David Curtis
Belmont University

Images of the Frontier in Early American Literature

Required Texts:

Andrews, et al., eds. Journeys in New Worlds: Early American Narratives
Cooper, The Pioneers
Kirkland, A New Home...Who'll Follow?
Course Pack

Assignments/Grading:

* two in class exams, one over nonfiction colonial and colonizing narratives, and one over the two
   novels (40%)
* a loose-leaf folder of some kind in which to submit your reflections on the readings you've done;
   once during the semester, this will need to contain a critique of an aspect of our popular culture,
   that registers a current or vestigial frontier consciousness-- speculate about its roots; class
   participation (30%)
* a researched paper of 6-8 pages either on a topic you develop as the semester proceeds or on
   one taken from a list I'll be distributing the first week of class; you'll present your findings during
   the last week of class (30%)

Course Description:

Though the definition of "the frontier" has developed over time to include not only the "vast and howling wilderness" of the Puritans, but also the far reaches of (cyber)space, the essential notion of unexplored territory--of fresh starts and wide open spaces--has always occupied a central place in the American cultural and literary imagination.  In this course, we'll be examining some of the first and most lasting constructions of the frontier, based on the writings of men and women who first experienced it as such.  Some of the issues we'll investigate include the ways in which preexisting cultural assumptions affected the authors' perception and construction of wilderness; the differences between the ways women and men "saw" the frontier (in terms of "conquering" vs. "domesticating," for example); and how all of these accounts have helped build the mythology of the frontier and, in the words of  Brigitte Georgi-Findlay, served to "map the geographies of gender, class, and culture on the new western frontiers."

Course Schedule:

JUNE

T10 - Introduction to the course: building the mythology of the frontier

THE CAPTIVE

W11 - Course pack: Initial impressions, revisionist histories, and John Smith

R12 - Rowlandson, Journeys 11-26 "Introduction" and 27-46 Rowlandson (through the "twelfth
          remove")

F13 - Rowlandson, Journeys 46-65  Rowlandson

THE TRAVELER

M16 - Cooke (course pack)

T17 - Reading Day - NO CLASS MEETING

W18 - Knight, Journeys 69-83 "Introduction" and 84-116

R19 - Byrd (course pack): Histories and Secret Histories

THE NATURAL HISTORIAN

F20 - Byrd/ Crevecoeur/Jefferson/Bartram (course pack)

M23 - Trist, Journeys 181-232; Lewis and Clark (course pack)

THE WOODSMAN

T24 - Champlain/Boone (course pack)R26 - Crockett (course pack)

F27 - Frontier humor (course pack); review for midterm

M30 - MIDTERM EXAM

THE ROMANTIC HERO

T1- Cooper  The Pioneers, Chapters I-XIV; Paper prospectus, conference due

JULY

W2 - Cooper The Pioneers, Chapters XV-XXIX

R3 - Cooper The Pioneers, Chapters XXX-XLI

F4 - INDEPENDENCE DAY - NO CLASS MEETING - Cooper The Pioneers - Discussion
        and Review

THE FRONTIER WOMAN

T8 - Kirkland A New Home...Who'll Follow?, "Literary Women" (193-201) + Chapters I-XVI

W9 - Kirkland A New Home...Who'll Follow?, Chapters XVII-XXXIV

R10 - Kirkland A New Home...Who'll Follow?, Chapters XXXV-XLVII; Papers due

F11 - FINAL EXAM