STUDY GUIDE: 318 MID TERM

The Era of the Puritans

William Bradford, The History
        hints of future problems (division/Anders/hypocrisy/arrogance)
        attitude toward nature
        concept of compact government

Anne Bradstreet, poems
        controlling metaphors ("To Her Book"; "Weary Pilgrim")
        tension between doctrine and human impulse ("In Memory"; "Upon the Burning")
        the "plaine style"

  Edward Taylor, poems
        controlling metaphors ("Church Fellowship'; "Reflexion"; "Meditations, 8, 39")
        as metaphysical poet
        relationship to "plaine style'

  Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners"
        relationship to Puritan and enlightenment ideology
        relationship to "Great Awakening"
        significant images/concepts

 The Period of the Enlightenment and Revolutionary War

  Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard, The Autobiography
        relationship to Puritanism and enlightenment
        concept of human/social perfectibility
        concept of a codified ideal

  Thomas Paine, "The Age of Reason"
        as deist
        new emphasis upon individual rights

  Thomas Jefferson, "Letter to Adams"
        concept of "natural aristocracy"
        changing conception of natural law

  The Romantic Period

Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle"
        levels of interpretation
        as Romantic
        attitude toward nature/civilization

James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer
        Hawkeye as archetypal hero
        as Romantic
        the question of narrative control
        ttitude toward nature/civilization

The Transcendentalists: Emerson and Thoreau

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, essays
        detailed knowledge of the transcendental position as set forth in "Nature"
        definition of critical terms (see handouts)
        explanation of central concepts and principles  (uses of Nature;
            the obligations of the religious teacher, the  seven lords of life,
            the revolution that transcendental awareness will promote, etc.)
        central images and the evolution of those images
        important people and events associated with the transcendental movement
            (publications, social experiments, etc.)

  Henry David Thoreau, Walden
        the nature of Thoreau's transcendentalism: based upon details of actual experience
        important images: building a house; morning; fishing; the railroad; hunting; the pond, etc.
        the lessons of the Walden experience
        the literal and transcendental subjects of all of the sections: economy; higher laws, etc.
        the questions of the unity of the work: Is it a 'whole" or a mere collection of parts?
        And what role does symbolism play in either unifying or fragmenting the book's structure?

  For All Major movements (Puritan; Deist; Romantic)
        know doctrine (see handouts)
        concepts of virtue
        relationship between man and God; individual and community
        conception of ideal man; ideal state