ESTUDIOS

CULTURALES EN
LENGUA
INGLESA II
2021-22
Contents

1. The Eighteenth Century.

John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government. Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. The American Declaration of Independence. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman. William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper.”

2. The Industrial Revolution.

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. Thomas Carlyle, “Signs of the Times.”

3. The Frontier Experience.

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer. Chief Tecumseh, Address to General William Henry Harrison. The Seneca Falls Conference, The Declaration of Sentiments.
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” H. D. Thoreau, The Journal.

4. The US Civil War and Reconstruction.

Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

5. Victorian England: Empire and Commonwealth.

Charles Dickens, Hard Times. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species. Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden.” War poetry: Siegfried Sassoon, “Attack” & Rupert Brooke, “The Soldier.” W. B.
Yeats, “Easter 1916.”

6. Naturalism and the Growth of the Cities.

Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus.”

7. Modernism & The Jazz Age.

Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath.

8. From WWII to the New Millennium.

Arthur Miller, The Crucible. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a dream.” John Millius & Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (Redux). Monica Ali, Brick Lane.
the eighteenth century
From John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690)

CHAPTER IX

Of the Ends of Political Society and Government.

Sec. 127. Thus mankind, notwithstanding all the privileges of the state of Sec. 129. The first power, viz. of doing whatsoever he thought for the
nature, being but in an ill condition, while they remain in it, are quickly preservation of himself, and the rest of mankind, he gives up to be
driven into society. Hence it comes to pass, that we seldom find any regulated by laws made by the society, so far forth as the preservation of
number of men live any time together in this state. The inconveniencies himself, and the rest of that society shall require; which laws of the society
that they are therein exposed to, by the irregular and uncertain exercise of in many things confine the liberty he had by the law of nature.
the power every man has of punishing the transgressions of others, make
them take sanctuary under the established laws of government, and therein
seek the preservation of their property. It is this makes them so willingly
give up every one his single power of punishing, to be exercised by such
alone, as shall be appointed to it amongst them; and by such rules as the
community, or those authorized by them to that purpose, shall agree on.
And in this we have the original right and rise of both the legislative and
executive power, as well as of the governments and societies themselves.

Sec. 128. For in the state of nature, to omit the liberty he has of innocent
delights, a man has two powers. The first is to do whatsoever he thinks fit
for the preservation of himself, and others within the permission of the law
of nature: by which law, common to them all, he and all the rest of mankind
are one community, make up one society, distinct from all other creatures.
And were it not for the corruption and vitiousness of degenerate men, there
would be no need of any other; no necessity that men should separate from
this great and natural community, and by positive agreements combine into
smaller and divided associations.The other power a man has in the state of
nature, is the power to punish the crimes committed against that law. Both
these he gives up, when he joins in a private, if I may so call it, or particular
politic society, and incorporates into any common-wealth, separate from
the rest of mankind.
From Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest (1736)

Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,

Here earth and water, seem to strive again;
Not Chaos like together crush'd and bruis'd,
But as the world, harmoniously confus'd:
Where order in variety we see, [15]
And where, tho' all things differ, all agree.
Here waving groves a checquer'd scene display,
And part admit, and part exclude the day;
As some coy nymph her lover's warm address
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress. [20]
There, interspers'd in lawns and opening glades,
Thin trees arise that shun each other's shades.
Here in full light the russet plains extend;
There wrapt in clouds the blueish hills ascend.
Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyes, [25]
And 'midst the desert fruitful fields arise,
That crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn,
Like verdant isles the sable waste adorn.
Let India boast her plants, nor envy we
The weeping amber or the balmy tree, [30]
While by our oaks the precious loads are born,
And realms commanded which those trees adorn.
Not proud Olympus yields a nobler sight,
Tho' Gods assembled grace his tow'ring height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here, [35]
Where, in their blessings, all those Gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd,
Here blushing Flora paints th' enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand; [40]
Rich Industry sits smiling on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a Stuart reigns.
From Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)

CHAPTER I

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things
of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle
He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found,
at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human
Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings
Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury,
now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name - Crusoe; and so my ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of
companions always called me. the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life
which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an English miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been
regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that
Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he
became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my father or mother prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.
knew what became of me.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to
be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient,
had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a
country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be
satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so
strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the
entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to
be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of
misery which was to befall me.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against
what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber,
where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me
upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering
inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native country, where I
might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by
application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men
of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other,
who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves
From the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with for the public good.
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. to them.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and
the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are formidable to tyrants only.
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records,
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on measures.
such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which
they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now
the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of
government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object
the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove
this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

“Author’s Introduction”

