American Literary History I

Students need not take these courses in chronological order. Fulfills the pre-1900 requirement. American Literary History 1 follows the development of American literary history from the landing of the Mayflower to the tumultuous decade of the 1850s, moving from such early writers as Bradstreet, Rowlandson and Taylor through such writers of the Revolution and Early Republic as Equiano, Franklin, and Rowson to such antebellum writers as Child, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Poe, Douglass, Whitman, and Melville. Course assignments include regular participation in class discussions, mid-semester and final examinations, and either one ten-page or two five-page essay(s). Students considering careers in secondary English education will be given the option of writing about approaches to teaching course texts.