Monday, 29 September

Today we dig into one of the most famous imaginative nineteenth-century American authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and one of his famous short stories, “Young Goodman Brown.” We’ve spent most of our time in this unit looking at what most would construe at non-fiction texts, and the one fictional text—Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin—has been pretty direct about its political interests. Here we look into a text with more ambiguous messages and assess the ways they tweak our assessment of postsecular critique and the larger questions of church and state

For Wednesday (10.1):

• Read O’Sullivan, “Annexation” (184-188)
• Record one entry in your common-place book

Wednesday, 1 October

In our final class and reading of this first unit, we read the anonymously published article “Annexation” and encounter the first recorded use of the term “manifest destiny.” We use this reading to think through the complexities of our unit, and prep for the upcoming exam.

Friday, 3 October

NO CLASS

      For Monday (10.6):

• Complete your take-home essay. Bring a printed copy to class as ticket of admission to your exam.
• Prep for exam. Bring your own paper for answers.
• Bring your common-place book to class for a check.