After considering the historic page, and viewing the living world In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the works
with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful which have been particularly written for their improvement must not
indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when be overlooked, especially when it is asserted, in direct terms, that the
obliged to confess that either Nature has made a great difference minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement; that the books of
between man and man, or that the civilisation which has hitherto instruction, written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as
taken place in the world has been very partial. I have turned over more frivolous productions; and that, in the true style of
various books written on the subject of education, and patiently Mahometanism, they are treated as a kind of subordinate beings, and
observed the conduct of parents and the management of schools; but not as a part of the human species, when improvable reason is
what has been the result?--a profound conviction that the neglected allowed to be the dignified distinction which raises men above the
education of my fellow-creatures is the grand source of the misery I brute creation, and puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand.
deplore, and that women, in particular, are rendered weak and
wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readers to suppose
hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, that I mean violently to agitate the contested question respecting the
evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like quality or inferiority of the sex; but as the subject lies in my way, and
the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and I cannot pass it over without subjecting the main tendency of my
usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after reasoning to misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a
having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long few words, my opinion. In the government of the physical world it is
before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity. One observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior
cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system of to the male. This is the law of Nature; and it does not appear to be
education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men suspended or abrogated in favour of woman. A degree of physical
who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, superiority cannot, therefore, be denied, and it is a noble prerogative!
have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than But not content with this natural preeminence, men endeavour to sink
affectionate wives and rational mothers; and the understanding of the us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and
sex has been so bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilised women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence
women of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in
anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow-creatures who find
ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect. amusement in their society.

[...]
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational
creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing
them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand
alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human
happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavour to
acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that
the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and
refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of
weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity, and
that kind of love which has been termed its sister, will soon become
objects of contempt.

Dismissing, then, those pretty feminine phrases, which the men

condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and despising
that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility, and sweet docility
of manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics of the weaker
vessel, I wish to show that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first
object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being,
regardless of the distinction of sex, and that secondary views should
be brought to this simple touchstone.
William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper” (1789)

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep![a]
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."
And so he was quiet; and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, -
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
the
industrial
revolution
From Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a “Design! nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may
good fortune must be in want of a wife. fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his he comes.”'
first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of “I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send
the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better; for, as you are as
some one or other of their daughters. handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the
party.”
“My dear Mr. Bennet,”' said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that “My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do
Netherfield Park is let at last?'” not pretend to be any thing extraordinary now. When a woman has five
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not. grown up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.”
“But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told “In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of.” '
me all about it.'' “But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes
Mr. Bennet made no answer. into the neighbourhood.”
“Do you not want to know who has taken it?”' cried his wife impatiently. “It is more than I engage for, I assure you.”
“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”' “But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would
This was invitation enough. be for one of them. Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to go,
“Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken merely on that account, for in general, you know they visit no newcomers.
by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him, if you do
down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much not.”
delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to “You are over-scrupulous, surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad
take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty
the house by the end of next week.'' consent to his marrying which ever he chuses of the girls; though I must
“What is his name?”' throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.”
“Bingley.”' “I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others;
“Is he married or single?”' and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good
“Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or humoured as Lydia. But you are always giving her the preference.”
five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” “They have none of them much to recommend them,'' replied he; “they are
“How so? how can it affect them?'” all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of
“My dear Mr. Bennet,”' replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! quickness than her sisters.”
You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”'
“Is that his design in settling here?”'
From Thomas Carlyle, “Signs of the Times” (1829)

Were we required to characterise this age of ours by any single We may trace this tendency in all the great manifestations of our
epithet, we should be tempted to call it, not an Heroical, Devotional, time; in its intellectual aspect, the studies it most favours and its manner
Philosophical, or Moral Age, but, above all others, the Mechanical Age. of conducting them; in its practical aspects, its politics, arts, religion,
It is the Age of Machinery, in every outward and inward sense of that morals; in the whole sources, and throughout the whole currents, of its
word; the age which, with its whole undivided might, forwards, teaches spiritual, no less than its material activity.
and practises the great art of adapting means to ends. Nothing is now
done directly, or by hand; all is by rule and calculated contrivance. […]

But leaving these matters for the present, let us observe how the
mechanical genius of our time has diffused itself into quite other
provinces. Not the external and physical alone is now managed by
machinery, but the internal and spiritual also. Here too nothing follows
its spontaneous course, nothing is left to be accomplished by old natural
methods. […]

Thus we have machines for Education […]. Instruction, that

mysterious communing of Wisdom with Ignorance, is no longer an
indefinable tentative process, requiring a study of individual aptitudes,
and a perpetual variation of means and methods, to attain the same end;
but a secure, universal, straightforward business, to be conducted in the
gross, by proper mechanism, with such intellect as comes to hand. Then,
we have Religious machines, of all imaginable varieties […]

These things, which we state lightly enough here, are yet of deep
import, and indicate a mighty change in our whole manner of existence.
For the same habit regulates not our modes of action alone, but our modes
of thought and feeling. Men are grown mechanical in head and in heart,
as well as in hand. They have lost faith in individual endeavour, and in
natural force, of any kind. Not for internal perfection, but for external
combinations and arrangements, for institutions, constitutions, for
Mechanism of one sort or other, do they hope and struggle. Their whole
efforts, attachments, opinions, turn on mechanism, and are of a
mechanical character.
the
frontier
experience
From J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (1793)

“What Is an American?”

