American Literature 1

Catalog description

Advisory: ENGL C1000. Students are introduced to works which represent the diverse literature emerging from colonial America through the Civil War. This survey of major American authors, literary works, and themes from colonial times through 1865 focuses on the evolution of literary genres from oral tradition, poetry, travelogues, and letters to short stories and novels, and recognition of the major characteristics of early American literature. Works may be selected from authors such as Anne Bradstreet, Powhatan, Olaudah Equiano, Kate Chopin, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Jacobs, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Rowlandson, and Walt Whitman. This course reflects the department’s commitment to examine works from diverse perspectives and help students develop their authentic voices.