Significant work by writers in America from the pre-Columbian era to World War I. Writers may include Anne Bradstreet, Benjamin Franklin, Washington Irving, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Henry James, Charles Chesnutt, Frances Harper, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.
Athena Title
American Literature to 1914
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ENGL 2370H
Prerequisite
ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall, spring and summer
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
By the conclusion of the course, students will be familiar with representative texts of major American writers from the beginnings to 1914.
Students will contextualize and analyze examples from multiple literary genres including prose fiction, poetry, essays, and drama. They will practice analyzing literary form and thinking critically about literature and culture.
Students will practice engaging in collaborative discussion with their peers, in both small groups and full-class discussion. They will improve their ability to express their ideas cogently and effectively.
Students will improve their abilities to argue persuasively, use textual evidence, and write vigorous prose that adheres to conventional standards of grammar and usage.
Topical Outline
The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester. The topics will consist of selected works by various authors to be read outside of class and discussed in class and to be examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and the circumstances of their composition.
A possible series of topics and assignments might resemble this: Selections from The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vols. A-C; Bradford, Of Plymouth Planatio; Eleazar, Elegy for Thomas Thacker; Bradstreet, selected poems; Franklin, Autobiography; Crevecoeur, Notes from an American Farmer; Equiano, Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; Schoolcraft, selected poems and stories; Apes, Son of the Forest and Other Writings; Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin; Emerson, Nature; Thoreau, Walden; Whitman, selected poems; Hawthorne, stories; Melville, Billy Budd; Harper, Iola Leroy; Twain, Huck Finn; James, Daisy Miller; Wharton, Ethan Frome
General Education Core
CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
