You may select any of the literary texts assigned this semester for this paper. These texts include: Anne Bradstreet, poems; Mary Rowlandson, Captivity Narrative; Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God; Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography; Phillis Wheatley, poems; Write a paper that explores through close reading your ideas about the text’s significance/theme, carefully explaining how the author crafts the text (sermon, essay, poem, autobiography). You may find it helpful to incorporate historical, literary, or social contexts; for example, how do the selected texts use symbolism to reflect the historical, cultural, or literary movements of the time? How is the text an example (or not) of the captivity narrative genre, or of the American Jeremiad? How does the text reflect (or critique) definitions of the American Dream, Puritan Beliefs, or the Enlightenment? Regardless of your particular approach to the text, be sure to provide a close reading of passages to support your thesis. If you want to, you may select up two of the works to discuss in a single paper, but be sure to construct a thesis that unifies the two pieces in a meaningful way. For example, how might Ben Franklin’s Autobiography and Phillis Wheatley’s poetry, when read side by side, present a fuller, and more critical portrait of the American Dream in the mid-late 1700s? Remember the overall aim of a critical essay is to engage in a conversation with the text, explore connections, raise questions, and arrive at a clearer understanding of the text’s possible meanings. It should be reflective and imaginative as well as analytical. To avoid vagueness, be sure to refer to specific passages in the text and use concrete language and vivid detail when presenting your interpretation of the text(s). To situate your paper’s argument in the larger literary discussion of early American texts, you will need to incorporate three scholarly sources into your paper. A scholarly source is an article, book, or reputable web site about the text you are writing about, its author, the genre of the work, or the historical period. Evaluate them critically.
Anne Bradstreet’s Selected Poems: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Bradstreet/bradstreet.html
Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/851/851-h/851-h.htm
John Edward’s Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God:
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/pdf/edwards_angry.pdf
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography: (Sections 1-10 were required reading)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20203/20203-h/20203-h.htm#IX
Phillis Wheatley’s Poems:
On Being Brought from Africa to America
On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770
His Excellency General Washington
(We also examined Mark Edelman Boren’s critical essay “A Fiery Furnace and a Sugar Train: Metaphors that Challenge the Legacy of Phillis Wheatley ‘s On Being Brought from Africa to America””)