What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where salary to the minister and gratitude to God; can he refuse these? The
he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore
as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his country is now entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness,
that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequences: Ubi servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of
panis ibi patria, ["where there is bread, there is my country"] is the motto a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. This is an
of all emigrants. What then is the American, this new man? He is either American....
an European, or the descendant of an European, hence that strange
mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point
out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife
was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four
sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who,
leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new
ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he
obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being
received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all
nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity
will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western
pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts,
sciences, vigour, and industry which began long since in the east; they
will finish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over
Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of
population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become
distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. The American
ought therefore to love this country much better than that wherein either
he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow
with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the
basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives
and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread,
now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields
whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all; without
any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a
mighty lord. Here religion demands but little of him; a small voluntary
Chief Tecumseh, Address to General William Henry Harrison (c. 1810)

Houses are built for you to hold councils in. The Indians hold theirs in the No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers.
open air. I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a Sell a country?! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth?
warrior. From them I take my only existence. From my tribe I take Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
nothing. I have made myself what I am. And I would that I could make How can we have confidence in the white people? We have good and just
the red people as great as the conceptions of my own mind, when I think reasons to believe we have ample grounds to accuse the Americans of
of the Great Spirit that rules over us all. I would not then come to Governor injustice, especially when such great acts of injustice have been
Harrison to ask him to tear up the treaty. committed by them upon our race, of which they seem to have no manner
of regard, or even to reflect. When Jesus Christ came upon the earth you
But I would say to him, "Brother, you have the liberty to return to your killed him and nailed him to the cross. You thought he was dead, and you
own country." You wish to prevent the Indians from doing as we wish were mistaken. You have the Shakers among you, and you laugh and make
them, to unite and let them consider their lands as a common property of light of their worship. Everything I have told you is the truth. The Great
the whole. You take the tribes aside and advise them not to come into this Spirit has inspired me.
measure. You want by your distinctions of Indian tribes, in allotting to
each a particular, to make them war with each other. You never see an
Indian endeavor to make the white people do this. You are continually
driving the red people, when at last you will drive them into the great lake
[Lake Michigan], where they can neither stand nor work.
Since my residence at Tippecanoe, we have endeavored to level all
distinctions, to destroy village chiefs, by whom all mischiefs are done. It
is they who sell the land to the Americans. Brother, this land that was sold,
and the goods that was given for it, was only done by a few. In the future
we are prepared to punish those who propose to sell land to the Americans.
If you continue to purchase them, it will make war among the different
tribes, and, at last I do not know what will be the consequences among the
white people.
Brother, I wish you would take pity on the red people and do as I have
requested. If you will not give up the land and do cross the boundary of
our present settlement, it will be very hard and produce great trouble
between us.

The way, the only way to stop this evil, is for the red people to unite in
claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and
should be now -- for it was never divided, but belongs to all.
From The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference (1848)

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women
different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains
laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on
them to such a course. the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of
an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created world.
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective
to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers franchise.
from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had
to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new no voice.
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and
and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long degraded men--both natives and foreigners.
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise,
suffer. while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has
forms to which they are accustomed. oppressed her on all sides.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851)

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out
of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the
North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But
what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and
lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever
helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place!
And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and
planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a
woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get
it - and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen
children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my
mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member
of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with
women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and
yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half
measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights
as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from?
Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had
nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world
upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back,
and get it right side up again! And now they are asking to do it, the men
better let them.
From Henry David Thoreau, The Journal (1852)

1 February, 1852

The recent rush to California and the attitude of the world, even of its
philosophers and prophets, in relation to it appears to me to reflect the Did God direct us to so get our living, digging where we never planted, —
greatest disgrace on mankind. That so many are ready to get their living by and He would perchance reward us with lumps of gold? It is a text, oh! for
the lottery of gold-digging without contributing any value to society, and the Jonahs´ of this generation, and yet the pulpits are as silent as immortal
that the great majority who stay at home justify them in this both by precept Greece, silent, some of them, because the preacher is gone to California
and example! It matches the infatuation of the Hindoos who have cast himself. The gold of California is a touchstone which has betrayed the
themselves under the car of Juggernaut. I know of no more startling rottenness, the baseness, of mankind. Satan, from one of his elevations,
development of the morality of trade and all the modes of getting a living showed mankind the kingdom of California, and they entered into a compact
than the rush to California affords. Of what significance the philosophy, or with him at once.
poetry, or religion of a world that will rush to the lottery of California gold-
digging on the receipt of the first news, to live by luck, to get the means of
commanding the labor of others less lucky, i.e. of slaveholding, without
contributing any value to society? And that is called enterprise, and the devil
is only a little more enterprising! The philosophy and poetry and religion of
such a mankind are not worth the dust of a puffball. The hog that roots his
own living, and so makes manure, would be ashamed of such company. If I
could command the wealth of all the worlds by lifting my finger, I would
not pay such a price for it. It makes God to be a moneyed gentleman who
scatters a handful of pennies in order to see mankind scramble for them.
Going to California. It is only three thousand miles nearer to hell. I will
resign my life sooner than live by luck. The world’s raffle. A subsistence in
the domains of nature a thing to be raffled for! No wonder that they gamble
there. I never heard that they did anything else there. What a comment, what
a satire, on our institutions! The conclusion will be that mankind will hang
itself upon a tree. And who would interfere to cut it down. And have all the
precepts in all the bibles taught men only this? and is the last and most
admirable invention of the Yankee race only an improved muck-rake? —
patented too! If one came hither to sell lottery tickets, bringing satisfactory
credentials, and the prizes were seats in heaven, this world would buy them
with a rush.
the us civil war
& reconstruction
From Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address (1863)

