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+ american literature, bartleby the srivener, civil disobedience, early american literature, henry david thoreau, herman melville, ralph waldo emerson, transcendentalism, Uncategorized

Herman Melville’s Bartleby and Civil Disobedience?

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When I asked students what they thought of Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, most expressed frustration with Bartleby because they did not know his motivations. Truthfully, we never really know for sure what drives Bartleby to continue to tell his employer, “I would prefer not to.” However, I would argue, as some have done, that we should read Melville’s story, as we do Rebecca … Read More Herman Melville’s Bartleby and Civil Disobedience?

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+ american literature, bits of gossip, early american literature, henry david thoreau, herman melville, life in the iron mills, nature, rebecca harding davis, Uncategorized

Rebecca Harding Davis And Emerson’s Transcednentalism

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In Bits of Gossip (1904), Rebecca Harding Davis tells about a dinner she had with Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, and others. Of the dinner conversation, she writes, “You heard much sound philosophy and many sublime guesses at the eternal verities; in fact, never were the eternal verities so discussed and pawed over and turned inside out as they were about that time, in Boston, by … Read More Rebecca Harding Davis And Emerson’s Transcednentalism

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The Media and Teaching Students how to Evaluate Sources Post-Election

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A couple of days ago, a friend posted an article entitled “Bernie Sanders Could Replace President Trump with Little-Known Loophole.” Matt Masur, with the title and in the opening paragraph, positions The Huffington Post as factual and something that could happen. However, immediately following the first paragraph, he informs his audience that Sanders cannot replace Trump and that too many people have been getting false … Read More The Media and Teaching Students how to Evaluate Sources Post-Election

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+ african american literature, american literature, don share, donald trump, early american literature, election, election 2016, ernest j gaines, hillary clinton, jacqueline woodson, james baldwin, Literature, louisiana literature, phillis wheatley, plato, poetry magazine, ralph waldo emerson, Uncategorized

Why We Teach: Literature and the Presidential Election

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In the Republic, Plato famously claims that there is a longstanding quarrel between philosophy and poetry, even stating that poets are nothing more than imitators and cannot relate truth to their audience, thus perverting them: “the tragic poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king and from the truth.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Nature (1836), … Read More Why We Teach: Literature and the Presidential Election

+ american literature, civil disobedience, early american literature, henry david thoreau, ralph waldo emerson, the unknown citizen, transcendentalism, Uncategorized

Are We Just a Number? Henry David Thoreau and W.H. Auden

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Ralph Waldo Emerson concludes his essay “Self-Reliance” (1841) with the following words: “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles” (660).About seven years later, Henry David Thoreau delivered his lecture “Resistant to Civil Govermnet,” which would eventually be renamed “Civil Disobedience” after his death. Thoreau’s lecture, essentially, elaborates on the closing lines of Emerson’s essay, … Read More Are We Just a Number? Henry David Thoreau and W.H. Auden

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