2010 AM Fictions of a Puritan Past: Hogg’s Justified Sinner and Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, Tues 10-12
- Time: Tuesday 10-12
Contents
Course Description
The focus of this course is on two narratives from the first half of the nineteenth century, which reflect the burning issues of their own time by telling stories from a past which, one may fear, is not quite completely over. The stories are set in Scotland and New England respectively, and they ostensibly represent the social oppressiveness, the self-righteousness and hypocrisy of the Puritans of former times. At the same time, they appear to address dangers arising from a religious fanaticism that continue to threaten the modern self-conception at the time of their publication. Along with the close reading of the two narratives, the course will thus engage in a discussion of the issues of national identities, of tradition vs. modernity, religion vs. secularity, individual vs. society. Students should purchase and read in advance:
James Hogg, Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings, 4th Leland S. Person, (Norton Critical Editions).[Both texts may be had at a very competitive price at the CvO Bookshop]
Additional materials for preparation will be made available on the course’s interactive wikiwebsite.
Requirements: for 3 KP: regular attendance, an oral contribution in the form of a presentation and participation in an ‘expert group’ that will prepare a certain aspect of the seminar’s topic for the final discussion. Requirements for 6 KP: as above, with a term paper of ca. 10 pp. based on the topic of the presentation (deadline Aug 15, 2010).
Bibliography
06.04.10
Introduction. Technicalities. Past vs. Present Perspectives: Reading 19th-century stories about the 17th century in the 21st century.
13.04.10
Textual Practice: Hogg: Justified Sinner: Narration and Characters.
20.04.10
Textual Practice: Hogg Justified Sinner: Structure of the Text; Relations and Tensions between the two parts.
27.04.10
Textual Practice: Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter: Narration and Characters.
4.05.10
Textual Practice: Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter: Structure of the Text; Relations and Tensions between the two parts.
11.05.10
Historical Backgrounds and Hogg’s Justified Sinner: Puritans in Britain from the 16th century to 1715
(Presenters: Mallü, Ziala, Triebe)
18.05.10
- Vaughan, Alden T. The Puritan Tradition in America, 1620-1730. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.
Historical Backgrounds and Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter: Puritans in the US in the mid-17th century.
25.05.10
- Duncan, Ian. "Fanaticism and Enlightenment in Confessions of a Justified Sinner." (Available on campus only via NetLibrary )
- Start Sim. "Two Narratives of Religious Despair."
Critical Discussion: Hogg and Fanaticism
(Presenter: Willig)
01.06.10
Critical Discussion: Sexuality and Politics in The Scarlet Letter
(Presenters: Lammers, Pawlitzek, Reinecke)
08.06.10
- Sacvan Bercovitch, "A-Politics" (Norton Critical Ed., 576-597)
Critical Discussion: (Re-) Interpreting the ‘A’ in The Scarlet Letter
(Presenters: Ardali, Tietjen)
15.06.10
- Anderson, "Jefferson, Hawthorne and 'The Custom House'", (Norton Critical Ed., 404-417)
- (also check: Franzosa, "Separation from Salem", (Norton Critical Ed., 387-404))
Critical Discussion: “The Custom House”, Contemporary Politics and The Scarlet Letter
(Presenters: Bockmann, Holzmüller)
22.06.10
Critical Discussion: The structure of the text and the 19th century contexts of publication for the Justified Sinner
- Additional reading:
29.06.10
Course evaluation. – Expert Groups Past vs. Present Perspectives Revisited: Reading 19th-century stories about the 17th century in the 21st century
06.07.10
Feedback on Course evaluation. – Final discussion and Presentation of Term Paper Projects
Further Reading
- General information on American Puritanism:
Vaughan, Alden T. The Puritan Tradition in America, 1620-1730. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.
Available on campus only via NetLibrary
- On Hogg's Justified Sinner
Evans, Meredith. "Persons Fall Apart: Jame Hogg's Transcendent Sinner."