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield
of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final
resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we
cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who
struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add
or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living
rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God
shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people,
by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
From Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

In consequence of all the various delays, it was about three-quarters of "Yer a brave gal, now, whoever ye ar!" said the man, with an oath.
an hour after Eliza had laid her child to sleep in the village tavern that Eliza recognized the voice and face for a man who owned a farm not far
the party came riding into the same place. Eliza was standing by the from her old home.
window, looking out in another direction, when Sam's quick eye caught "O, Mr. Symmes!--save me--do save me--do hide me!" said Eliza.
a glimpse of her. Haley and Andy were two yards behind. At this crisis, "Why, what's this?" said the man. "Why, if 'tan't Shelby's gal!"
Sam contrived to have his hat blown off, and uttered a loud and "My child!--this boy!--he'd sold him! There is his Mas'r," said she,
characteristic ejaculation, which startled her at once; she drew suddenly pointing to the Kentucky shore. "O, Mr. Symmes, you've got a little
back; the whole train swept by the window, round to the front door. boy!"
"So I have," said the man, as he roughly, but kindly, drew her up the
A thousand lives seemed to be concentrated in that one moment to Eliza. steep bank. "Besides, you're a right brave gal. I like grit, wherever I see
Her room opened by a side door to the river. She caught her child, and it."
sprang down the steps towards it. The trader caught a full glimpse of her
just as she was disappearing down the bank; and throwing himself from When they had gained the top of the bank, the man paused.
his horse, and calling loudly on Sam and Andy, he was after her like a "I'd be glad to do something for ye," said he; "but then there's nowhar I
hound after a deer. In that dizzy moment her feet to her scarce seemed could take ye. The best I can do is to tell ye to go thar," said he, pointing
to touch the ground, and a moment brought her to the water's edge. Right to a large white house which stood by itself, off the main street of the
on behind they came; and, nerved with strength such as God gives only village.
to the desperate, with one wild cry and flying leap, she vaulted sheer
over the turbid current by the shore, on to the raft of ice beyond. It was "Go thar; they're kind folks. Thar's no kind o' danger but they'll help
a desperate leap--impossible to anything but madness and despair; and you,--they're up to all that sort o' thing."
Haley, Sam, and Andy, instinctively cried out, and lifted up their hands, "The Lord bless you!" said Eliza, earnestly.
as she did it. No 'casion, no 'casion in the world," said the man. "What I've done's of
no 'count."
The huge green fragment of ice on which she alighted pitched and
creaked as her weight came on it, but she staid there not a moment. With "And, oh, surely, sir, you won't tell any one!"
wild cries and desperate energy she leaped to another and still another
cake; stumbling--leaping--slipping-- springing upwards again! Her "Go to thunder, gal! What do you take a feller for? In course not," said
shoes are gone--her stockings cut from her feet--while blood marked the man. "Come, now, go along like a likely, sensible gal, as you are.
every step; but she saw nothing, felt nothing, till dimly, as in a dream, You've arnt your liberty, and you shall have it, for all me."
she saw the Ohio side, and a man helping her up the bank.
The woman folded her child to her bosom, and walked firmly and swiftly
away. The man stood and looked after her.

"Shelby, now, mebbe won't think this yer the most neighborly thing in
the world; but what's a feller to do? If he catches one of my gals in the
same fix, he's welcome to pay back. Somehow I never could see no kind
o' critter a strivin' and pantin', and trying to clar theirselves, with the
dogs arter 'em and go agin 'em. Besides, I don't see no kind of 'casion
for me to be hunter and catcher for other folks, neither." So spoke this
poor, heathenish Kentuckian, who had not been instructed in his
constitutional relations, and consequently was betrayed into acting in a
sort of Christianized manner, which, if he had been better situated and
more enlightened, he would not have been left to do.
victorian england:
empire & commonwealth
From Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)

Chapter 5 “The Key-note”

COKETOWN, to which Messrs Bounderby and Gradgrind now characters of black and white. The jail might have been the infirmary,
walked, was a triumph of fact; it had no greater taint of fancy in it than the infirmary might have been the jail, the town hall might have been
Mrs Gradgrind herself. Let us strike the key-note, Coketown, before either, or both, or anything else, for anything that appeared to the
pursuing our tune. contrary in the graces of their construction. Fact, fact, fact, everywhere
It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the in the material aspect of the town; fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the
smoke and ashes had allowed it; but, as matters stood it was a town of immaterial. The M’Choakumchild school was all fact, and the school
unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of design was all fact, and the relations between master and man were
of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of all fact, and everything was fact between the lying-in hospital and the
smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It cemetery, and what you couldn’t state in figures, or show to be
had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, purchaseable in the cheapest market and saleable in the dearest, was
and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling not, and never should be, world without end, Amen.
and a trembling all day long, and where the pistons of the steam-engine
worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a
state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very
like one another, and many small streets still more like one another,
inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out
at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to
do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday
and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next.
These attributes of Coketown were in the main inseparable from the
work by which it was sustained; against them were to be set off,
comforts of life which found their way all over the world, and
elegancies of life which made, we will not ask how much of the fine
lady, who could hardly bear to hear the place mentioned. The rest of its
features were voluntary, and they were these.
You saw nothing in Coketown but what was severely workful. If the
members of a religious persuasion built a chapel there – as the members
of eighteen religious persuasions had done – they made it a pious
warehouse of red brick, with sometimes (but this only in highly
ornamented examples) a bell in a bird-cage on the top of it. The solitary
exception was the new Church; a stuccoed edifice with a square steeple
over the door, terminating in four short pinnacles like florid wooden
legs. All the public inscriptions in the town were painted alike, in severe
From Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859)

