wed) Lecture: "Slavery & Civil War."
March 12, 2010 (Fri) Workshop: Mechanics and Copyediting. Hacker, ch. 32, 33, 37, 41, 42, 44b. Analytical paper draft due (two copies).
Note: Capstone symposium is Mar. 14-16.

March 15, 2010 (Mon) Analytical paper due.
March 16, 2010 (Tues) Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861 (2007 ed.), pp 5-14, 17-42, 53-67.
March 17, 2010 (Wed) Bibliographic Instruction: Secondary Sources. Meet at the Duggan Library, computer lab. Hacker, ch. 50.
March 19, 2010 (Fri) Harriet Jacobs, pp. 76-85, 95-118, 133-136

March 22, 2010 (Mon) Harriet Jacobs, pp. 137-42, 148-74, 190-202.
March 23, 2010 (Tues) Bibliographic Instruction: Primary Sources. Meet at the Duggan Library, computer lab.
March 24, 2010 (Wed) John Jacobs, "True Tale of Slavery," 1861 (2007 ed.) pp. 207-228.
March 26, 2010 (Fri) Paper consultations.

March 29, 2010 (Mon) Article presentations.
March 30, 2010 (Tues) Article presentations.
March 31, 2010 (Wed) Article presentations.
April 2, 2010 (Fri) Paper consultations.

April 5, 2010 (Mon) Research paper due.

Other Forms of Autobiography
April 6, 2010 (Tues) Portraits as Autobiography. Assignment t.b.a.
April 7, 2010 (Wed) Workshop: Archival research. Adkinson letters, 1860s (assignment t.b.a.). Meet in Duggan Library, archives.
Note: Medved and Lyons lecture is Apr. 7, 7:00 pm.
April 9, 2010 (Fri) History and Autobiography in Film. Medved and Lyons lecture; additional assignment t.ba.

April 12, 2010 (Mon) Clarke, "So Lonesome I Could Die," 2007 (online).
April 13, 2010 (Tues) Adkinson letters ( online). Optional writing assignment due.
April 14, 2010 (Wed) Writing Workshop: Diaries and Autobiography. Diaries due (at least 40 entries total).
April 16, 2010 (Fri) Review.

LADR Objectives and GW144J "Autobiography: History"

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."
In both sections, students will consider autobiographical works that are widely considered "great" and those that are considered of less significance. They will be asked to make their own evaluations of greatness. See, in particular, the Short Essay.

2. Students can articulate whether there are enduring objective standards for the evaluation of human productions and inventions.
Each course will introduce its own disciplinary approach to evaluating productions of self, and students will consider similarities and differences across disciplines and over time. See, in particular, the interdisciplinary discussion and other class discussions.

3. Students can explain the key ways of knowing and of evaluating evidence in the fine arts and humanities.
Each course will approach autobiographies from a different disciplinary perspective and will introduce that discipline's "key way of knowing and of evaluating." See, in particular, class discussions and exam essays concerning historiography and fine art.

4. Students can analyze some of the great works of human creativity, both from the western world and beyond.
Both the western world and other cultures are represented among the autobiographical works found in this Great Works pairing. See, in particular, class discussions and assignments concerning Native Americans.

5. Students can demonstrate the capacity to analyze and interpret primary texts – texts that are considered of enduring value.
Students will analyze and interpret primary texts in almost every class discussion and assignment.

6. Students can identify different ways of defining art and creativity.
Students will consider what makes specific autobiographical works significant, and they will produce some creative work of their own. See, in particular, class discussions and the Diary and Autobiographical Essay assignment.

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 almost every class discussion and assignment will provide opportunities to reflect on them.

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 students will consider similarities and differences in evaluating autobiographical work across disciplines. The study of autobiography naturally lends itself to seeing things from alternate perspectives. See, in particular, the interdisciplinary discussion and other class discussions.

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.
Both sections 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.