In
this survey of nineteenth-century American literature, students will engage
with rich texts in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and
autobiography. The course seeks to provide an overview of some of the major
literary movements of American literature in the nineteenth century. Students
will consider how these movements and genres helped critically recognized
American authors to frame and navigate the issues with which they were
concerned, including nationalism, nature, slavery, women’s rights, and
individualism. While the course aims to develop students’ familiarity with major
forms of literary expression in this period of literary history, it also works
toward introducing students to the critical vocabulary and interpretive tools that
will enable them to write about and discuss literature in an informed manner.
Course Requirements
·
Attendance and participation
·
Four two-page analytic responses
·
Two five-page critical papers
·
Reading quizzes
·
Final exam
Required Texts
·
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of
the Mohicans
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN-10: 0486426785
ISBN-13: 978-0486426785
·
Black Hawk, Black Hawk: An
Autobiography
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN-10: 0252723252
ISBN-13: 978-0252723254
·
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglass
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN-10: 0486284999
ISBN-13: 978-0486284996
·
Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN-10: 0486280616
ISBN-13: 978-0486280615
·
Herman Melville, Billy Budd,
Sailor and Selected Tales
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN-10: 9780199538911
ISBN-13: 978-0199538911
·
Harold Frederic, The Damnation of
Theron Ware
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN-10: 0486497941
ISBN-13: 978-0486497945
Selections
from the works of Irving, Bryant, Apess, Hawthorne, Emerson, Poe, Fuller,
Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, and Chesnutt will be available on Laulima.