American Literature to 1865

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to American writing from the age of exploration to the Civil War. Students will examine early literary sources and consider how literature reflects and influences the lives of those who have lived in what is now the United States. Approaches vary with instructor; materials studied are likely to include early Native American oral traditions and works by authors such as Adams, Bradstreet, Child, Dickinson, Douglass, Emerson, Franklin, Hawthorne, Jacobs, Melville, Murray, Poe, Rowlandson, Stowe, Thoreau, Wheatley and Whitman. Major attention is also given to the preparation and writing of the research paper.