Journal #1
*As always, this topic is a suggestion. Feel free to write on an issue of your choosing, related to the course texts, if you are so inclined.
We'll begin with a very loose suggestion: Consider the operation of space/place (i.e. domestic space, frontier space, etc.) in the work of at least one of the authors from the first week of the course (Poe, Columbus, Cabeza de Vaca, Smith, Morton, Bradford, or Winthrop). How does the author make use of space? Does the space the author writes about constrain the text? Is such constrainment something the author struggles against? Embraces? In what ways does space serve as a metaphor, and what does it represent? What does the author's engagement with the problem of space reveal about their relationship to the American context at the moment of their writing?
Requirements: 1-2 pages, handwritten is fine (but type if your writing is less than legible); this is an informal assignment--full engagement with the suggested topic, or one of your own choosing, will result in full points received.