ENGL 209(F) American Literature: Origins to 1865 (Same as American Studies 209)
What is American literature? This course will examine the variety of answers
that have been made to this question, and the way that those answers differently
articulate both what counts as "America" and what counts as literature. One
tradition will be at the center of the story: from Puritans (such as the poets Edward Taylor and Anne Bradstreet, and the theologian Jonathan Edwards)
through the major writers of the American Renaissance (Emerson, Hawthorne,Thoreau). Along the way, we will consider other American traditions as
well: Native American trickster stories, conquistador literature. In the eighteenth
century, we will take up such Enlightenment writers as Jefferson and Franklin;
in the nineteenth, such abolitionist writers as Douglass and Jacobs. Working
through the differences among different figures, eras, and genres we will be asking what makes a literary tradition: temporal progression, thematic consistency, national identity, etc.? And consider, too, what the way we construct American literature means for our understanding of the nation today.
Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: two papers, midterm, and final exam.
Prerequisites: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 40 (expected: 40).
(1700-1900)