CHAPTER 15

I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the the same as that felt by so many geologists, when Lyell first insisted that
religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how transient long lines of inland cliffs had been formed, and great valleys excavated, by
such impressions are, to remember that the greatest discovery ever made by the agencies which we see still at work. The mind cannot possibly grasp the
man, namely, the law of the attraction of gravity, was also attacked by full meaning of the term of even a million years; it cannot add up and
Leibnitz, "as subversive of natural, and inferentially of revealed, religion." perceive the full effects of many slight variations, accumulated during an
A celebrated author and divine has written to me that "he has gradually learnt almost infinite number of generations.
to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He
created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume
needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply under the form of an abstract, I by no means expect to convince experienced
the voids caused by the action of His laws." naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed,
during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine.
Why, it may be asked, until recently did nearly all the most eminent living It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the "plan of
naturalists and geologists disbelieve in the mutability of species? It cannot creation" or "unity of design," &c., and to think that we give an explanation
be asserted that organic beings in a state of nature are subject to no variation; when we only restate a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach
it cannot be proved that the amount of variation in the course of long ages is more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a certain
a limited quality; no clear distinction has been, or can be, drawn between number of facts will certainly reject the theory. A few naturalists, endowed
species and well-marked varieties. It cannot be maintained that species when with much flexibility of mind, and who have already begun to doubt the
intercrossed are invariably sterile, and varieties invariably fertile; or that immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look with
sterility is a special endowment and sign of creation. The belief that species confidence to the future,- to young and rising naturalists, who will be able
were immutable productions was almost unavoidable as long as the history to view both sides of the question with impartiality. Whoever is led to
of the world was thought to be of short duration; and now that we have believe that species are mutable will do good service by conscientiously
acquired some idea of the lapse of time, we are too apt to assume, without expressing his conviction; for thus only can the load of prejudice by which
proof, that the geological record is so perfect that it would have afforded us this subject is overwhelmed be removed.
plain evidence of the mutation of species, if they had undergone mutation.
But the chief cause of our natural unwillingness to admit that one species
has given birth to clear and distinct species, is that we are always slow in
admitting great changes of which we do not see the steps. The difficulty is
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”

Take up the White Man's burden - Take up the White Man's burden -
Send forth the best ye breed - And reap his old reward,
Go bind your sons to exile The blame of those ye better,
To serve your captives' need; The hate of those ye guard -
To wait in heavy harness The cry of hosts ye humour
On fluttered folk and wild - (Ah slowly !) towards the light:-
Your new-caught sullen peoples, "Why brought ye us from bondage,
Half devil and half child. "Our loved Egyptian night ?"

Take up the White Man's burden - Take up the White Man's burden -
In patience to abide Ye dare not stoop to less -
To veil the threat of terror Nor call too loud on Freedom
And check the show of pride; To cloak your weariness;
By open speech and simple, By all ye cry or whisper,
An hundred times made plain, By all ye leave or do,
To seek another's profit, The silent sullen peoples
And work another's gain. Shall weigh your Gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden - Take up the White Man's burden -
The savage wars of peace - Have done with childish days -
Fill full the mouth of famine The lightly proffered laurel,
And bid the sickness cease; The easy, ungrudged praise.
And when your goal is nearest Comes now, to search your manhood
The end for others sought, Through all the thankless years,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
Bring all your hopes to nought. The judgement of your peers.

Take up the White Man's burden -

No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper -
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!
War Poetry

Siegfried Sassoon, “Attack” (1918)

At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun

In the wild purple of the glow'ring sun,
Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that
shroud
The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,
Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.
The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed
With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,
Men jostle and climb to, meet the bristling fire.
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
They leave their trenches, going over the top,
While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!

