American Writers I

Catalog description

This course covers US literature from colonial contact to the Civil War. Students will investigate how poems, novels, and plays describe the new world, assess the truth-value of literature, and evaluate the opportunities and perils of American democracy. By the end of the semester, students will understand the major literary, political, and cultural debates that preoccupied the American literary tradition from the 17th to the mid-19th century, and how literature influenced these debates. Authors may include Franklin (inventor of the “autobiography”), Cooper (inventor of the Western), Poe (inventor of the mystery story), Stowe (author of perhaps the most influential political novel every written), Emerson, Hawthorne, and Melville.