Kerrison Syllabus Atlantic History Seminar

Women and Print Culture in the Anglo-Atlantic World, 1675-1800
Dr. Catherine Kerrison
Villanova University
Spring 2001

The Course
This course examines the participation of women in the culture of print, as both producers and consumers, in Britain and early America. In its exploration of this problem, it will incorporate issues such as governmental controls of the dissemination of print; the democratization and expansion of the literary marketplace; the meanings of literacy; gender and print; the British and American contexts in which the literature was produced and read; and the impact of the American Revolution upon these questions. Ultimately, the objective is to arrive at a thesis about the evolving meanings of reading and writing for women in both Britain and early America.

Required Reading
Cathy Davidson, ed. Reading in America: Literature & Social History
David D. Hall, Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book
Sharon Harris, American Women Writers to 1800
William J. Andrews, Journeys in New Worlds: Early American Women's Narratives
Cathy Davidson, ed., Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth

Additional readings on reserve

Requirements

Attendance
Attendance is essential: both your grade (and your colleagues) will benefit from your presence in class and the informed contributions that follow diligent attention to the readings. Since class discussion will revolve around our readings, make sure you bring your documents (your evidentiary base) to class to support your arguments. Class participation is heavily weighted; quality rather than quantity is the criterion for grading.

Writing
This class is writing-emiched, therefore two essays (three and ten-twelve pages in length, respectively) and a final examination are required. Papers are due in class on 19 February and 30 April. (N.B. All quotations, paraphrases, and ideas which are not your own should be properly cited in footnotes or endnotes. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and constitutes grounds for failing the entire course.) Late papers will suffer a reduction of a third of a letter grade per calendar day (including weekends).

Examination
There will be a take-home final examination that will be distributed on the last day of class. All examinations must be returned to me (or to the history department office) no later than 3 pm, 11 May 2001. I will not accept late exams or email submissions. Failure to submit the examination will result in a failure for the course.
Failure to complete all course work will result in a final grade of "F, " regardless of grades received on any completed work.

Evaluation
My evaluation of your performance will be based upon your class participation and your written work. The course requirements are weighted as shown below, but I will emphasize improvement over the course of the semester; your final grade can, in fact, be higher than the average of your scores. (It cannot be lower.)
Essay #1: 15%
Essay #2: 25%
Bibliography/Outline 5%
Finalexaniination: 25%
Class' participation: 30%

COURSE CALENDAR
(1/15) Introduction to the course and to history
(1/22) Print in Early Modern Europe
Reading: Natalie Zemon Davis, "Printing and the People," in Society and
Culture in Early Modern France, 189-226. [on reserve]
Cathy Davidson, "Introduction," and Robert Damton, "What is the History of Books?" in Reading in America, 1-52.
David Hall, Cultures of Print, "On Native Ground: From the History of Printing to the History of the Book"
(1/29) Print and culture in 17th-century England
Reading: On Reserve:
Anthony Fletcher, Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England, 1500-1800,
Chapter 6, "Prologue: Prescription and Honour Codes"
Harold Love, The Culture and Commerce of Texts: Scribal Publication in Seventeenth Century England, chapters 2 and 5, "Publication in the scribal medium" and "The social uses of the scribally published text."
Elaine Hobby, Virtue of Necessity: English Women's Writing 1649-1688, Introduction
(2/05) How do women read?
Reading: on reserve
Patrocinio P. Schweickart, "Reading Ourselves: Toward a Feminist Theory of Reading," in Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts
Dale Spender, "Language studies: From the Spoken to the Written Word," and "Literary Criticism: Making it for Men," in The Writing or the Sex? Or why you r don't have to read women's writing to know it's no good
(2/12) Reading and Writing in Seventeenth-century Britain
Selections from Angeline Goreau, ed., The Whole Duty of a Woman: Female Writers in Seventeenth-Century England [on reserve]
(2/19) Print in Early America: New England
Reading: Hall, Cultures of Print
"The Uses of Literacy in New England, 1600-1850"
"The World of Print and Collective Mentality in Seventeenth-Century New England"
"Readers and Reading in America"
Monaghan, "Literacy Instruction and Gender in colonial New England," in Reading in America, 53-80.
Harris, Mary Downing [45-46]; Margaret Winthrop [176-79]; Katherine IMarbury Scott [180-81]; Mary Herendean Pray [184-87]; Epistolary
Exchanges [235-239]
ESSAY ONE DUE in class
(2/26) Seventeenth~Century Chesapeake
I . Reading: Hall, "The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century"
Harris: Barbara Smith [181-84]; Mary Stafford [189-93];
Elizabeth Bland [193-96] .
*PAPER TOPICS DUE
(3/12) Captivity Narratives
Mary Rowlandson in Andrews, Journeys in New Worlds
* ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
(3/19) Eighteenth-century Transitions
The Travels of Sarah Knight, in Andrews, Journeys in New Worlds
(3/26) Women and Religion
Elizabeth Ashbridge, in Andrews, Journeys in New Worlds
(4/02) The Politics of Reading
Hall, Cultures of Print
"The Politics of Reading and Writing in Eighteenth-Century America"
Davidson, "Privileging the Feme Covert: The Sociology of Sentimental Fiction"
Chapter 6 in Davidson, Revolution and the Word [on reserve]
Neuburg, "Chapbooks in America" and Nord, "A Republican Literature" in .Davidson, ed. Reading in America
*PAPER OUTLINES DUE
(4/09) Revolution and the Word
Charlotte Temple
Harris: Epistolary Exchanges [239-49]; Mary Willing Byrd [271-75]
(4/23) Class Research Presentations, Part One
(4/30) Class Research Presentations, Part Two and Conclusions
ESSAY TWO DUE in class

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
The first writing assignment will treat theoretical questions of gender and literacy. Revised as necessary, the first assignment would be ready to be incorporated into the final paper. The ultimate writing goal of the class is to produce a ten-to-twelve-page analytical paper in which the student advances a thesis regarding women and print in early America. This second essay must be based on primary sources of the student's choice (poetry, letters, diary, captivity narrative, memoir, or novel, selected from Sharon Harris's American Women Writers to 1800), set in its historical context, and must deal specifically with issues of gender, literacy, and authority. The advance preparation for the final paper, in particular the annotated bibliography and outline, will also be graded.
Specific details of each writing project will be handed out in class.