Rupert Brooke, “The Soldier” (1914)

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
W. B. Yeats, “Easter, 1916”

I have met them at close of day So sensitive his nature seemed,

Coming with vivid faces So daring and sweet his thought.
From counter or desk among grey This other man I had dreamed
Eighteenth-century houses. A drunken, vainglorious lout.
I have passed with a nod of the head He had done most bitter wrong
Or polite meaningless words, To some who are near my heart,
Or have lingered awhile and said Yet I number him in the song;
Polite meaningless words, He, too, has resigned his part
And thought before I had done In the casual comedy;
Of a mocking tale or a gibe He, too, has been changed in his turn,
To please a companion Transformed utterly:
Around the fire at the club, A terrible beauty is born.
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn: Hearts with one purpose alone
All changed, changed utterly: Through summer and winter seem
A terrible beauty is born. Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
That woman's days were spent The horse that comes from the road,
In ignorant good-will, The rider, the birds that range
Her nights in argument From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Until her voice grew shrill. Minute by minute they change;
What voice more sweet than hers A shadow of cloud on the stream
When, young and beautiful, Changes minute by minute;
She rode to harriers? A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
This man had kept a school And a horse plashes within it;
And rode our wingèd horse; The long-legged moor-hens dive,
This other his helper and friend And hens to moor-cocks call;
Was coming into his force; Minute by minute they live:
He might have won fame in the end, The stone's in the midst of all.
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
naturalism
&
the
growth
of
the cities
Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus” (1883)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
modernism &
the jazz age
Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues” (1926)

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,
Ain’t got nobody but ma self.
I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’
And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more—
“I got the Weary Blues
And I can’t be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can’t be satisfied—
I ain’t happy no mo’
And I wish that I had died.”
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.
From John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

CHAPTER 5

The owners of the land came onto the land, or more often a spokesman for The squatters nodded—they knew, God knew. If they could only rotate the
the owners came. They came in closed cars, and they felt the dry earth with crops they might pump blood back into the land.
their fingers, and sometimes they drove big earth augers into the ground for Well, it's too late. And the owner men explained the workings and the
soil tests. The tenants, from their sun-beaten dooryards, watched uneasily thinkings of the monster that was stronger than they were. A man can hold
when the closed cars drove along the fields. And at last the owner men drove land if he can just eat and pay taxes; he can do that.
into the dooryards and sat in their cars to talk out of the windows. The tenant Yes, he can do that until his crops fail one day and he has to borrow money
men stood beside the cars for a while, and then squatted on their hams and from the bank.
found sticks with which to mark the dust. But—you see, a bank or a company can't do that, because those creatures
In the open doors the women stood looking out, and behind them the don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the
children—corn-headed children, with wide eyes, one bare foot on top of the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air,
other bare foot, and the toes working. The women and the children watched without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but it is so. It is just so.
their men talking to the owner men. They were silent. The squatting men raised their eyes to understand. Can't we just hang on?
Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, Maybe the next year will be a good year. God knows how much cotton next
and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of year. And with all the wars—God knows what price cotton will bring. Don't
them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an they make explosives out of cotton? And uniforms? Get enough wars and
owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something cotton'll hit the ceiling. Next year, maybe. They looked up questioningly.
larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove
them, and some were afraid, and some worshiped the mathematics because We can't depend on it. The bank—the monster has to have profits all the
it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling. If a bank or a finance time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing,
company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank—or the it dies. It can't stay one size.
Company—needs—wants—insists—must have—as though the Bank or the
Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared
them. These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies
because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and
masters all at the same time. Some of the owner men were a little proud to
be slaves to such cold and powerful masters. The owner men sat in the cars
and explained. You know the land is poor. You've scrabbled at it long
enough, God knows.
The squatting tenant men nodded and wondered and drew figures in the
dust, and yes, they knew, God knows. If the dust only wouldn't fly. If the top
would only stay on the soil, it might not be so bad.
The owner men went on leading to their point: You know the land's getting
poorer. You know what cotton does to the land; robs it, sucks all the blood
out of it.
from
wwii
to
the new
millennium
From Arthur Miller, The Crucible (1953)

Our difficulty in believing the -for want of a better word- political The results of this process are no different now from what they ever
inspiration of the Devil is due in great part to the fact that he is called up were, except sometimes in the degree of cruelty inflicted, and not always
and damned not only by our social antagonists but by our own side, even in that department. Normally the actions and deeds of a man were
whatever it may be. The Catholic Church, through its Inquisition, is all that society felt comfortable in judging. The secret intent of an action
famous for cultivating Lucifer as the arch-fiend, but the Church’s enemies was
relied no less upon the Old Boy to keep the human mind enthralled. Luther left to the ministers, priests, and rabbis to deal with. When diabolism rises,
was himself accused of alliance with Hell, and he in turn accused his however, actions are the least important manifests of the true nature of a
enemies. To complicate matters further, he believed that he had had man. The Devil, as Reverend Hale said, is a wily one, and, until an hour
contact with the Devil and had argued theology with him. I am not before he fell, even God thought him beautiful in Heaven.
surprised at this, for at my own university a professor of history -a
Lutheran, by the way- used to assemble his graduate students, draw the The analogy, however, seems to falter when one considers that, while
shades, and commune in the classroom with Erasmus. He was never, to there were no witches then, there are Communists and capitalists now,
my knowledge, officially scoffed at for this, the reason being that the and in each camp there is certain proof that spies of each side are at work
university officials, like most of us, are the children of a history which undermining the other. But this is a snobbish objection and not at all
still sucks at the Devil’s teats. At this writing, only England has held back warranted by the facts. I have no doubt that people were communing with,
before the temptations of contemporary diabolism. In the countries of the and even worshiping, the Devil in Salem, and if the whole truth could be
Communist ideology, all resistance of any import is linked to the totally known in this case, as it is in others, we should discover a regular and
malign capitalist succubi, and in America any man who is not reactionary conventionalized propitiation of the dark spirit, One certain evidence of
in his views is open to the charge of alliance with the Red hell. Political this is the confession of Tituba, the slave of Reverend Parris, and another
opposition, thereby, is given an inhumane overlay which then justifies the is the behavior of the, children who were known to have indulged in
abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized inter-course. A sorceries with her.
political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with
diabolical malevolence. Once such an equation is effectively made,
society becomes a congerie of plots and counterplots, and the main role
of government changes from that of the arbiter to that of the scourge of
God.
From Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a dream” (1963)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the I have a dream today!
greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists,
years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition"
signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a and "nullification"--one day right there in Alabama little black boys and
great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls
in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end as sisters and brothers.
the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro I have a dream today!
still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly
crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in
the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later,
the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds
himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to
dramatize a shameful condition.

