Years before there even was a USA, St. John de Crèvecoeur
asked a provocative question: “What, then, is the American, this new man?” Many
more years were to pass before the men and women of the new nation were able to
answer that question in a distinctly American way. In 1837, however, Ralph
Waldo Emerson showed the United States a way to make its revolutionary founding
idea, “All men are created equal,” apply to every American thought and every
American utterance. From that moment, a distinctively American culture was
born.
It’s been an influential culture indeed – and in its
literary aspect it’s been a beautiful one too. In this course we’ll read some
of its important texts with the idea of learning how that beauty has influenced
us speakers of the American language and made us who we are.
Text: The Norton Anthology of American Literature,
shorter eighth edition
Assignments: four
five-page papers, midterm and final
—
The
university’s official statement of contractual expectations (“student learning
outcomes”) for courses in the English 270 series:
Students will improve their ability to
ask questions of and to read, analyze, and interpret complex literary texts,
using relevant literary terminology critically and creatively.
Students will augment their knowledge
of how literature is organized by historical periods, genres, cultures, and
cultural formations.
Students will improve their ability to
express ideas by organizing, developing and supporting a description, analysis,
or argument in written formats, within the conventions of academic writing.
Students will produce a significant
amount of writing such that the course fulfills the requirements of its
mandatory W Focus designation (i.e. 4,000 words). [May 2013]