John McWilliams
College Professor
Email: mcwillia@middlebury.edu
Phone: work802.443.5316
Office Hours: Spring 2013: Mondays and Wednesdays 10:00 am - 12:00 pm, Thursdays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, and by appointment.
Download Contact Information
Since appointment as College Professor of Humanities, John McWilliams has been teaching a course in “The Bible and American Literature” for Middlebury’s Religion Department. His most recent book, New England’s Crises and Cultural Memory, explores the changing historical understanding of Puritanism as the defining component of New England culture.
Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
AMST 0246 - American Painting to 1920
American Painting: Beginnings to the Armory Show
This course is an introduction to American painting from 17th century limner portraits to the rise of modernism in the twentieth century, with special attention to Copley, Cole, Church, Homer, Eakins, Sloan, and Bellows. Although we will trace the development of traditional categories of painting (landscape, portraiture, genre), our purpose will be to discover what the paintings tell us about the changing values and tastes of American culture. (Formerly HARC/AMCV 0246) 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2010
AMST 0500 - Independent Study ▲
Independent Study
Select project advisor prior to registration.
Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
AMST 0700 - Senior Essay
Senior Essay
For students who have completed AMST 0400 and are not pursuing an honors thesis. Under the guidance of one or more faculty members, each student will complete research leading toward a one-term, one-credit interdisciplinary senior essay on some aspect of American culture. The essay is to be submitted no later than the last Thursday of the fall semester. (Select project advisor prior to registration)
Fall 2009, Fall 2010
AMST 0710 - Honors Thesis
Honors Thesis
For students who have completed AMST 0705, and qualify to write two-credit interdisciplinary honors thesis. on some aspect of American culture. The thesis may be completed on a fall/winter schedule or a fall/spring schedule. (Select a thesis advisor prior to registration)
Fall 2009, Fall 2010
ENAM 0103 - Reading Literature
Reading Literature
This course seeks to develop skills for the close reading of literature through discussion of and writing about selected poems, plays, and short stories. A basic vocabulary of literary terms and an introductory palette of critical methods will also be covered, and the course's ultimate goal will be to enable students to attain the literary-critical sensibility vital to further course work in the major. At the instructor's discretion, the texts employed in this class may share a particular thematic concern or historical kinship. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2009
ENAM 0245 - The Historical Novel
The Historical Novel
Although 19th century Europeans and Americans regarded their era as the vanguard of international peace and progress, the century was filled with the brutalities of class revolt and the carnage of revolution. The historical novel arose concurrent with these volatile conditions, during the turbulent wake of the American and French Revolutions. We will trace the beginnings of the historical novel in works by Scott and Pushkin, and then its later development in works by Stendhal, Dickens, Anatole France and Pasternak. The central text of the course will be Tolstoi's War and Peace. (Formerly LITS 0220) 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2010
ENVS 0215 - Nature's Meanings
FYSE 1230 - Fictions of Growing Up
Fictions of Growing Up
One kind of novel that has retained great appeal is the so-called ‘novel of education’ (German bildungsroman ) which traces the individual’s growth from adolescence into adulthood. We will read some of the best known “novels of education” written in English (by Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, James Joyce, Edith Wharton, J.D. Salinger, and Jeffrey Eugenides). We will consider whether the novels confirm the findings of important psychologists (Freud, Erikson, Maslow) about adolescence and maturity. Through extensive reading, writing, and discussion we will learn to express ourselves with greater clarity, accuracy, and power. 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2012
HARC 0246 - American Painting to 1920
American Painting: Beginnings to the Armory Show
This course is an introduction to American painting from 17th century limner portraits to the rise of modernism in the twentieth century, with special attention to Copley, Cole, Church, Homer, Eakins, Sloan, and Bellows. Although we will trace the development of traditional categories of painting (landscape, portraiture, genre), our purpose will be to discover what the paintings tell us about the changing values and tastes of American culture. (Formerly HARC/AMCV 0246) 3 hrs. lect.
Spring 2010
HIST 0202 / AMST 0202 - The American Mind ▲
The American Mind
We will consider the history of influential American ideas, and ideas about America, from the Revolution to the present, with particular regard to changing cultural contexts. A continuing question will be whether such a consensus concept as “the American Mind” has the validity long claimed for it. Among many writers we will read are Thomas Jefferson, Alexis de Tocqueville, William James, Martin Luther King, Reinhold Niebuhr and Betty Friedan. (Previously taught as HIST/AMST 0426)
Fall 2010, Spring 2013, Fall 2013
LITP 0101 - Intro to World Literature
This course is an introduction to the critical analysis of imaginative literature of the world, the dissemination of themes and myths, and the role of translation as the medium for reaching different cultures. Through the careful reading of selected classic texts from a range of Western and non-Western cultures, students will deepen their understanding and appreciation of the particular texts under consideration, while developing a critical vocabulary with which to discuss and write about these texts, both as unique artistic achievements of individual and empathetic imagination and as works affected by, but also transcending their historical periods. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
CMP CW LITSpring 2010
LITS 0245 - The Historical Novel
The Historical Novel
Although 19th century Europeans and Americans regarded their era as the vanguard of international peace and progress, the century was filled with the brutalities of class revolt and the carnage of revolution. The historical novel arose concurrent with these volatile conditions, during the turbulent wake of the American and French Revolutions. We will trace the beginnings of the historical novel in works by Scott and Pushkin, and then its later development in works by Stendhal, Dickens, Anatole France and Pasternak. The central text of the course will be Tolstoi's War and Peace. (Formerly LITS 0220) 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2010
RELI 0278 / ENAM 0278 - Protestant or Puritan
Protestant or Puritan? AR
What is in a name? The community of English Reformers known as "Puritans," some of whom emigrated to New England, were part of the larger Reformation group called "Protestants." The connotations of the two terms are quite different. We will begin by assessing their quest for reform by reading the New Testament, Calvin, and Milton. We will then explore "Puritanism" in America. We will study writings by John Winthrop, Edward Taylor, and Jonathan Edwards, as well as the image of American Puritanism in literature by Hawthorne, Arthur Miller, and Robert Lowell. We will conclude by considering the transformation of "Puritan" ideas in the social thought of Reinhold Niebuhr. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2013
RELI 0279 / ENAM 0279 - Bible and American Literature ▲
The Bible and American Literature AR, WT
In this course we will study American literary responses to the spiritual and social demands of Christianity as expressed in select Biblical passages and narratives. We will examine how writers of different times and regions responded to this tradition, raising and exploring such questions as: How is Christian conduct to be defined in a political democracy? In an increasingly secular society, can a life lived “in imitation of Christ” result in more than victimization? How can a minister, serving a worldly congregation, know the degree to which his words are sacred or profane? Writers will include Stowe, Melville, Eliot, West, Baldwin, and Robinson. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Fall 2012, Fall 2013