Read Hawthorne's short story, "The Birthmark" (from this link). Write a brief response to the piece. Do NOT summarize the plot! Find one thing that interests you or one thing to focus on: a theme, use of symbols, imagery, gender, relationships, themes that you saw in "My Kinsman . . .", elements of American Romanticism, names . . . whatever interests you. Typed, double spaced - . You MUST share these with me on google docs or email them to me at [email protected] by 10AM on Tuesday!! They will guide our class discussion.
Read Hawthorne's short story, "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux." After you have read the story, please choose one of the critical essays from the Literature Criticism Online web site. Read the essay, write a rhetorical precis of the author's argument, and then in a separate paragraph, discuss your opinion of the short story and the author's findings. You're having a "conversation" with the critic. **If you access the Literature Criticism Online web site away from CSN, you will need to use your user name and password to log in and access the site. You're looking for My Kinsman, Major Molineux by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 130. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010. p190-278. Inside this Volume | Inside this Entry Sorry: Woodlief's text of "Self-Reliance" does not have notes, but here is an excellent introduction to the essay.
Trying to define transcendentalism: In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his 1842 lecture The Transcendentalist:"The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy. He wishes that the spiritual principle should be suffered to demonstrate itself to the end, in all possible applications to the state of man, without the admission of anything unspiritual; that is, anything positive, dogmatic, personal. Thus, the spiritual measure of inspiration is the depth of the thought, and never, who said it? And so he resists all attempts to palm other rules and measures on the spirit than its own.... "It is well known to most of my audience, that the Idealism of the present day acquired the name of Transcendental, from the use of that term by Immanuel Kant, of Konigsberg, who replied to the skeptical philosophy of Locke, which insisted that there was nothing in the intellect which was not previously in the experience of the senses, by showing that there was a very important class of ideas, or imperative forms, which did not come by experience, but through which experience was acquired; that these were intuitions of the mind itself; and he denominated them Transcendental forms. The extraordinary profoundness and precision of that man's thinking have given vogue to his nomenclature, in Europe and America, to that extent, that whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought, is popularly called at the present day Transcendental...." My note: See Emerson's reference to Locke's skeptical philosophy in the 2nd paragraph Ralph Waldo Emerson The Transcendentalist, 1842 From a recent edition of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary transcendentalism n. 1: A philosophy that emphasizes the a priori conditions of knowledge and experience or the unknowable character of ultimate reality or that emphasizes the transcendent as the fundamental reality 2: a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material and empirical 3: the quality or state of being transcendental And from Urban Dictionary :-) Transcendentalism Quite possibly the most hypocritical and nonsensical idea ever conceived. Ralph Waldo Emerson formed the group of Transcendentalism, which believed one could unlock life's secrets without the use of groups or society. Subject-Verb Agreement Assignment -- use this to not only test, but also learn the ruless in those problematic cases. The assignment allows you to go back and see what you did wrong if you get something wrong.Go to www.noredink.com and sign in as student. Your class code is 4405565d. Customize your questions and then begin the assignment. The assignment scores automatically go to my website.
American Literature and American Romanticism Read "A Brief History of Nature and the American Consciousness" In the comment section, please explain the imporance (and changes in attitude) in America towards nature during the colonial and post colonial eras. What is the difference between Wilderness and Garden? Do you think America's attitude towards wilderness has changed since then? If so, how? Do you like going into "the wilderness" or at least Red Rock? Why? Post your comment please |