Survey of American Literature to the Civil War
“Books are to be call’d for, and supplied, on the assumption that the process of reading is not half-sleep, but, in highest sense, an exercise, a gymnast’s struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself, must be on the alert, must himself or herself construct indeed the poem, argument, history, metaphysical essay—the text furnishing the hints, the clue, the start or frame-work. Not the book needs so much to be the complete thing, but the reader of the book does. That were to make a nation of supple and athletic minds, well-train’d, intuitive, used to depend on themselves, and not on a few coteries of writers.”
Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas.
This course will chart the development of American literature from the period of colonial settlement in North America to the Civil War. To accomplish this task, we will read texts in a wide variety of styles from historical settings that span more than three centuries. We will examine: Native American oral literature; early documents of settler-colonial contact; Puritan sermons, poetry, and captivity narratives; eighteenth-century autobiographies; political texts of the American revolution; slave narratives; nature writing; abolitionist fiction; and fiction and poetry from the American Renaissance. The course is meant to provide students with a broad knowledge of early American literature, as well as skills for analyzing and writing about significant cultural texts. Course readings, discussions, exams, and writing assignments will allow students to hone and demonstrate their skills in critical and creative thought.
Required Texts:
The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Volumes A & B. [8th Edition].
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011 (2nd Edition).
Course Objectives:
Assess formal qualities of literary expression, employing appropriate critical and technical vocabulary;
Understand how works of art reflect particular historical and cultural contexts, and appreciate how past artistic achievements have influenced the direction of today’s artistic movements;
Read and evaluate texts (and other media) critically from multiple perspectives;
Comprehend and appreciate the diversity of American societies, peoples, and cultures;
Recall key dates, names, events, and dominant themes of significant historical periods;
Understand the distinct perspectives and values of past societies, their connections to the present, as well as differences between past and present-day societies.
Course Schedule
Week 1
Tuesday, Aug. 27: Introductions
American Indian Voices and European Literature of Exploration
Thursday, Aug. 29: Vol. A: Beginnings to 1700, “Introduction” (3-20, including timeline);
Stories of the Beginning of the World (21-34).
“Ikto Conquers Iya, the Eater” (111-113).
Week 2
Tuesday, Sept. 3: Christopher Columbus: “Letter Regarding the First Voyage,”
“Letter Regarding the Fourth Voyage” (34-38);
Cabeza de Vaca: from Relation (43-51).
Handout: Howard Zinn, from A People’s History of the United States.
Thursday, Sept. 5: John Smith: from The General History of Virginia (81-92)
Discussion Thread #1
Seventeenth-Century New England
Week 3
Tuesday, Sept. 10: Visions of New England and the Puritan Social Order.
William Bradford: from Of Plymouth Plantation, (138-147).
Thomas Morton: from New English Canaan, (157-165).
Discussion thread #2
Thursday, Sept. 12: Puritan Beliefs.
John Winthrop: “A Modell of Christian Charity”(165-177).
“The Case of Anne Hutchinson” and other journal entries on Hutchinson (179-183).
The New England Primer (361-363).
Cotton Mather: from The Wonders of the Invisible World, “A People of God in the Devil’s Territories” (328-330).
Week 4
Tuesday, Sept. 17: Puritan Poetry.
Anne Bradstreet: “The Flesh and the Spirit” (222), “The Author to Her Book” (225), “Before the Birth of One of her Children” (225), “To my dear and Loving Husband” (226), “Upon the Burning of Our House” (232).
Edward Taylor: “Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children” (303), “Huswifery” (305).
Discussion Thread #3
Thursday, Sept. 19: War and Captivity.
Mary Rowlandson: from A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration (256-288).
Individual and National Identity in the Eighteenth-Century
Week 5
Tuesday, Sept. 24: American Literature 1700-1820, “Introduction” (365-378).
Essay I Due
Thursday, Sept. 26: Enlightenment in Philadelphia.
Benjamin Franklin: from The Autobiography (481-502[bottom of pg.], 526-542).
Week 6
Tuesday, Oct. 1: Slavery in the English Atlantic.
Olaudah Equiano (Gustavas Vassa): from The Interesting Narrative of the Life (687-701, 718-721).
Phyllis Wheatley: “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (764), “On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield” (767)
Thursday, Oct. 3: The Rhetoric of Revolution
Thomas Paine: from Common Sense, (641-653)
Thomas Jefferson: from The Autobiography, “The Declaration of Independence” (661-667).
Week 7
Tuesday, Oct. 8: What is an American?
Crèvecoeur: from Letter from an American Farmer (604-618).
Samson Occam: from A Short Narrative of My Life (445-448).
Thursday, Oct. 10: Mid-Term Exam
Toward an American Renaissance: 1800-1865
Week 8.
Tuesday, Oct. 15: Vol. B: American Lit. 1820-1865 “Introduction” and “Timeline” (3-24).
William Cullen Bryant, “The Prairies” (126-129)
Thursday, Oct. 17: “Native Americans: Removal and Resistance” (349-368).
Black Hawk; Petalesharo; Elias Boudinot; Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Discussion thread #4
Week 9
Tuesday, Oct. 22: Nathaniel Hawthorne: “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” (373-385),
“The May-Pole of Merry Mount” (401-409)
Edgar Allan Poe: “The Man of the Crowd” (681-686).
Thursday, Oct. 24: Ralph Waldo Emerson: from Nature (211-227), “The American Scholar” (243-256)
Margaret Fuller: “Letter XVIII” (782-786).
Discussion thread #5
Week 10
Tuesday, Oct. 29: Henry David Thoreau: from Walden, or Life in the Woods (981-1039).
Thursday, Oct. 31: Frederick Douglass: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (1251).
David Walker: from “Appeal in Four Articles” (791-795).
Sojourner Truth: “Speech to the Women’s Rights Convention” (801).
Discussion thread #6
Week 11
Tuesday, Nov. 5 Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (xii-105)
Thursday, Nov. 7: Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (105-199)
Slave Announcements and Advertisements (412-420)
Week 12
Tuesday, Nov. 12: No Class, Follow Monday Schedule.
Thursday, Nov. 14: Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (200-336)
Reviews and Reception: George Sand (495), George F. Holmes (505).
Discussion thread #7
Week 13
Tuesday, Nov. 19: Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (336-408)
Thursday, Nov. 21: Herman Melville: “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1483-1508).
Week 14
Tuesday, Nov. 26: Walt Whitman: from “Song of Myself” (Parts 1-25, 48-52).
Essay II Due
Thursday, Nov. 28: Thanksgiving
Week 15
Tuesday, Dec. 3: Emily Dickinson: “I taste a liquor never brewed” (1667), “I’m nobody! Who are you”(1669), “I felt a funeral in my brain” (1673), “Because I could not stop for death” (1683), “This is my letter to the world” (1684), “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” (1696).
Thursday, Dec. 5: Review for Final Exam.
Final Exam