Kent-Drury
English 655

Revised Schedule*

Date
Reading Assignment
Due
Week 1

Intro to Course

 
8/21

Syllabus

Research topics

Exploration literature, readers & reading

Medieval/Renaissance World View

Model Precis:

Geertz, "Thick Description" (Dr. KD)
Pratt, "Arts of the Contact Zone" (Dr. KD)

 
Week 2 Exploration and Discovery--Columbus  
8/28

Christopher Columbus, The Four Voyages (1492-1504)

Study Questions

Recommended reading

Montaigne, "Of Cannibals"
"Paradise" Geography & Enlightenment

Hulme, "Columbus" and "Caribs" in Colonial Encounters

Las Casas, A Short Acct. of the Destruction of the Indies

Guaman Poma de Ayala, The First New Chronicle of Good Government

 
9/4 is Labor Day
Week 3 Perfect place or No place?  
9/11

Sir Thomas More, Utopia (1518)

Vespucci, Amerigo. Mondus Novus. 1504.

Pagden, Anthony."Intro to European Encounters with the New World from the Renaissance to Romanticism"

Recommended Reading:

Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

Precis: Pagden
Week 4 Exploration and Disaster--The Narvaez Expedition  
9/18

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Castaways (1528-1536)

Study Questions

Plagiarism/MLA Workshop (self test)

Recommended Reading:

TBS

 
Week 5 Exploration as National Epic  
9/25

Hakluyt, Richard. Principal Navigations of the English People.

Recommended Reading:

Helgerson, Richard. "Voyages of a Nation." Forms of Nationhood.

Fuller, Mary. Voyages in Print: English Travel to America, 1576-1624. New York: Cambridge UP,  1995.

Feest, Christian, Ed. "This New Prey: Eskimos in Europe in 1567, 1576, and 1577." Indians and Europe. RaderVerlag.

Bring Preliminary version of annotated bibliography
Week 6 Early English Encounters in America  
10/2

Mancall, Peter. Envisioning America: English Plans for the Colonization of North America. Boston & New York: Bedford, 1995.

Harriot. A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. 1590. New York: Dover, 1972.

Recommended Reading:

Sayre, "Founding Fathers and their Indian Relations."
Sayre, "War, Captivity, Adoption, Torture."
Hulme, "John Smith and Pocahontas." Colonial Encounters.
Byrd, William. History of the Dividing Line.
Bartram, William. Travels and Other Writings.
Williams, Roger. Key into the Language of America.

 
Week 7 Captivity Narratives  
10/9

Hans Staden (1557)
Isaac Jogues (1655)
Christophe Regnaut (1649)
Mary Rowlandson (1682)
Film: Black Robe

Study Questions

Recommended Reading:

Lery, "Voyage to Brazil" (Cindy Wright)

Sayre, Gordon. Les Sauvage Americains

Bring preliminary version of annotated bibliography

Week 8 Fictional Captivities  
10/16

Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko

Brown, Laura. "The Romance of Empire: Oroonoko and the Traffic in Slaves." Ends of Empire. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1993.

Recommended Reading:

Wheeler, Roxann. Complexion of Race.



Plagiarism/MLA Quiz Due

Week 9 Fictional Castaways  
10/23

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)

Study Questions

Recommended Reading:

Livingstone, "Human Condition" Nick Brown?)
Wheeler, "Christians, Savages, Slaves"
Hulme, "Robinson Crusoe & Friday." Colonial Encounters.

Colley, Linda. Captives.
Defoe, Daniel. "Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe"


Week 10 The Exotic and the Absurd  
10/30

Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Travels

Montagu. Turkish Letters

Study Questions

Recommended Reading:

Voltaire. Candide.

Title & 1 paragraph description of paper due

Week 11 African Captives  
11/6

Olaudah Equiano (1784)
James Smith (1799)

Recommended Reading:

TBS

 

Week 12 Literature, Anthropology, and Natural History  
11/13

Hawkesworth, John. Cook's Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Volumes II and III (1769-1771) (Excerpts assigned)

Handout with Reading Assignment

Recommended Reading:

TBS

 
Week 13 Exploration After Cook  
11/20

Park, Mungo. Travels to the Interior of Africa

Recommended Reading:

TBS

Annotated Bibliography Due

Week 14 Consultations on Papers  
11/27    
Week 14 Consultations on Papers  
12/4

 


Final Exam Tuesday, December 11, 4:30-6:30 pm Paper Due

*Subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.

Return to syllabus

Dr. Roxanne Kent-Drury