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American Literature Academic Library

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American Literature Online

American Literature is a five-unit elective that engages high school students in a literary conversation with some of the most colorful and influential minds in American history. Their words will give students a greater understanding of themselves, their culture, and the ideas of others. The course teaches students the various movements in American literature, starting with the roots of American literature in writings from the Puritans. The course concludes with works by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other black writers who were part of the struggle for racial freedom during the civil rights era. 

 

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American Literature Online

UNIT 1 – EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE 1600-1800

  1. Course Overview
  2. Introduction: The Puritans
  3. John Smith
  4. William Bradford
  5. John Winthrop
  6. Quiz 1: The Puritans
  7. The Colonists: Mary Rowlandson
  8. Anne Bradstreet
  9. Essay: Comparing Authors’ Views 
  10. Edward Taylor
  11. Samuel Sewall
  12. Quiz 2: The Colonists
  13. Days of Change and Revolution 1700-1800
  14. Jonathan Edwards
  15. Benjamin Franklin
  16. Essay: Authors’ Views of Mankind 
  17. Thomas Paine
  18. Thomas Jefferson
  19. Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur
  20. Essay: Biblical Imagery and References 
  21. Quiz 3: Days of Change and Revolution
  22. Test: Early American Literature
  23. Alternate Test: Early American Literature
  24. Reference

UNIT 2 – THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 1800-1855

  1. A New Nation 1800-1840: Introduction
  2. Washington Irving
  3. James Fenimore Cooper
  4. William Cullen Bryant
  5. Quiz 1: A New Nation
  6. American Naissance 1840-1855: Introduction
  7. The Fireside Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  8. The Fireside Poets: John Greenleaf Whittier
  9. The Fireside Poets: Oliver Wendell Holmes
  10. The Transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo Emerson
  11. The Transcendentalists: Henry David Thoreau
  12. The Transcendentalists: Walt Whitman
  13. Quiz 2: The Fireside Poets and Transcendentalists
  14. The Voices of Despair: Edgar Allen Poe
  15. The Voices of Despair: Nathaniel Hawthorne
  16. The Voices of Despair: Herman Melville
  17. The Voices of Despair: Emily Dickinson
  18. Project: Responding to Literature
  19. Quiz 3: The Voices of Despair
  20. Test: The Romantic Period
  21. Alternate Test: The Romantic Period
  22. Reference

UNIT 3 – WAR AND RECONCILIATION 1855-1915

  1. Secession and Loyalty 1855-1865: Introduction
  2. Frederick Douglass
  3. Harriet Beecher Stowe
  4. Spirituals
  5. Robert E. Lee
  6. Abraham Lincoln
  7. Quiz 1: Secession and Loyalty 1855–1865
  8. Realism and Naturalism 1865-1915: Introduction
  9. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)
  10. William Dean Howells
  11. Henry James
  12. Quiz 2: Realism and Naturalism 1865–1915
  13. Naturalists, Regionalists and Realists: Stephen Crane
  14. Kate Chopin
  15. Paul Laurence Dunbar
  16. Jack London
  17. Essay: Analysis and Response 
  18. Quiz 3: Naturalists, Regionalists, and Realists
  19. Test: War and Reconciliation
  20. Alternate Test: War and Reconciliation
  21. Reference

UNIT 4 – THE MODERN AGE 1915-1946

  1. The Modern Age
  2. Modern Prose: Ernest Hemingway
  3. F. Scott Fitzgerald
  4. Quiz 1: Modern Prose
  5. Modern Poetry: Ezra Pound
  6. Carl Sandburg
  7. E. E. Cummings
  8. Wallace Stevens
  9. Robert Frost
  10. H. Auden
  11. Project: Poetry Models 
  12. Quiz 2: Modern Poetry
  13. Other Modern Age Literature: Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes
  14. Drama: Thornton Wilder
  15. Religious Works: J. Gresham Machen
  16. Quiz 3: Other Literature
  17. Test: The Modern Age
  18. Alternate Test: The Modern Age
  19. Reference

UNIT 5 – FROM MODERN TO POSTMODERN 1946-PRESENT

  1. The Birth of Postmodernism: Introduction
  2. Flannery O’Connor (1)
  3. Flannery O’Connor (2)
  4. Flannery O’Connor (3)
  5. Theodore Roethke
  6. Quiz 1: The Birth of Postmodernism
  7. More Contemporary Writers: Eudora Welty
  8. John Updike
  9. Robert Trail Spence Lowell, Jr.
  10. Quiz 2: More Contemporary Writers
  11. Social Issues: Martin Luther King, Jr.
  12. Essay: Dr. King’s Literary Allusions  
  13. Ralph Ellison
  14. Gwendolyn Brooks
  15. Project: Responding to Postmodernism 
  16. Quiz 3: Social Issues
  17. Test: From Modern to Postmodern
  18. Alternate Test: From Modern to Postmodern
  19. Reference