ENGL 3380 - Survey of American Literature I

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

Surveys the foundational texts of American Literary history from the literatures of European encounters with New World Amerindians (Columbus, Cabeza de Vaca, Smith), through the American Romantics (Poe, Hawthorne, Melville) with attention to the cultural and social contexts in which these literatures were produced. Includes study of Puritan literary forms (the Jermiad, ,the Captivity Narrative, the metaphysical poetry of Bradstreet and/or Taylor) and reflects on how these forms were revised by such authors as Douglass and Whitman in light of antebellum engagements with the problems of race, class, and gender. Prer., ENGL 1310 or equivalent and ENGL 1500 or ENGL 1900.