CUNY Academic Commons

Melville’s cultural backgrounds discussed in excerpts from “Beneath the American Renaissance” on “Bartleby,” “Benito Cereno,” and “Moby-Dick.”

Take note of my marignal comments re rhetorical devices I use in this essay.

A short story first published in 1846.

For Tuesday, along with the assignments on the syllabus, read these snippets from my book Beneath the American Renaissance about some of our Poe tales, followed by brief examples of poetic techniques he uses in “The Raven.”   -DSR

This is our slightly revised syllabus, as of March 25.

A piece on Dikcinon I wrote for “The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson.” Read it an take note of my style mark-ups in the margins.

If you want to read the “clean” version of my Whitman/journalism piece, here it is. (Then youc could quickly glance at the marginal notes in the other version.)

This is an article I wrote on the journalistic foreground of Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” Marginal notations are included to point out my stylistic techniques. Read this for our March 19 class.

Whitman carried this letter from Emerson around in his pocket, had it published in a newspaper, and quoted from it on the spine of the second edition of his poetry volume “Leaves of Grass.” When you read the letter, you’ll see why Whitman was so delighted with it!

How the Transcendentalits helped tranform John Brown, who was widely viewed as a madman and criminal, into a saintly martyr.

Read this piece, along with the other readings. for our March 5 class. -DR

My review of a book on anti-semitism in American iterature and society; it appears in the current issue of the New York Review of Books (2-22-24). If you’re interested, take a look!

This incoporates a small revision.

Have funlearning about each other!

Here’s the revised syllabus, with Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” (c. 1740) added to Feb. 6’s reading, and the schedule for book reviews, including three classes in which We’ll discuss examples reviews I’ve written, now uploaded on the Commons.

A mixed review of two books–one by Joyce Carol Oates, the other by Chritopher Benfey–that I wrote for “The “Kenyon Review”

Here’s a mixed review of Hershel Parker’s biograpy of Hermn Melville that I wrote for a scholarly journal.

A review in which I find fault with an anti-Lincoln book by Elizabeth Pryor.

A glowing review of Harold Holzer’s book on Lincoln and the press that I wrote for the “New York times Book Review.”