ENG-2013 American Literature to 1865

A survey of American literature from the European conquests to the Civil War. Treatment of literature before 1800 will be divided into three sections: the cacophony of colonial North America, the road to revolution, and the struggle to realize the promises of independence. With antebellum literature, we will follow two chronological arcs: first a generic exploration of artists in a young, anxious nation struggling to limn American identities, then a more explicitly political inquiry, of antebellum American artists using literature to 'speak truth to power.' Writers discussed will usually include Cabeza de Vaca, Winthrop, Jefferson, Foster, Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, Northup, and Thoreau.