AMERICAN LITERATURE

This is a semester-long survey course that covers some major works and themes in American literature. Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions and to either take a final written exam or present their own creative project.

Syllabus

Videos

9.14

Why American literature?

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9.21

What is settler colonialism?

9.28

What difficulties did the early settlers encounter?

10.5

How were the Indians portrayed?

10.12

How did early settlers' life shape their worldview?

10.19

Is Puritanism religious or political?

10.26

Is Taylor's and Edwards' God the Same?

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11.2

What is Franklin's/Paine's Attitude towards Religion?

11.9

Do you like Emerson's God?

11.16

What restrictions were imposed on female poets?

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11.23

How do male writers portray female characters?

11.30

Who is the hero, Hester or Dimmesdale?

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12.7

Is Whitman's poetry homoerotic?

12.14

What does it mean to be democratic and slaveholding?

12.21

Did the author's America Include Blacks?

12.28

What rhetorical strategies did Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass use?

1.4

Are we more likely to be sympathetic when we see cruelty than cruelty is reported to us?

1.11

Wrap-up