This course explores the religious views, politics, and cultural beliefs of early America through its literature. Texts range from American literature’s beginning to 1860, focusing on American authors and poets, beginning with Puritan and Separatist journals and pamphlets, captivity narratives, moving on to romance novels and to the short fiction of Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne, and ending with the works of Dickinson and Whitman. Students may take the American Literature courses at any time without regard to the I, II, III sequence.
Course Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge or skills:
- Effectively read and discuss works of early American literature which provide a cultural framework for modern American thought.
- Critically analyze and discuss historical themes in poetry, short stories, and novels.
- Establish a historical framework which situates early American literary movements and trends
- Identify and discuss major literary periods from the inception of American literature through the transcendentalists
- Articulate the aesthetic and ideological concepts idealized by early American authors.
- Explain the relevance of the cultural heritage reflected in early American literature.
Course Content Outline
- Canonical literature (from arrival of Christopher Columbus to the transcendentalists, including, but not confined to such authors as John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, Thomas Paine, James Fennimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman)
- Historical and ideological progression in literature
- Writing styles and significance in the early American canon.
- Progression and interrelationships between literary movements
- Analysis of the aesthetic and cultural significance of the texts
- Connections between texts
Department Guidelines
- The course will provide instruction in early American literature, emphasizing the connections between the different texts.
- The course will focus on written texts, including at least one novel. Audiovisual elements may be included to supplement written texts, but assessment methods must emphasize the written text.
- Exams and essays must be focused on both comprehension of texts and the ability to articulate connections between these texts. Students may also be asked about literary conventions and styles used during this time period.
- The course will examine historical events as a context for the various literary styles/movements which were prominent during the years covered in the course.
- Each of the categories of literature described in the course description must be covered during the course of the term. Others may be added, with the understanding that the course is focused on thorough coverage of a variety of different types of literature as opposed to in-depth analysis of a small number of texts.
PO4 should be assessed: Students will be able to recognize or articulate personal/interpersonal aspects of, or connections between, diverse cultural, social, or political contexts.
PO5 should be assessed: Students will be able to solve problems by gathering, interpreting, combining and/or applying information from multiple sources.