[...]

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still
have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together
at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering
with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.
From John Millius and Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now Redux (1979/2001)

The TAPE is TURNED OFF.

GENERAL: Walter Kurtz was one of the most outstanding officers this Willard looks from the colonel to the general to the civilian. They are
country's ever produced. He was brilliant intensely interested in his response, which they want to be "yes."
He was outstanding in every way. And he was a good man, too. A
humanitarian man. A man of wit and humor. He joined the Special Forces, WILLARD (carefully): Yes, sir. Very much so, sir. Obviously insane.
and after that, his ideas, methods, became … unsound. Unsound. The three men pull back, satisfied.

COLONEL: Now he's crossed into Cambodia with this Montagnard army of COLONEL: Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a navy patrol
his, that worship the man like a god,and follow him every order, however boat, pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it, learn what you
ridiculous. Well, I have some other shocking news to tell you. Colonel Kurtz can along the way. When you find the colonel, infiltrate his team by
was about to be arrested for murder. whatever means available, and terminate the colonel's command.

WILLARD: I don't follow sir. Murdered who? WILLARD (to General): Terminate ... the colonel?

COLONEL: Kurtz had ordered the execution some Vietnamese intelligence GENERAL: He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally
agents. Men he believed were double agents. So he took matters into his own beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still on the field
hands. commanding troops.

GENERAL: Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out CIVILIAN: Terminate with extreme prejudice.
there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. But
out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. Because the The civilian hands Willard a cigarette, and lights it for him.
rational and the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always
triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better COLONEL: You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor
angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You have and I will it ever exist.
have them. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And, very obviously, he has gone
insane. CLOSE ON WILLARD Smoking the cigarette, thinking about the
mission.
CUT TO: EXT. THE MEKONG DELTA - DUSK

A HUEY helicopter flying over the mountains moves over rice

paddies, the Mekong River, MOVING CLOSER until we view a dock area.

WILLARD (V.O): How many people had I already killed? There were
those six that I knew about for sure ... close enough to blow their last breath
in my face. But this time it was an American, and an officer. That
wasn't supposed to make any difference to me, but it did.

We SEE a small patrol boat. It moves away from the dock, out into the
delta.

WILLARD (V.O.: Shit. Charging a man with murder in this place was like
handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500. I took the mission. What the
hell else was I gonna do? But I really didn't know what I'd do when I found
him.
From Monica Ali, Brick Lane (2003)

