ENG 253 Survey of American Literature Through 1865

1. Read a literary work at a literal level: accurately describe genre, subject, structure, style, theme, character, and setting; understand older forms of English in annotated texts. 
2. Read a literary work at a figurative level: recognize literary devices and identify their function within a particular text and among different texts. 
3. Identify the social, political, and cultural contexts that give rise to literary critical lenses and be able to identify how different lenses affect interpretation of texts. 
4. Identify and define the literary/rhetorical devices and elements covered for early American literary forms, such as oral narratives, sermons, histories, captivity narratives, short stories, novels, etc. 
5. Distinguish literary/rhetorical elements in texts that reflect originating cultures. 
6. Identify and compare literary periods, styles, and themes in early Native American, colonial and post colonial literature of the United States.  
7. Discuss the varying political, social and cultural perspectives expressed in the literature between 1600-1865. 
8. Describe the cultural, social, and political functions of literature. 
9. Identify and define key literary movements as well as pre-colonial French, Spanish, Native American, African, English, colonial and post colonial literary traditions. 
10. Articulate and defend plausible interpretations of reading assignments. 
11. Write critical analyses of literature, including at least one edited essay in MLA format with documentation. 
12. Use critical thinking skills to interpret the significance of the literature chosen for inclusion, to explore the implications of these choices, and to examine how related agendas play out socially. 
13. Begin to move from analysis and evaluation of literature to possible actions that affect construction of our identities, as well as cultural, political, ideological, and socioeconomic exchanges on both personal and national levels. 

Statewide General Education Outcomes:

1. Interpret and engage in the Arts and Letters, making use of the creative process to enrich the quality of life. 
2. Critically analyze values and ethics within a range of human experience and expression to engage more fully in local and global issues. 

Cultural Literacy (DPR) Outcome:

1. Identify and analyze complex practices, values, and beliefs and the culturally and historically defined meanings of difference. 

• Approaches to The Study of Literature and Reading Strategies 
  • Active reading (highlighting, note taking and responding to texts) 
  • Introduction of Formalist critical approach and at least two other relevant critical approaches such as New Historicism, Colonialism, Post Colonialism, Gender, and Ethnic Studies  
• Relevance of Studying American Literature/Questions of its Canon and competing voices, literary and cultural traditions 
• Literary Terminology 
• Literary Genres and Elements 
  • Oral Traditions (poetry, chants, tales, and narratives) 
    • Historical and cultural contexts (Native American, African American, and European American 
    • Types (Trickster, emergence/origin stories, histories, etc). 
    • Issues of translation and dialect 
    • Narrative form and performance 
    • Audience, interactivity and purpose 
    • Elements (plot and theme, point of view, style, tone, characterization, setting, figurative language, devices of sound) 
  • Non-fiction genres (such as travel narratives, slave narratives, diaries, autobiographies, histories, letters, sermons, essays, etc.) 
    • Content and themes 
    • Historical and cultural contexts from varied American traditions 
    • Audience and purpose 
    • Rhetorical strategies 
    • Literary devices and elements 
  • Fiction genres (early tales, short stories, satires, novels) 
    • Historical and cultural attitudes toward fiction from varied American traditions 
    • Historical and cultural contexts from varied American traditions 
    • Audience and purpose 
    • Elements of fiction (plot and theme, narrative form, point of view, style, tone, characterization, setting, and figurative language 
  • Poetry 
    • Historical and cultural attitudes toward poetry 
    • Historical and cultural contexts 
    • Audience and purpose 
    • Forms (ballad, sonnet, etc.) 
    • Elements of poetry (devices of sound, rhythm, diction & syntax, tone, figurative language, imagery, point of view) 
  • Drama 
  • Historical & cultural attitudes toward drama 
  • Historical and cultural context 
  • Audience and purpose 
  • Forms (satire, allegory, etc.) 
  • Common themes 
  • Elements of drama (plot and theme, characterization, structure, style, setting, figurative language, stage direction) 
• Literary Movements and Traditions in Dialogue 
  • Oral traditions (Native American, African American, European American) 
  • Colonial and Puritan traditions 
  • Great awakening 
  • Enlightenment 
  • Transcendentalism 
  • Romanticism and the American Renaissance of the 1850’s 
  • Sentimental and domestic  
• Historical/Cultural Contexts of Literature Selected Between 1600-1865  
  • Early North American exploration and settlement and variety of motives behind exploring and colonizing “the new world” (religious, commercial, etc.) 
  • Encounters and wars between indigenous peoples and explorers, colonizers, and settlers 
  • African and African American/slave trade Spanish/French Catholic, and English Protestant settlement 
  • Voices of revolution and status quo (discourses of nationalism, royalists, democracy, liberty)  
  • American Revolution and effects of war Nation founders 
  • Federalist and anti-federalist debates 
  • Women’s rights movement and women’s status in new nation 
  • Impact of westward expansion and government policies on indigenous peoples (war, disease, relocations, removals, etc.) 
  • Reform movements (abolition, temperance, education, suffragist, etc.) 
  • Early attitudes toward immigration 
  • Effects of Mexican American War 
  • Effects of sectional differences and the Civil War 
  • Changing world (agriculture economy, role of religion in society, industry, cities, population and socioeconomic structure, class shifts, rise of publishing industry, science and technology, transportation, medicine and psychology, etc.) 
• Writing Literary Analysis 
  • Following conventions of the literary Essay 
  • Establishing a thesis 
  • Incorporating details from the text, including quotes 
  • Incorporating and documenting information from sources in MLA format and style