The student will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of major writers, key texts, documents, and debates of American literature from 1492-1865 by analyzing the development of a distinctive national political and aesthetic culture as reflected in the major writers and texts of this period
2. Identify major literary genres, and trace the emergence and development of literary forms during this period
3. Apply relevant critical and theoretical frameworks to evaluate the literature within historical, multicultural, and philosophical contexts
4. Demonstrate orally and in college-level writing an analytical understanding of the literary texts
5. Demonstrate appropriate formatting and documentation

1. Major writers and canonical texts
   1. Pre-contact Native American literatures
   2. Early colonial narratives from explorers, such as Columbus, Cabeza De Vaca, Captain John Smith
   3. Puritan texts (e.g., William Bradford, George Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet)
   4. Revolutionary War era literature by writers, such as Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Phyllis Wheatley
   5. African American literature by authors, such as Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs
   6. Transcendentalism (writers, such as Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller)
   7. Gothic literature (writers, such as Hawthorne, Poe)
   8. American Folk literature (e.g., Irving, Boone)
2. Literary genres and forms
   1. Native American oral literatures, such as myths, songs, and legends
   2. Puritan forms (e.g., religious histories, diaries, letters, poems, spiritual meditations)
   3. Revolutionary War political documents
   4. Slave narratives and speeches
   5. Autobiography
   6. Nature writing
   7. Frontier fiction, tall tales
   8. Poetic forms
   9. Short fiction
   10. Essays
3. Relevant critical and theoretical frameworks
   1. Historical perspectives, including dominant ethical, philosophical, political, religious, social, and aesthetic perspectives in the literature of this period
      1. Identify the role of literary representations in creating (and subverting) significant American political ideologies, including slavery and abolition, Manifest Destiny, the concept of inalienable rights
   2. Gender studies
   3. Queer theories; sexuality studies
   4. Psychological theories (Freudian or Jungian)
   5. Marxian or other socioeconomic frameworks
   6. Theories of race and ethnicity
   7. Postcolonial and neocolonial studies
4. Analytical understanding of the literary texts
   1. Class discussion regarding analytical reading of literary texts
   2. Composition of literary analysis essays on literary texts
   3. Research to supplement understanding of the literary texts
5. Formatting and documentation
   1. Modern Language Association (MLA)
   2. American Psychological Association (APA)

Not applicable.

Discussion participation
Journal entries
Literary analysis and critical thinking demonstrated in writing and/or other media
Presentations that employ literary, critical, and/or theoretical terminology
Individual and collaborative projects based on assigned texts or independent research
Quizzes
Exams
"Unessay" projects

Independent and collaborative reading/viewing/listening of assigned texts
Lecture presentations on the history and interpretation of the assigned texts
Instructor-guided and collaborative interpretation and analysis
Presentations on inquiry projects focusing on key tools and skill sets in literary interpretation
Student-led discussions and presentations

Kurant, Wendy, editor. Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution. 2019.

Levine, Robert S., and Sandra M. Gustafson, editors. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 10th ed.. 2022.

Spires, Derrick R., et al., editors. The Broadview Anthology of American Literature: Volumes A & B, Beginnings to Reconstruction. 2022.

Online resources:

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. African American Woman Writers of the 19th Century. https://libguides.nypl.org/african-american-women-writers-of-the-19th-Century/home.

University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative. American Verse Project. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/amverse/.

Collections & Research, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian. https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/collections/search.

Colored Conventions Project. https://coloredconventions.org/.

Documenting the American South: Primary Sources for the Study of Southern History, Literature, and Culture. https://docsouth.unc.edu/.

North American Slave Narratives. https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/index.html.

University of Maryland, Digital Programs and Initiatives. Early Americas Digital Archive. http://eada.lib.umd.edu/.

Early American Literature Podcast. 2019-2022. https://eal.uky.edu/podcast.

Cornell University, HathiTrust Digital Library. Making of America. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis&c=1930843488.

1. Reading selections from assigned anthology or primary sources of American literature
2. Supplemental readings from secondary sources, such as journal articles, monographs, biographies, podcasts, and/or videos, meant to familiarize students with ongoing debates and perspectives in the study of American literature
3. Close reading passages from an author's work that also address historical and literary contexts. Analysis of how a text reflects a particular literary movement, style, or period, or an author's literary and/or cultural contributions to American literature
4. Writing and research assignments may include journal entries, reading responses, annotated bibliographies, essays, and "unessay" projects that require summary, interpretation, analysis, and synthesis of original texts