American Literature

Week 10: Literature, Politics, and Social Justice

Please READ:

• Chief Seattle 229-231
• Harriet Hanson Robinson 232-235
• "Moral Struggle" p. 253
• Harriet Beecher Stowe 259-264
• "Women Novelists of the Nineteenth Century" p. 265
• Frederick Douglass 266-268
• Sojourner Truth 269-70
• Abraham Lincoln 271-272
• Robert E. Lee 273-4
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton 283-286
• Satanta 343
• Chief Joseph 344-345.
• Please also begin reading Huckleberry Finn. Try to get through at least a third of it this week.

CONSIDER for discussion:

• What is the place of social criticism and commentary in literature? Some of this week's readings were written as political and social commentary; others were written as literature with a social message.
• From what you know of American history, how effective were these various pieces of literature in changing peoples' awareness of real problems?
• What utility for us does the social criticism of a bygone era have? Do they address problems that are still with us?