Native-Am
Columbus
Bradford
Bradstreet
Taylor
Wheatley
Edwards
Franklin
Paine
Bryant
Hawthorne
Emerson
Poe
Douglass
Thoreau
Melville
Truth
African-Am
Jacobs
Jefferson
 

Schedule  (and complete syllabus as pdf)

Sample paper

Required textbooks (all are published as Dover Thrift Editions and are available in the college bookstore):

Swann, ed.  Native American Songs and Poems: An Anthology.  Dover, 1996.
Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The Scarlet Letter.  1850; rpt. Dover, 1996.
Thomas Paine.  Common Sense.  1776; rpt. Dover, 1997.
Benjamin Franklin.  The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.  1868; rpt. Dover, 1996.
Sherman, ed.  African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927.  Dover, 1997.
Edgar Allan Poe.  The Raven and Other Favorite Poems.  Dover, 1991.
Edgar Allan Poe.  The Gold-Bug and Other Tales.  Dover, 1991.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Self-Reliance and Other Essays.  Dover, 1993.
Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories.  Dover, 1992.
Frederick Douglass.  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.  Dover, 1995.
Henry David Thoreau.  Walden: Or, Life in the Woods.  1854; rpt. Dover, 1995.
Henry David Thoreau.  Civil Disobedience and Other Essays.  Dover, 1993.
Herman Melville.  Bartleby and Benito Cereno.  Dover, 1990.
Harriet Jacobs.  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  1850; rpt. Dover, 2001.

Course description (from college bulletin): "An introduction to American literature, this course examines the major contributors to the development of American literature, culture, and ideals from the colonial period to the era of American Romanticism."

Prerequisite:  English Composition II.

Goals:
     1.    To study representative selections from the literature of the United
             States prior to the Civil War.
     2.    To get a view of the topics and issues that have concerned our 
             writers from the Colonial Period to the Civil War, including 
             representatives from the European colonists, the natives they 
             encountered, and the people brought by force from Africa.
     3.    To improve skills in reading and critiquing imaginative and 
             narrative writing.
     4.    To put research skills to use.

Objectives:
     1.     To read assignments.
     2.     To participate in class discussions.
     3.     To pass quizzes on assigned reading.
     4.     To write a research paper using approved techniques for research
              and writing.
     5.     To pass three examinations, including the Final Exam.

 

 Schedule  (and complete syllabus as pdf)

Copyright © Timothy E. Trask. All rights reserved.
Revised: 24 January 2010