Description
This course surveys the development of the major themes and genres of American literature from European colonization through the early national period and the rise of imaginative literature in what is now the United States through the end of the Civil War. Students will develop skills in analyzing literary texts composed in a variety of literary genres, consider cultural forces shaping the development of American literature, and literature’s role in constructing American identity. By the end of the semester, students will be able to describe and analyze key literary and cultural features of texts from a variety of historical periods.