Annotation
LECTURE:
Colonial Period and the Revolution (Procházka, 8 weeks)
The course traces general tendencies in the process of establishing American literature. It combines historical and literary approaches with the main focus on the Puritan tradition and the literary achievements of the Revolution, and their most important representatives. The course also provides the students with elementary information about the political and historical aspects of American culture of 17th and 18th century.
SEMINAR
OBJECTIVES
To acquaint ourselves with foundational texts in pre-1865 American literary history. Texts will include the poetry of Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson; extracts from the political-philosophical writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau; and finally, the fiction of Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.
MATERIAL
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol. 1.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Scarlet Letter.
ASSESSMENT
Active class participation, one oral presentation, one paper (6-7 pages).