Scarlet Letters: Puritanism and Anglo-American Literary Culture

Mini-Conference Program

December 14, 2011

Session One: Issues in Puritanism

Josh Soloc, “The Image of

Puritanism in the 17^th Century”

Nick Brott, “The Decline of Puritan

Faith: The More It Is Pushed, the

Less It Is Followed”

Q & A

Session Two: Puritan Women Writers

Jonathan Rice, “Gender Maneuvers in Anne Bradstreet’s ‘Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan’”

Jason Vanfossen, “The Subject of Subjectivity in Autobiography: Lucy Hutchinson’s Autobiography and the Rise of the Public and Private Self”

Q & A

 Break

Session Three: Shades of Milton

Christy McDowell, “Robert Catesby and the Devil: How History Influenced Milton”

Jessica Neusenschwander, “Godly Self-Fashioning in Paradise Lost: The Importance of Intent”

Cody Mejeur, “Following the Grey Pilgrim: Tracing Protestant Influence in Middle Earth”

Q & A

Session Four: Prosy Puritans: Narrative in Bunyan and Defoe

Ben Moran, “‘Sweetnesse Readie Penn’d’: Bunyan’s Negotiation of Faith and Aesthetics in      The Pilgrim’s Progress”

Angela Kramer, “Words and Their Impact on Interpretation”

Brandon Jennings, “Robinson Crusoe: An Examination of Character”

Q & A

Break

Session Five: Witches, Warlocks, and Mathers---Oh My!

Kate Stearns, “Historical Context of the Salem Witch Trials and Textual Analysis of Relating Works”

Sheridan Steelman, “Witchcraft in New England: Fear of Female Agency”

Jen Ptacek, “Cotton Mather’s Innocence in the Salem Witch Trials”

Q & A

Session Six: Puritan Legacies

Jen Kruger, “O Blessed be God for this Word: Puritan Involvement in the Production of the King James Bible”

Briana Barnett, "Lessons Unlearned: The Puritan Educational System and Modern

Implications"

Q & A

Final Comments: Bradburn and Slawinski

Class Recap 12/7

Enfield, Massachusetts

Jessica Neuenschwander's presentation on and close reading of Jonathan Edwards's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" started us off. From there we moved to some background on the Great Awakening and a general discussion of Edwards's mix of reason and emotion as essential to the religious experience.  We looked closely at his tract on religious affections and at his "Personal Narrative."  We also briefly touched on Edwards's depiction of nature and how it differs from earlier representations and his interest in the new science of the Enlightenment.

In the last 25 minutes of class, we returned to the essays written on the first day of class and the slide of "Puritans."  We reexamined the question "what is a Puritan?" and inquired into how the definition found in those essays from day one might have been altered through the semester's study of Puritan texts.

Class Recap 11/30

A Professor leading class discussion.

This week's class was on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. We began with a presentation from Josh, who gave us biographical information about Defoe and explained how some of his life experiences are reflected in the details of the story. Josh also described several of the possible literary origins of the book. He didn't have time to elaborate on "Robinson Crusoe in Space," but maybe he'll tell you about it if you ask him.

Brandon followed with a presentation on the critical reception of Robinson Crusoe, the difficulty of identifying its formal genre (spiritual biography? guidebook? travel narrative?), its status as literature, and its continuing importance, all within the framework of the practices of current writers and teachers of fiction. A highlight for the class was Brandon's hand-drawn cartoon, "Crusoe is a Kid Killer."

The second half of the class period was devoted to discussing narrative strategies in Robinson Crusoe. We debated Damrosch's claim that Crusoe's psychology is essentially behaviorist; then we discussed the literal and symbolic significance of animals in book. We examined the role of the Journal as an internal text, and finally compared Defoe's narrative strategies with those of Milton and Bunyan.