Unit 1 covers Captain John Smith's life and works as a complement to the course textbook

1. Literatura Norteamericana I
American Literature I
Ricardo Menéndez
10 ECTS Credits 2015-2016

2. Authors & Contents 1st Term
Study Block I
 Early American Literature
 Captain John Smith – Oct 7th
 William Bradford – Oct 14th
 Anne Bradstreet – Oct 21st
 Mary Rowlandson – Oct 28th
 The American Enlightment
 Jonathan Edwards – Nov 4th
 Benjamin Franklin – Nov 11th
 Olaudah Equiano – Nov 18th
 Phillis Wheatley – Nov 25th
 Romanticism (part I)
 Washington Irving – Dec 2nd
 James Fenimore Cooper – Dec 9th
 Ralph Waldo Emerson – Dec 16th
 Henry David Thoroeau – Jan 13th
 Review past exams – Jan 20th
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

3. “
”
Heaven & earth never agreed better
to frame a place for man’s
habitation; were it fully manured
and inhabited by industrious people.
 Biography
 On his literary Works and more
 Online resources
 Q&A
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Captain John Smith (1580-1631)

4. Objectives of the Unit
 Realize how unfamiliar environment of the New World provided the English
explorers and settlers with a great diversity of experiences which demanded a
variety of discourses and originated a wide range of literary variations
 Learn how the adventurer and explorer Captain John Smith expressing
himself in the travel-writing tradition, chronicled the early days of the English
colonization of America and tried to entice his fellow countrymen to leave
their homeland and settle in the New World
 See how colonial policy was justified through the concept of “manifest
destiny”: the notion that America made manifest the predestined expansión
of European civilization – Europeans had the ‘right’ to possess America
 Consider how the Native peoples of North America began to be portrayed by
English Explorers and discover the myth of Pocahontas
 Examine how Captain Smith’s rhetorical process of self-fashioning and self-
representation illustrates issues of reliability (a mattter of concern in many
autobiographical texts)
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 1 – Captain John Smith

5. Biography
 Born in the English town of Willoughby in the Lincolnshire
 First English work written in America: A True Relation of Such Occurences and
Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia. Written in 1608, published in
London in the same year
 Captain Smith can be correctly described as a true pioneering adventurer and
explorer
 Author of relevant depictions of Virginia and Powhatan Indians
 Very important illustrations of Indian settlings
 Mapmaker: Map of Virginia (1612) and Map of New England drawn during a
second expedition to the Maine and Massachusetts Bay Area used by Prince Charles
to put English names on the map
 John Smith arrived at Jamestown in 1607
 Governor of Virginia 1608-1609
 Never returned to Virginia after leaving
 Facts for which he is famous probably never happened
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 1 – Captain John Smith

6. Literary Works (and more)
Excerpt covered in the unit:
From The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles
 Books III, Passages from Chapter 2
 Author of the FIRST ENGLISH WORK WRITTEN IN AMERICA:
A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath
Happened in Virginia (June, 1608)
 General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624)
 The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, in
Europe, Asia, Africa and America (1630)
 Map of Virginia (1612) & Map of New England
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 1 – Captain John Smith

7. Online Resources and Interesting Facts
 Definitely Disney does idealize characters
 The huge mix of fact and fiction is not (entirely) Disney’s fault however
 Librivox , Guttenberg, and other resources
http://www.americanjourneys.org/pdf/AJ-082.pdf
https://librivox.org/a-description-of-new-england-by-captain-john-smith/
https://prezi.com/mgdbudsb5pj5/the-general-history-of-virginia/
http://literature.proquest.com.ezproxy.uned.es/searchFullrec.do?id=6988&area=authors&forward=
author&DurUrl=Yes
 Pocahontas Revealed (PBS Nova Documentary):
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pocahontas/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wFFyC8lj7U
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 1 – Captain John Smith

8. Online Resources and Interesting Facts
 The famous 1956 Grammy award winning song Fever performed by Peggy Lee
has a stanza that talks about Pocahontas and John Smith
Captain Smith and Pocahontas
Had a very mad affair
When her daddy tried to kill him
She said "daddy oh don't you dare"
"He gives me fever with his kisses"
"Fever when he holds me tight"
"Fever, I'm his misses"
"Daddy won't you treat him right?"
 The more popular, and far from accurate, versions of the story of John Smith
and Pocahontas stem from an E. Boyd Smith story for children, profuse in
fictional details and a storyboard-like layout: The Story of Pocahontas and
John Smith
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24487/24487-h/24487-h.htm
http://ia802501.us.archive.org/28/items/selectedworksofeboydsmith_1404_librivox/selecte
dworks_02_smith_64kb.mp3
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 1 – Captain John Smith

9. Questions?
Thank you
Unit 1 – Captain John Smith
Remember to complete
Self Evaluation &
Exploratory Questions
from the Book
Online Self Evaluation Quiz