Costanzo (Shippensburg)

    General Information

    Abstract

    The purpose of this course is to examine the texts of early American writers in order to discover how their works serve as sources for the underlying principles and preoccupations existing within the American cultural psyche. My definition of American literature is inclusive, diverse, and multicultural; and in my course I attempt to break down boundaries of ethnicity, nationality, and narrow political configurations. I also illustrate how the major themes found in the early literature continue to recur in the later works and also in the more recent writings of many American authors. Moreover, my strong aim is to show the influences and connections which are a feature of the diverse literary groups, such as the relationships occurring between black and white writers in narrative and autobiographical writing.

    Population

    This is a mixed lecture and discussion course which serves as a single semester survey of the first half of a year-long study in American literature. All English majors are required to take the course, but it is open also as a elective to those in other disciplines. Class size is usually from 35 to 40 students, most of whom are freshmen and sophomores.

    TEXTS

    Lauter, et. al., Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume I

    General Pedagogy

    Students are required to take three exam consists of five to eight questions which demand in-depth thinking and textual support of ideas expressed in well-organized and developed essays.

    Readings & Pedagogy

    UNIT #1

    READINGS FOR UNIT #1: (approximately four weeks)

    Columbus, "Virgin of Guadalupe,"

    Bradford , Bradstreet , Rowlandson , Taylor , Mather

    Edwards's "Personal Narrative" and "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God."

    Students must read all major introductory sections in the required text Heath Anthology).

    IN-CLASS WRITING FOR UNIT #1

    UNIT #2

    READINGS FOR UNIT #2: (about four weeks)

    Equiano , Wheatley

    Franklin's Autobiography

    Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," Cooper (Headnote)

    Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Raven"

    Emerson's Nature (beginning sections)

    Douglass , Jacobs

    Thoreau's Walden.

    UNIT #3

    READINGS FOR UNIT #3: (a little over four weeks)

    Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" and "Young Goodman Brown"

    Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

    Whitman : "Song of Myself," "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."

    I also include selected poems by Emily Dickinson .