Attending this class has given me the knowledge of American literature. This is the first time I am experiencing the opportunity to read about it and I am enjoying it. What surprised me most on the beginning was the dynamic of the class whereas we would interact with each other through a blog. I have had use blogger before, when I was a teenager, but it was my “diary online”, nothing serious. With the help of the blog I can see the progress of my work from the beginning of the class until now. I have picked up the practice of reading older texts (it was not easy in the beginning), which to me means a more thorough reading and understanding of the context as a whole.
To better understand what literature is we had a discussion on Discussion Week One: Time Travel and Defining Literature, the discussion was great and each student could say which place they would visit if they could go back in time. To start our blogs we wrote an essay about “What is an American” where we had to use the knowledge we obtained from Crevecoeur’s letter and answer the question as a letter for a friend planning in visit the U.S.. This last week of class we went back to the same topic, but at this time we used the general assembly and all the knowledge from the class to express what is an American (Week Sixteen: The Role of Literature).
Learning about Romantics as Poe and Thoreau, nature, religion, politics and slavery is giving me another view of the world. Beyond doubt, it caused a lot of fighting, lots of blood, many sacrifices, much stoicism and many vicissitudes, which have become magnificent triumphs. “A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.” Henry David Thoreau. This quote truly describes my experiences in this class, what I am learning here. I fully expect to carry over to everyday life. I got all interested in quotes due to an assignment we had on the discussion board (Post Quotations and Passages: A Class Commonplace Book) where we had to post two quotes from Jefferson we most felt connected to.
Brilliant essayist and philosopher, Thoreau (1817-1862) sought in the wild, the primitive aspects of which are linked, their motivation to talk about what is living and being human in a society in constant progress. To escape the city and the "lies" of which we are caught, the writer decided to take refuge in a hut on the shores of Walden Pond and surrendered himself to the contemplation of nature in its pure and raw - a recurring element in his small (and Not therefore less interesting) poetry, which can be very well compared to some of the best verses of the great American poet Walt Whitman. Renaissance soul, since it was endowed with the most diverse interests, Thoreau, who was born and lived in the U.S., wrote treated sociological and philosophical; had inflection naturalist and stirred with the historiography and literature, besides being a poet. In the posture in relation to society and its behavior as a contemplative writer, philosopher preached around the rustic, primitive, simplicity and beauty of simple things. He was a Romantic and trough his texts we have learned about nature, the sublime and how to live a good life. Here I showed knowledge about the reflection we had during the week with the post talking about a full life (Living the Full Life and Defining Your Best Self.), where I inserted the nature theme and did a mix with my opinion of life. There we had free opinion to express what an American is and how they live their lives to the fullest. We had a general assembly post as well about Nature, Romantic and Sublime (Week Five Discussion: Walking, Nature, and the Romantic Sublime).
Edgar Allan Poe was the most romantic of the major American writers. In his works, he did not bother to address the problems between good and evil, or to give lessons in behavior. He believed that if he were able to create beauty and touch the sensibilities of his readers, was enough. The poet believed that nothing could be more romantic than a poem about the death of a beautiful woman. Many of his works explore the theme of the suffering caused by the death of a lover. Another characteristic of his poetry is the music, giving the impression that the sound is more important than sense. Edgar Allan Poe is considered the "creator" of the police story, but its chief merit lies in the skill with which he was riding his stories. He planned to a good architect plans a building, involving the reader in such a way that leads "hypnotically" the outcome of the story.
This reveals the duality of his art and personality: on one hand "visionary and idealistic" poems steeped in sadness and horror stories and police. He was a man in a troubled life, dominated by addiction to alcohol and excess of opium. On the other hand, was a demanding craftsman, a writer who prided himself on his technique and rationalism that created his stories. It is this duality that the projects as one of the masters of world literature. We had the opportunity to read and listen to some of his texts. We could find Poe section on the HB book, and also had some mp3 available for listening. We did not have any post blogs on him but we did have a general assembly’s link Discussion Week Three: Discuss the Genres of the Ghost Story, Horror, and Thrillers.
Another way of interaction in the class is participating in the general assembly. It is a big point of the class; you can express yourself and read other students opinions. I have written questions and answered others. That is why I have participated in ALL the discussions we had during the semester, putting my views out there and observing others students believes. It was not always I concord with what was said, but I have always respected dissenting opinions.
The Discussion on slavery I think has been the most intriguing topic thus far this semester. Slavery is still a very sensitive subject to many people as the students could have see on the General Assembly. There is a lot of questions still surrounding slavery. I come from another country where we had suffered with slavery as well; with this class I had the chance to read about the slavery issues here in America. It was not until I was here, that I realized the issues still stand today and they are very similar. My initial thoughts were slavery was a thing of the past, but it has never been more present. We also had the opportunity to see slave through other eyes. We read Crevecoeur “Letter IX, description of Charles Town; Thoughts on Slavery; on Physical Evil; a Melancholy Scene”, among others, where we could see how the romantics tried to justify slavery. Slavery was one activity that I find most interesting of all is the discussions we have at the General Assembly. No doubt this is one of the most helpful things in the class, where students share their opinions and not always they agree, which is very interesting. With that I have learned how to accept others opinions, without changing mine. Each individual has the right to believe in what they want. I think that the discussion about slavery was one of the hottest where opinions diverged, as seen at Week Six: Questions and Answers about Slavery and the Reading.
