American Literature (Course)

Essential Questions for Course

1. What does it mean to be an American?
2. How has the United States lived up to its original promise?
3. How do history, culture, and literature inform and influence one another?

Unit 1: Encounters and Adventures (1607-1765)

The Colonial Period to the Stamp Act

The colonial period begins in 1607 with the founding of the Jamestown colony in Virginia and ends with the passage of the Stamp Act by the British Parliament.

Potential Texts

Bradstreet, Anne (1617-1672)
Selections from The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650)

• "Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House"
• "A Love Letter to Her Husband"
• "Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House"
• "To my Dear and Loving Husband"

A list of her poems, along with links to their texts, can be found here.

Rowlandson, Mary (c. 1636 - c. 1711)

• Selections from A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682)

Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758)

• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Bradford, William (1590-1657)

• Selections from Of Plymouth Plantation (1620)

Taylor, Edward (1642?-1729)

• "Huswifery"

Byrd, William (1674-1744)

• Selections from The History of the Dividing Line (c. 1728)

Dekanawida

• Selections from The Iroquois Constitution

Unit 2: Nation Building (1765-1830)

The Revolutionary and Early National Periods

Essential Questions

1. What could cause a people to fight for their independence?
2. How do you create a new national identity?

Potential Texts

Wheatley, Phyllis (1753-1784)

Equiano, Olaudah (c. 1745-1797)

• Selections from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)

Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790)

• Selections from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Selections from Poor Richard's Almanack

Henry, Patrick (1736-1799)

• "Speech to the Virginia Convention" (1765)
• "Liberty or Death" speech (1775)

Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

• Selections from The Rights of Man (1791)
• Selections from Common Sense (1776)
• Selections from Notes on the State of Virginia
• Selections from The Age of Reason (1794, 1796)
• Selections from The Crisis

Jefferson, Thomas (1743-18260)

• Selections from A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)
• Selections from Notes on the State of Virginia
• Selections from The Autobiography
• Selections from "The Declaration of Independence"

Unit 3: Dreams and Nightmares (1828-1865)

The Romantic Period through the Civil War

The Romantic Period in American literature begins in 1828 with the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency, and ends in 1865 with the conclusion of the Civil War.

Potential Texts

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (1815-1902)

• Selections from Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention

Irving, Washington (1783-1859)
Novels

• A History of New York
• The Sketch Book (1819-20)
• Tales of a Traveller (1824)

Short Stories

• "The Devil and Tom Walker"

Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878)

• "Thanatopsis"

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882)

• Evangeline (1847)
• The Song of Hiawatha (1855)
• "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls"
• "The Cross of Snow"

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

• "Nature"
• "Self-Reliance"

Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862)

• Walden (1854)
• "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864)
Novels

• Selections from Twice-Told Tales (1837)
• The Scarlet Letter (1850)
• The House of the Seven Gables (1851)

Short Stories

• "Young Goodman Brown"
• "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"
• "The Minister's Black Veil"

Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-1849)

• Tamerlane (1827)
• Al Aaraaf (1829)
• The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
• "The Gold Bug"
• "The Purloined Letter"
• "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
• "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• "The Cask of Amontillado"
• "The Pit and the Pendulum"
• "The Raven" (1845)

Unit 4: New Frontiers (1865-1914)

Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism

The Realistic Period in American literature began in 1865 with the conclusion of the Civil War and ended around 1900. The Naturalistic Period in American literature began at the close of the Realistic Period and ended in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. Regionalism is a trend in literature to focus on the characters, dialect, customs, geography, and other features particular to a specific region.

Potential Texts

Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896)
New England

Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins (1852-1930)
New England

Jewett, Sarah Orne (1849-1909)
New England

Chopin, Kate (1850-1904)
Southern

Harris, Joel Chandler (1848-1908)
Southern

Harte, Bret (1839-1902)
Western

Twain, Mark (1835-1910)
Western

Zitkala-Sa (1876-1938)
Great Plains

Unit 5: Stepping Onto the Stage (1914-1945)

Modernism

The Modern Period in American literature begins with the start of World War I and ends with the conclusion of World War II.

Potential Texts

Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Novels

• The Great Gatsby

Unit 6: The Center Cannot Hold (1945-?)

Postmodernism

The Postmodern Period in American literature begins with the conclusion of World War II. Scholars debate its end point.

Potential Texts

A good list of postmodern novels is available from the L.A. Times.

Drama

• Hansberry, Lorraine: A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
• Miller, Arthur: Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953)
• Williams, Tennessee: The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire" (1948)

Novels

• Alexie, Sherman: Reservation Blues (1995)
• Baldwin, James: Got Tell It on the Mountain (1953)
• Barth, John: Giles Goat Boy (1966), Lost in the Funhouse (1968)
• Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
• Burroughs, William: Naked Lunch (1959)
• DeLillo, Don: White Noise (1985)
• Dick, Phillip K: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
• Eggers, Dave: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ()
• Ellis, Bret Easton: Less Than Zero (1985)
• Fowles, John: The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969)
• Heller, Joseph: Catch-22 (1961)
• Hersey, John: Hiroshima (1946)
• Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
• McInerney, Jay: Bright Lights, Big City (1984)
• Momaday, N. Scott: House Made of Dawn (1968)
• Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons: Watchmen (1984)
• Morrison, Toni: Beloved (1987)
• Pynchon, Thomas: V (1963), Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
• Robbins, Tom: Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
• Roth, Philip: Goodbye, Columbus (1959)
• Salinger, J.D.: The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
• Thompson, Hunter S.: "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971)
• Vonnegut, Kurt: Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Breakfast of Champions (1973)
• Walker, Alice: The Color Purple (1982)
• Wallace, David Foster: Infinite Jest (1996)

Poetry

• Bishop, Elizabeth: "The Fish" (), One Art ()
• Brooks, Gwendolyn: "The Bean Eaters" ()
• Jarrell, Randall: "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" ()
• Plath, Sylvia: "Mirror" (), "Mushrooms" ()
• Sexton, Anne: "The Bells" (), "Young" ()
• Wilbur, Richard: "The Beautiful Changes" (), "Boy at the Window" (), "The Writer" ()

Short Stories (and collections)

• Barthelme, Donald: Sixty Stories (1981); "Game" (1968)
• Carver, Raymond: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), Cathedral (1983); "Everything Stuck to Him" 90
• Jackson, Shirley: "The Lottery" (1948)
• Kaplan, David Michael: "Doe Season" (2005)
• LeGuin, Ursula K: "She Unnames Them" (1985)
• O'Brien, Tim: The Things They Carried (1990)
• O'Connor, Flannery: "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (1955)
• Olsen, Tillie: "I Stand Here Ironing" (1961)
• Tan, Amy: The Joy Luck Club (1989)
• Updike, John: "Pigeon Feathers" (1962), "A&P" (1962), "How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time" (), "Son" (),