Published in Amsterdam in 1720

(Topics in Early America)

This topics course will examine how Europeans took possession of new world lands and peoples. For Europeans, enlightenment goals to catalogue uncharted lands and utopian aims to build new societies often collided with longings for riches and missionary crusades to convert souls. Each of these competing impulses generated different ways of possession, producing, and consuming the idea and experience of America. Through reading secondary sources in history, literature, and anthropology this course will explore different motives and methods that shaped cultural encounters with and images of the new world during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

Seed, Patricia. Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492-1640. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Greenblatt, Stephen. Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Mintz, Sidney W. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Penguin Books, 1986.

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev.ed. New York, Verso, 1991.

Price, Richard. Alabi's World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990

Class Participation:

Class attendance is required. Each student should come to class prepared for an in-depth discussion of the week's readings. Taking notes while you are reading will help you greatly in preparing for class discussion. When reading, allow your notes to develop as an alternative text that both comments on, extends, and questions the reading. Take note of passages you do not understand and of interpretations you find persuasive or flawed. Also, try to understand the implications of the author's ideas when applied to other examples -- in other words, talk back to the text in your notes. Armed with the text, notes, and response paper (see below) you will be prepared for class discussion. Do not wait to be called on. It is your responsibility to participate. Your ideas are important to all of us.

Response Papers:

Every week each student will submit a response paper of 1½ to 2 pages. The papers must be typed and use proper (academic) English. Papers with sentence fragments, lack of agreement between subject and verb, misplaced modifiers, inappropriate changes of subject during a single sentence, improper use of indefinite pronouns, frequent misspellings, and other mistakes not appropriate to college-level writing will not be accepted. Papers are due at the beginning of class. No late papers will be accepted. However, each student may skip two submissions of response papers without penalty.

The response papers should be based on the week's readings and can refer to previous texts as well. In the paper, you should take up either a broad theme or a particular detail, develop an idea (a thesis) about the subject matter or the production of the text itself, and use references from the reading (and other sources if you wish) to substantiate or extend the implications of your idea. Be prepared to read your paper to the class as part of class discussion.

Each student will use material from the class readings and additional research to write a final paper about a "possession." The paper may take the form of a research paper, a textual and contextual analysis of a single work, or a proposed museum exhibit. Detailed instructions will be provided during the term. Each student should meet with Dr. Hunter early in the semester to select a topic. For undergraduates the paper should be 7-10 pages with at least three pages of supplemental material. Students will make a class presentation of their final paper/project at the end of the semester.

** The final Paper/Project is due Tuesday, May 2. **

Tue -- Jan 11: Introduction

Week One

Tue -- Jan 18 Due: Response Paper -- and every following Tuesday.
Reading: Seed: Ceremonies of Possession, Introduction & Chapter 3 (1-15 & 69-99)

Week Two

Tue -- Jan 25
Reading: Seed: Chapters 1 & 5 (16-40 & 149-178); Merwick, from Possessing Albany (on reserve); Green, from Intellectual Construction of America (on reserve) pages TBA.

Week Three

Tue -- Feb 1
Reading: Seed: Chapters 2, 4, & Conclusion. (41-69, 100-193)

Week Four

Tue -- Feb 8
Reading: Greenblatt: Marvelous Possessions, Introduction & Chapter 3 (1-25 & 52-85)

Week Five

Tue -- Feb 15 Due: paragraph on topic of final project.
Reading: Greenblatt: Chapters 4 - 5 (86-151)

Week Six

Tue -- Feb 22
Reading: Mintz: Sweetness and Power, Introduction & Chapters 1-2 (xv-xxx & 1-73)

Tue -- Feb 29 SPRING BREAK!

Week Seven

Tue -- Mar 7
Reading: Mintz, Chapters 3-5 (74-214)

Week Eight

Tue -- Mar 14 Due: One page proposal and Bibliography for final paper.
Reading: Anderson, Imagined Communities, Chapters 1-6 (1-111)

Week Nine

Tue -- Mar 21
Reading: Anderson, Chapters 7-11 (113-206)

Week Ten

Tue -- Mar 28
Reading: Price, Alabi's World, TBA

Week Eleven

Tue -- Apr 4
Reading: Price, TBA

Week Twelve

Tue -- Apr 11
Reading: Lears, T. Jackson, "Cultural Hegemony" (on reserve) and James Clifford, "On Ethnographic Allegory" from Writing Culture (on reserve).

Week Thirteen

Tue -- Apr 18 Presentations of Final Papers/Projects

Week Fourteen

Tue -- Apr 25 Presentations of Final Papers/Projects

Week Fifteen

Tue -- May 2 Final Paper/Project due. Last Class