The Group Project

The idea of the group project is that 3 or 4 of you work together in researching, preparing, and giving a 15-to-20-minute presentation on a topic of your choice. Suggested goals for your group presentation could include: putting a work or genre in historical/social context; analyzing the ways in which critics have positioned a given work or genre as central to the American literary canon; analyzing how interpretations of a work or genre have changed over time; introducing major themes, image patterns, or issues in a given work or genre; or coming up with a topic of your own invention. With my permission, you may write a second critical response essay in lieu of a group project.

Suggested Topics

Images of....

• ....Christopher Columbus (The web site Columbus and the Age of Discovery provides an impressive array of recent essays on Columbus and a good window into the controversies over the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of his "discovery" in 1992.)
• ....Pocahontas (Robert Tilton's Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative, is a good place to start.)
• ....Indigenous Peoples
• ....European Colonials
• ....Tituba (Elaine Breslaw's Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies is a good place to start.)
• ....the Founding Fathers

Historical Contexts

• Francis Drake's Raids on Spanish Colonies (1572 and 1586)
• The Pequot War (1637)
• The Antinomian Crisis (1637)
• Bacon's Rebellion (1676)
• King Phillip's War (1676)
• The Salem Witch Trials
• The Iriquois Confederacy
• The Great Awakening
• The Enlightenment in America
• The French and Indian Wars
• The Debate over Slavery
• The American Revolution
• The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Debates

Genres

• Jeremiads
• Sermons
• Conversion Narratives
• Spiritual Autobiographies
• Diaries and Journals
• Travel Narratives
• Promotional Literature
• Slave Narratives
• Captivity Narratives
• Manifestos
• Autobiographies
• Drama
• Poetry
• Essays
• Novels
• Short Stories

Critical Paradigms

• Puritan Origins/Influences
• Colonial Contests
• The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America
• Border Zones