Throughout the same week of exercises we have learned about slavery we have talked about social problems in America. As I post on my blog I can show the progress of my learning and the evolution of each one. I think the one of it where I could best express my opinion about social problems was the post talking about a very common American social problem (Immigration in America) where I exposed this as a problem to the United States, because the illegal immigration has been treated as a disease in society, but the authorities should go and analyze the bottom of the problem and then come up with solutions to reduce the problem. I came up with three ideas that I think would help to alleviate the situation.
On the other hand some other discussions took place very smoothly, especially the ones we were talking about religion. I did not know, I thought that might be some divergences but for my surprise most of the students shared the same beliefs (Week Fifteen, Discussion Starter, Part A). On part B we chose another religion view, different from ours that we would agree. I chose Deism for the following reason: (I'm tending more towards Deism. In Deism the existence of God is real. But unlike the theist Deism tries to prove God by reason, following philosophic teachings, away of illusions and fanaticism. I have always believed that God exists and the acts of God guide our lives. He loves us unconditionally. He gave us the nature as beautiful as it is and discernment. What matters is what you feel in your heart and when you know that He is up there tracing the paths for you, regardless religion.) This was my post to the general assembly.
We also learned about Enlightenment literature and self- and community- help. We made a list of virtues and chose one or two to practice and improve over the course of the weeks. This task was very important to help us to realize that the virtues are not only an own benefit, but a civic duty. Helping ourselves we are also contributing to the harmony in the community and how important it is to know ourselves and control these virtues, using them for the good of all. This post to my blog show a little introduction to Virtues, I got at Wikipedia as suggested by the professor, and also shows 12 of the virtues that I believe to have. ("Short List of the Virtues Necessary for Well-Bein...”). With the past of the weeks we updated the blog with how we were working on our virtues.
During the past weeks we have learned about Thomas Paine and “The American crisis” and his “Common Sense”. We were encouraged to write a polemic like Paine’s in our blogs. That was the most fun assignment in my opinion, where we played the role of a proud citizen that wants the best to his/her own nation. I put the problem out there and offered the solutions I believed were helpful. “Hopefully, we can reunite as one and fight these issues as a country. In order for us to succeed as a nation, I feel it is in our best interest to take action now!”. To a full look on this work go to Attention America..time has come!.
Our penultimate assignment was to write a blog post talking about our beliefs. We had to write a profession of belief based on Thomas Paine’s: The age of reason. I really felt engaged to this one, I felt as if I were the freest person in the whole world and I put everything I had in mind out there. I had the opportunity to share my religion, my opinions about religion and some of the confusions I had along my life until I finally completely understand what I believe and how important it is to me. I have written more than 600 words for this post. For a sneak peek go to Public Profession of Belief!.
One thing that has helped me a lot to interpret the texts we had to read was the research that I made on the internet or in other books on the same themes that are being studied. Whenever I write an essay I begin to consider the points I want to address by summarizing the general idea, subsequent to I initiate to write what comes to me in the head, finally I edit my own ideas and text, making it a substantial and coherent text. I believe that has been successful so far due my posts, specially the last ones.
I hope I have done a good job in the production of texts and also in how to expose it to the other students and professor. For me the greatest reward is to reach readers and make them interact with me so we can exchange experiences and opinions. Before I took this class, I would of not feel comfortable writing to the public or receiving student’s opinions about my work. This class has made me want to pursue public speaking, so I can work on my presentation skills, what will help me when I graduate college and start to pursue my career. This class has challenged me, however, in how much effort and time I have put towards it. I am not saying it was a bad thing, but I will not deny that it was very hard to keep up with it sometimes. Some weeks I had a hard time to understand the readings and writing them down, but I did it and now I see it was worth it because I do see improvement and how I changed since the begging of the course.
I deserve an A on this class for my hard and excellent work, where I dedicate myself and put all the effort I could. On the top of that I pushed myself on the readings to learn and absorb as much information as I could, so I can finish this semester saying that I know American Literature and all the history involved. I was always doing my best to fulfill the requirements; never, no exception, turned in assignments after due dates, I was always interacting with other students, exchanging opinions, whether we agreed or not, read for the week, posted concise texts on my blog and participated on the general assembly, very actively. There was nothing more rewarding than receiving praise from my colleagues on their blogs when we had to make comments on each other’s work (Comparison of Blogs by me peer Courtney DeLong). Last but no less important I consulted the professor when I had an intriguing question and needed help.
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