This course is designed to provide a survey of major American literary figures and literary movements from the colonial period through 1890. In this class, we will read about and discuss the development of American literature and the history of American literary culture from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 through the American Civil War.

The topics we will cover include:

The Protestant Reformation
Puritan Theology and Puritan Historiography
Puritan Poetry
Indian/Colonial Relationships
Spiritual Autobiography
The Enlightenment
Deism
Literary Nationalism after the Revolutionary War
The Beginnings of American Fiction
Literature of the Revolutionary War
Light and Dark Romanticism
The Gothic
Transcendentalism in New England
Southwest Humor
The Slave Narrative
Native American Literature of the 19th-Century
Literature of the Civil War
American Literary Realism

Basic Requirements:

Three Exams
Extensive Reading of American Literature

Texts:

Baym, et. al., eds. Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume A & B (7th edition). ISBN: 978-0393929935

Norton Critical Edition of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, 2nd edition. ISBN: 978-0393972832