Week Sixteen and Final Assignments Are Active.

On the map below, notice all which wasn't known about the new world in the first years of English settlement.  Those who created this map for the Virginia Company thought that just beyond the Virginia mountains the Pacific was to be found.  They thought they could row up the James, and, instead of petering out, there came a point where it widened into the Pacific.  This vision of the world was as real to them as the globe you know is to you.  In many ways, your own journey on Early American literature is like this map.  There's still a lot of fascinating land left to fill in.  

There is always more Early American literature than can be covered in a scant semester.  Just look at your two texts to see all we haven't read, and these excerpts are only a selections of all which could be read.  

There is a section books in most research libraries which do nothing else but list the books published in the three hundred years post contact in the Americas. I have taught entire upper and graduate level classes on captivity narratives and the Native American literature of the period.  I've also taken entire classes on Early American African American and Woman's literature.  We haven't read the plays, listened to more than a scattering of music, nor read the travel narratives or diaries produced during the period.  If you ever get a chance, take classes in these areas or in the literature surrounding the settlement of the West, Spanish and French contact and conquest, etc. et etc.  I promise you there will be less writing than you've experienced in this course, but this course is designated writing intensive, and--as you've found out--writing is a good way to learn in an online course.  Just look through your classmate's learning reflections and look at the times they were most engaged.

Most of what I wanted you to get out of our course was that the people you've studied are fascinating and just like you.  This and an appreciation for literature and the role it has played in people's lives, it can play in yours, and how it's changed society. Everyone is fascinating, and the decisions you make, the books you read, make history.  Literature and history are not made by professors.  We just clean it up and argue about what the real actors--like you--do.  We teach this cleaned up version, that is, until students--again, like you--are ready for the real truth, namely, that you are making history and reading the literature which will be studied tomorrow.  Our greatest tool is our humanity and our ability to see ourselves in others.  Learning history and literature is a journey, and yours has just begun.    

Visit Williamsburg.  Visit Jamestown.  Follow the John Smith Trail or the route of Lewis and Clark.  Read Lydia Child or Elias Boudinot.  Begin to fill in the gaps on the map.  As you have discovered this semester, your own voyage of discovery will repay you with a glimpse into an America you can only know through the exploration, but it will also allow you to discover the America you already life in; so, you'll be discovering yourself and why you and our society works the way it does.

One of the things I hope you have learned is just how rich and varied Early American literature and the time period is, and how your own lives and incidental writing can and will capture the imagination of future readers.  Individuals, like you and me, make literature and history.

However, the only real sections of lit we haven't read that I wanted you to know about is that surrounding non-English contact and conquest and the literature of Native America prior to contact and just after.  The reading for last week was that surrounding Virgina settlement. You can continue to read the selections from the Heath at your leisure, because they won't be required for this course.  Remember that you can also find this literature for free and online. 

Just in case you do have any questions about the portfolio, I have opened a Q&A discussion thread on the portfolio open, and--of course--I will be happy to answer any questions you might have about the reading, authors, and periods we've covered.

Instead, I want you to spend the final week of the course putting together the best portfolio you can.  Look to the discussion thread to answer any questions.  

As always, write with questions.

Steve