Prompt 3

William Penn is considered unique among our foundational figures because of his supposedly benevolent relationship with Native Americans. This friendship was often implied in the discussion of the "Great Treaty" Penn signed with the Indians of his area, a plan that allowed him to gain land through purchase rather than conquest. This treaty, which some historians consider mythical, has been the subject of several iconic American paintings. For this blog entry, I would like you to exercise those visual analysis skills and offer a brief comparative analysis of two of these paintings. The first is "Penn's Treaty with the Indians," and it was painted by Edward Hicks around 1840. (This is the painting above that is accompanied by text.) The second is Benjamin West's painting "Treaty of Penn with Indians" that was painted between 1771 and 1772. What argument do these paintings make about the bodies they depict? Is it the same argument? Are they making distinct arguments? I've included some helpful links for your analysis.

West's painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts website: http://www.pafa.org/paintingsPreview.jsp?id=970

Hick's painting at National Gallery of Art website: http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=59640+0+none

Wikipedia entry on William Penn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn

Essay on William Penn and the Indians from University of Virginia's American Studies Program: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/PENN/pnind.html

Prompt 2

Due Friday 1/25
(Comments due Sunday 1/27)

This week we'll be watching people confront difference and investigating how this establishes or troubles definitions on or about the body. For this post, I want you to reflect on what we've read and what we've discussed in class and give me a good picture of the "New World Body." What does it look like? Is it gendered? Is it threatening? As a representational figure - what does it tell us about how the New World was seen by these authors? Is it normative or powerful? If not, whose body is? In other words, what are the definitions in play here?

After you establish a good definition argument (supported by at least one example), I want you to use your analysis of the native body to talk about the following image. This is a map from the 17th century and it has interesting illustrations that visually "map out" the New World. How do these bodies compare to the figure you've drawn from the readings? Similar? Different? How?

(click on images to enlarge)

Extra credit - Atkinson

Well we had a bit of trouble with Atkinson's intro to The Body. For a bit of extra credit this week, I want you to post one question about this reading to your blog, something that you found confusing or particularly challenging about her chapter. To receive credit, you also need to post an answer to another student's Atkinson question. Don't worry about being right or wrong; just think about our discussion in class and your own understanding of Atkinson's argument and make an honest attempt.
Due: Sunday

Prompt 1

Due by Sunday 1/20

Rhetoric of the Body asks that you take a critical view of the body in society (and consequently the body of society). For your first post, I would like you to look around you and talk about the bodies in your world.

• How do bodies function in your environment?
• What kind of bodies do you encounter everyday?
• What sort of arguments do these bodies make as far as personal or corporate identity?

After you talk about your immediate environment, you can consider more general questions about the body in society.

• You may wish to talk about the student body at the university. Are bodies something we forget about in higher education? If so, why? And where do they remain important in our society?
• Another option is to address the body in modern, digital society. With the advent of virtual reality and the avatar, can we still consider our bodies to be fundamental markers of our identities?

What you want to do with this post is map out your "starting place" for the course - where are you now in terms of the ideas we will discuss?