There have been numerous times that I’ve found my english classes have correlated nicely with one another, but the texts and topics studied this semester between my American Renaissance 1850-1870 class and English Studies have given insight into one another so consistently and so remarkably this semester I had to outline a few of my revelations. We began in English studies to dissect literary criticism using, for main exericises, the text of Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath and an essay of literary criticism written by Jane Tompkins about Hawthorne’s literary reputation and comparing it to the popularity of Melville’s Moby Dick. Not only have we read The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick, in my English 343 class, but we have also focused a lot on the critical reception of the books and how their influence has changed and evolved with contemporary times. The editions we are using are specifically catered to inform us about how these, now cannonical works, were received upon publication, and then we have been comparing the grounds which we use to evaluate them now.

Then, in my Eng 343 class we continued on to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and upon its completion have focused on an essay of criticism, also by Jane Tompkins entitled “Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Politics of Literary History.” The essay ties back to many of the “sentimentalist” ideas that Tompkins originally addresses in her essay “Masterpiece Theatre: The Politics of Hawthorne’s Literary Reputation,” for the English 299 class. Just when I’m beginning to think the courses were designed for one another, we begin to study Marxist Criticism in 299, right on the coat-tails of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and New York by Gaslight in my 343 class. I can’t tell you how insightful these classes have ended up being for one another.

Although I can’t pretend to be an expert on Marxist theory, our conversation today in 299 about the Wife of Bath and the conversion of the society’s system from feudal to monetary wealth—and the implications it had for the role of women, echoed for me the transition in early American history of the shift from a system dependent on slavery to one dependent on cheap labor—and the subsequent implications for African Americans. And, just like in Laurie Finke’s exploration of the idea, wheither intended or not, inherent in Chaucer’s work, of this evolving society which came before the actual shift, so we see a novel like Uncle Tom’s Cabin which instead of resulting after the social changes occurred for American slaves in society, addresses the shift on the higher “conscious” level of intellect that is occurring within the moment.