The girl took the money. She looked at Nazneen and the baby. She He comes to our flat to get away from her, thought Nazneen.
looked at Chanu. The doctor gripped his seat. His feet and knees 'Yes,' said the doctor. His shirt collar had swallowed his neck.
pressed together. His helmet-hair held a circle of light. He would never 'When we first came--tell them, you tell them--we lived in a one-room
let go of that chair. It was the only thing holding him up. The girl hovel. We dined on rice and dal, rice and dal. For breakfast we had
tucked the money into her blouse pocket. 'Salaam Ale-Koum,' she said, rice and dal. For lunch we drank water to bloat out our stomachs. This
and went out to the pub. is how he finished medical school. And nowlook! Of course, the
doctor is very refined. Sometimes he forgets that without my family's
Mrs. Azad switched off the television. Let's go, thought Nazneen. She help he would not have all those letter after his name.'
tried to signal with her eyes to Chanu, but he smiled vaguely back at 'It's a success story,' said Chanu, exercising his shoulders. 'But behind
her. 'This is the tragedy of our lives. To be an immigrant is to live out a every story of immigrant success there lies a deeper tragedy.'
tragedy.' 'Kindly explain this tragedy.'
The hostess cocked her head. She rubbed her bulbous nose. 'What are 'I'm talking about the clash between Western values and our own. I'm
you talking about?' talking about the struggle to assimilate and the need to preserve one's
'The clash of cultures.' identity and heritage. I'm talking about children who don't know what
'I beg your pardon?' their identity is. I'm talking about the feelings of alienation
'And of generations,' added Chanu. engendered by a society where racism is prevalent. I'm talking about
'What is the tragedy?' the terrific struggle to preserve one's sanity while striving to achieve
'It's not only immigrants. Shakespeare wrote about it.' He cleared his the best for one's family. I'm talking'
throat and prepared to cite his quotation. 'Crap!'
'Take your coat off. It's getting on my nerves. What are you? A Chanu looked at Dr. Azad but his friend studied the backs of his
professor?' hands.
Chanu spread his hands. 'I have a degree in English Literature from 'Why do you make it so complicated?' asked the doctor's wife.
Dhaka University. I have studied at a British university--philosophy, 'Assimilation this, alienation that! Let me tell you a few simple facts.
sociology, history, economics. I do not claim to be a learned gentleman. Fact: we live in a Western society. Fact: our children will act more
But I can tell you truthfully, madam, that I am always learning.' and more like Westerners. Fact: that's no bad thing. My daughter is
'So what are you then? A student?' She did not sound impressed. Her free to come and go. Do I wish I had enjoyed myself like her when I
small, deep-plugged eyes looked as hard and dirty as coal. was young? Yes!'
'Your husband and I are both students, in a sense. That's how we came Mrs. Azad struggled out of her chair. Nazneen thought and it made
to know each other, through a shared love of books, a love of learning.' her feel a little giddy she's going to the pub as well. But their hostess
Mrs. Azad yawned. 'Oh yes, my husband is a very refined man. He puts walked over to the gas fire and bent, from the waist, to light it.
his nose inside a book because the smell of real life offends him. But he Nazneen averted her eyes.
has come a long way. Haven't you, my sweet?'
Mrs. Azad continued. 'Listen, when I'm in Bangladesh I put on a sari
and cover my head and all that. But here I go out to work. I work with
white girls and I'm just one of them. If I want to come home and eat
curry, that's my business. Some women spend ten, twenty years here
and they sit in the kitchen grinding spices all day and learn only two
words of English.' She looked at Nazneen who focused on Raqib. 'They
go around covered from head to toe, in their little walking prisons, and
when someone calls to them in the street they are upset. The society is
racist. The society is all wrong. Everything should change for them.
They don't have to change one thing. That,' she said, stabbing the air, 'is
the real tragedy.'
The room was quiet. The air was too bright, and the hard light hid
nothing. The moments came and went, with nothing to ease their
passing.
ESTUDIOS CULTURALES EN LENGUA INGLESA 2, 2019/20
Recommended bibliography

Abrams, M. H. and Stephen Greenblatt, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000.
Baker, Kevin. America: The Story of Us. A&E Networks, 2010.
Baldick, Christopher. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: OUP, 1991.
Barclay, Sarah. A History of Scotland (DVD). BBC, 2010.
Black, Jeremy. A History of the British Isles. London: Palgrave, 2002.
Briggs, Asa. A Social History of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
Cannon, John. A Dictionary of British History. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
Carroll, Peter N., and David W. Noble. The Free and the Unfree: A New History of the United States. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987.
Corbishley, Mike, et al. The History of Britain and Ireland. Oxford: OUP, 2006.
Cuddon, J. A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
Drabble, Margaret, and Jenny Stringer, eds. The Concise Companion to English Literature. 5th ed. Oxford: OUP, 1993.
Foner, Eric, and Lisa McGirr, eds. American History Now. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2011.
Gilbert, Martin. The Routledge Atlas of American History. London: Routledge, 2006.
Haigh, Christopher et al. The Cambridge Historical Encyclopaedia of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: CUP, 1995.
Harvey, Christopher. 19th c. Britain: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Howard, Michael. The First World War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2002.
Jenkins, Philip. A History of the United States. London: Palgrave, 2007.
Jones, Maldwyn. The Limits of Liberty: American History 1607-1980. Oxford: OUP, 1990.
Kearney, Hugh. The British Isles: A History of Four Nations. Cambridge: CUP, 1995.
McMahon, Robert. The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Metford, J. C. J. Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986.
Morales, Helen. Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
Morgan, Kenneth O. 20th c. Britain: A Very Short History. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Morgan, Kenneth O. The Oxford History of Britain and Ireland. Oxford: OUP, 2006.
Morrill, John. Stuart Britain: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2000.
Mulholland, Marc. Northern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2003.
Oxford English Dictionary.
Randle, John. Understanding Britain. Oxford UP, 1992.
Schama, Simon. A History of Britain (DVD). BBC, 2006.
The Hutchinson Dictionary of American History. Abingdon: Helicon, 2005.
Tindall, George Brown, and David Emory Shi. America: A Narrative History. New York: Norton, 2010.
Woodhead, Linda. Christianity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

e-resources in FAMA/Universidad de Sevilla

http://fama.us.es/screens/materialdidactico_spi.html
http://bib.us.es/ayuda_invest/guiasmaterias.asp
http://bib.us.es/recursos/recursos_e.asp

Other interesting links on the internet

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british : BBC site for British history
http://www.englishhistory.net : British history
http://americanhistory.about.com: American history
http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHISTORY.shtml: American history
http://www.shmoop.com/history: American history
http://www.ushistory.org: American history
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/index.cfm: American history
http://www.litencyc.com: Literary Encyclopaedia
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbookmovies.html: History through films