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
.