Syllabus for American Literature 4A

Fall 2015
Dates Readings
9/15, 16 Orientation; Anne Bradstreet, p. 110; To My Dear
and Loving Husband, p. 120; Before the Birth of
One of Her Children, p. 120; The Prologue, p.
9/22, 23 111; The Author to Her Book, p. 119
Introduction to Beginnings to 1700, p. 3;
9/29, 30 Introduction to American Literature 1700-1820,
p. 157
10/6, 7 Introduction; Benjamin Franklin, p. 234; The Way
to Wealth, p. 236
10/13, 14 Franklin, The Autobiography, pp. 263-64, 284, 293-
97, 300-06; Crvecoeur, p. 308; What Is an
10/20, 21 American, p. 309
10/27, 28 Crvecoeur; Introduction to American Literature
11/3, 4 1820-1865, p. 445
11/10, 11 Introduction
11/16-20 Washington Irving, p. 467; Rip Van Winkle, p. 470
11/24, 25 Ralph Waldo Emerson, p. 505; American Scholar, p.
536
12/1, 2 Emerson, Each and All, p. 581; Nature, p. 508
12/8, 9 Midterm Week
12/15, 16 Henry David Thoreau, p. 839; Where I Lived, and
What I Lived For, p. 901
12/22, 23 Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government, p. 843
Nathaniel Hawthorne, p. 603; The Birth-Mark, p.
645
12/29, 30 Hawthorne; Edgar Allen Poe, p. 683; The Fall of the
House of Usher, p. 702
1/5, 6 Poe; Walt Whitman, p. 1005; Ones Self I Sing, p.
1/9-14 1024; Shut Not Your Doors, p. 1024; Whoever
You Are Holding Me Now in Hand; Out of the
Cradle Endlessly Rocking, p.1074
Whitman, Song of Myself (1881), (Secs. 1-3, 5-7,
11, 15, 21, 24, 33, 47, 51-52)
Whitman, Song of Myself
Final Exam Week

Requirements: Regular attendance 10% (2 points deducted for

each absence)
Midterm: 45%
Final: 45%
Textbook: The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter 8th
ed. (2013)
References:
I. Handbooks, Dictionaries, & Companions:
Abrams, M. H. & Geoffrey Harpham, eds. A Glossary of Literary
Terms, 11th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2015.
Cuddon, J. A., ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and
Literary Theory, 4th ed. Revised by C. E. Preston. London:
Penguin, 2000.
Holman, C. Hugh, & William Harmon, eds. A Handbook to
Literature, 11th ed. Prentice Hall, 2008.
Murfin, Ross, & Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical
and Literary Terms, 3rd ed. Boston & N.Y.: Bedford/St. Martins,
2009.
Hawthorn, Jeremy. A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory,
4th ed. London: Arnold, 2000.
Lentricchia, Frank, & Thomas McLaughlin, eds. Critical Terms for
Literary Study, 2nd ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995.
Quinn, Edward, ed. A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms.
N.Y.: Facts on File, 1999.
Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion to English
th
Literature, 6 rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.
Hart, James D., & Philip Leininger, eds. The Oxford Companion to
American Literature, 6th rev. ed. N.Y.: Oxford UP, 1995.

II. Literary History:

Elliott, Emory, ed. Columbia Literary History of the United States.
N.Y.: Columbia UP, 1988.
Ruland, Richard, & Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to
Postmodernism: A History of American Literature. N.Y.:
Penguin, 1991.
Gray, Richard. A History of American Literature. Malden, MA:
Blackwell, 2004.
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American
Literature. 8 volumes. N.Y.: Cambridge UP, 1994-2004.
Marcus, Greil, & Werner Sollors, eds. A New Literary History of
America. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard UP,
2009.