Course Overview:
This course is a survey in American literature from the beginnings through 1865. The syllabus is therefore designed to introduce you to a variety of different writers—such as Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Emily Dickinson—and help you develop a sense of how literature and culture changed from the colonial period through the early national period and the antebellum. In doing so, we will also explore the different forms popular in these periods, from sermons and essays to short stories, poems, and novels. You will learn to appreciate the diction, imagery, meter, irony, dialogue, and metaphor used by several authors and poets.
Prerequisites:
Syllabus:
Section 1: Colonial Period
- Introduction
- Puritan Way of Thinking
- Anne Bradstreet
- Colonial and Early National
- Style in Puritan Writing
- The Salem Witch Trials
Section 2: The Early National Period
- Jonathan Edwards
- The Time of Revolution
- The Language of Persuasion
- Persuasive Writing inFables
- Putting Your Knowledge to Work
Section 3: Time of Revolution and Romanticism
- Thomas Jefferson
- Literacy of Letters
- Review So Far
- The Romantic Period
- Some Works on Romanticism
- Washington Irving
- Setting
Section 4: The Era of Individualism
- European Influence on Romanticism
- Transcendental Thinking
- Henry David Thoreau
- Poetic Form
- American Gothic Literature
Section 5: The Era of Freedom, Conflict and War
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Characterization
- Review So Far
- Early Feminism
- The Scarlet Letter
- Theme
- Portrayal of Native American Indians
- Conflict, War and Expansion
- Gettysburg Address
- In Review
