ENGL 2230 - American Literature to 1865

1. Analyze representative works of American literature from its beginnings to approximately 1865.
2. Understand that literature reflects the philosophical, religious, or historical norms and values of specific cultures at specific times.
3. Use various writing techniques to analyze literature.
4. Apply a critical lens to analyze selected works of American Literature.
5. Identify the presence of literary elements in genres such as fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or drama.
6. Recognize how race, ethnic group, gender, and class differences in the United States both inform and are illustrated by literature, how these differences have reshaped the “traditional” American literature canon, and how literature can be used to discuss, understand, and appreciate these differences.
7. Recognize how historically marginalized writers both resist and fit into literary periods and what these writers contribute to the American literature canon.
8. Understand the literary characteristics of the Colonial Period, the Age of Reason and Revolution (the Enlightenment), and the Romantic Period, and place selected authors within those literary periods.
9. Understand the literary meanings of such concepts as Puritanism, Calvinism, Nature, Reason, Deism, Neoclassicism, Enlightenment, Gothic, Romanticism, Pantheism, and Transcendentalism.
10. Comprehend how American literature helps us understand ourselves, other people, and the world around us.

1. Study of works of American literature from three major periods: Colonial literature through 17th century literature, Early Republic and 18th century literature, and 19th century (through the Civil War) literature
2. The study of American literature in its varying forms–e.g., journals, diaries, essays, newspaper articles, political documents, sermons, poetry, short stories, and novels
3. Literary elements and devices
4. Critical and/or affective writing in response to American literature
5. Critical approaches to literature (may include, but not be limited to, reader-response, feminist, biographical, historical, psychological, deconstruction, archetypal, and new criticism)
6. Support for interpretations and evaluations of literature
7. The role of literature as a cultural, historical, political, and personal artifact
8. Race, ethnic group, gender, and class conflicts in American literature
9. The contributions of diverse writers to the American literature canon