American Literature I and II introduce a historical overview of American literature and culture engaging the significant writers of the colonial, revolutionary, Romantic and early Realist periods. Readings will focus on the particular ways that American English is presented in various literary genres, including fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry, essays, speeches and autobiography. The course will also include a more formal analysis of literary terms, their relation to the text, and their specific use in literary analysis. Emphasized will be the ways that literature is both imaginative and rhetorical, and therefore opens multiple fields of possible knowledge and meaning, always open to interpretation. In view of this general approach, the readings are designed to link text and context, thereby encouraging students to appreciate the matrix of culture, historical events and their social settings.

(Course Objectives and Contents) -- to survey American literature, 1776-1877 (Fall semester); -- to survey American literature, 1877-the present (Spring semester); -- to broaden our views of American society and civilization-- fiction, poetry, essays, 1776-1877 (Fall semester); -- fiction, poetry, essays, and drama, 1877-the present (Spring semester); -- background research and reports on American society and history -- weekly lectures -- student reports -- in-class discussion -- extended discussion on social media, study group

Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution