ENGL 209(F) American Literature: Origins to 1865

American literature from "Origins to 1865," especially as taught in New England, once meant a single tradition, beginning with Puritan writers and culminating with Emerson and Whitman. We shall certainly pay close attention to this tradition: towards the start of the course, we'll read such Puritan writers as the poets Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, and the theologian Jonathan Edwards; towards the end, we'll read the canonical authors of the American Renaissance (Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson). But we'll complicate the assumption of a single tradition by reading some pre-1620 works translated into English (e.g., Columbus, Native-American trickster tales), some writing from the South (e.g., Jefferson), and African-American writing (e.g., Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass). Requirements: one 4- to 5-page paper, one 6- to 8-page paper, midterm and final exams, and class participation. Prerequisite: English 101. Enrollment limited to 40.

Hour: LIMON