Description
A survey of American literature from the period of exploration and settlement through the Civil War. Students will study works of prose, poetry, drama, and fiction in relation to their historical and cultural contexts. Texts will be selected from among a diverse group of authors for what they reflect and reveal about the evolving American experience and character.
Upon successful completion, students will be able to: identify key ideas, representative authors and works, significant historical or cultural events, and characteristic perspectives or attitudes expressed in the literature of different periods or regions; analyze literary works as expressions of individual or communal values within the social, political, cultural, or religious contexts of different literary periods; demonstrate knowledge of the development of characteristic forms or styles of expression during different historical periods or in different regions; articulate the aesthetic principles that guide the scope a