Link to important Salem websites

Course Policies, Assignments, etc.

Reading Assignments, with links to online materials (below)

August

            Reading the Salem Witch Trials in History

M 22    Course introduction; background lecture: outline of 1692 events

W 24   Discuss experience of interactive website, National Geographic: Salem Witch-Hunt--Interactive.   Look at selections from historical interpretations online:  http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/salemwc2.htm#demos.  Background lecture:  conflicts in historical interpretation of 1692 events.

F 26     Read Carol Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, chap. 1; look at The Malleus Maleficarum (1486); look at Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689) (online, http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_MATH.HTM ).  Background on history of witchcraft persecutions.

M 29    Richard Weisman, "The Salem Witchcraft Persecutions:  The Framework for the Official Initiative," from Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts.    Begin Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World.

W 31   Emory Elliot, “The Language of Salem Witchcraft,” from Cambridge Introduction to Early American Literature.  Continue Mather, Wonders; look at this site with cases not included in the version of the text listed for Monday:  Mather's case records

September

F 2       Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story, Introduction and chap. 1; Elaine Breslaw, Introduction from Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem.  Read Tituba records from SWT archives.

M 5      University Holiday – Labor Day

W 7     Rosenthal, chaps. 2-4.   Read trial records:

F 9       Rosenthal, chaps. 5-6.  Read trial records:

M 12    Rosenthal, chaps. 7-9.  Read trial records:

W 14   Richard Godbeer, “The Rape of a Whole Colony:  The 1692 Witch Hunt," from The Devil's Dominion:  Magic and Religion in Early New England.

F 16     Mary Beth Norton, from In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Introduction and Conclusion

M 19    Carol Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, chap. 4

W 21   Karlsen, chap. 5

F 23     Karlsen, chaps. 6-7 plus Epilogue and Afterword to Norton Paperback Edition.

M 26    Elizabeth Reis, chap. 5, “Gender and the Meaning of Confession,” from Damned Women:  Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England;  Jane Kamensky, “Female Speech and Other Demons:  Witchcraft and Wordcraft in Early New England," from Spellbound:  Women and Witchcraft in America, ed. E. Reis.

W 28   Dissident Voices:  Robert Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700)

F 30     Dissident Voices:  John Hale, A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (1702)

October

M 3      Three Sovereigns for Sarah, film and discussion

W 5     Three Sovereigns for Sarah, film and discussion

F 7       Three Sovereigns for Sarah, film and discussion

M 10    Three Sovereigns for Sarah, film and discussion

W 12   Salem’s legacy:  Rosenthal, chap. 10; Frances Hill, “Salem as Witch City,” from Salem:  Place, Myth, and Memory.  For the latest update in the city saga, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901352.html and http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/06/16/bewitched_statue_charms_salem_fans/

F 14     Time off for individual appointments, or catch-up day if needed.

            Reading the Salem Witch Trials in Literature

M 17    Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”  

            Paper 1 due

W 19   Hawthorne, “Alice Doane’s Appeal”

F 21     Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Giles Corey, Yeoman

M 24    Freeman, continued.

W 26   Esther Forbes, A Mirror for Witches  

F 28     Forbes, continued

            Last day to drop course without an “F”

M 31    Forbes, continued

November

W 2     Arthur Miller, The Crucible (text and film).  English Ed majors may be interested in this site with links to many sites with ideas for teaching the play: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/miller.html

F 4       The Crucible, plus read John and Elizabeth Proctor records online.

M 7      The Crucible, plus read Edmund Morgan, “Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials: A Historian’s View”

W 9     The Crucible, plus read Arthur Miller, “Why I Wrote The Crucible”

F 11     The Crucible, plus read Wendy Schissel, "Rediscovering the Witches in Arthur Miller's The Crucible:  A Feminist Reading," from Modern Drama 37.3 (1994).  [last quiz date]

M 14    Begin group work on your chosen text (Conde, Cooley, Picoult, Rinaldi or Petry)

W 16   Group work time on chosen texts

F 18     Group work time on chosen texts

M 21    Group work time on chosen text.s  By today groups must give me the portion(s) of their text they want photocopied for the class.

W 23   Thanksgiving Holiday

F 25     Thanksgiving Holiday

M 28    Group work time on chosen texts. 

W 30   Group-led presentation and discussion of chosen texts

December

F 2       Group-led presentation and discussion of chosen texts

M 5      Group-led presentation and discussion of chosen texts

W 7     Group-led presentation and discussion of chosen texts

F 9       Group-led presentation and discussion of chosen texts if time is needed, else time for individual meetings about final paper.

Exam Week

T 13     10:00-11:50 a.m. scheduled exam time.   No exam or required attendance.  I will be available to meet in my office. 

Paper 2 is due Wednesday 12/14, 12:00 p.m.