ISI - ENGL 277 - American Literature I

Course Description

American Literature I  surveys representative works of American poetry, fiction, and nonfiction (personal journals, sermons, autobiographies, memoirs, and essays) written during the period of about 1600 to 1870. These works are grouped into nine categories on the basis of chronology, authorship, and literary technique and theme. Each of these nine groups of works forms an assignment or an exam.

Learner Outcomes

Students are asked to study each work in light of:

• It’s intrinsic literary features
• It’s contribution to American literary history
• It’s reflection of outstanding “ideas” from the time
• It’s concern with particular human experiences that may be viewed as universal to humankind.

The course aims at balancing the acquisition of knowledge about American literature and American cultural history with practice of the basic skills of literary analysis and criticism.

By successfully completing this course you should gain:

• Knowledge of significant developments in American literary history, as well as how these developments relate to important cultural, social, economic, and political events of the period.
• Ability to read exemplary works of American literature with insight, understanding, empathy, and aesthetic appreciation.
• Ability to apply personal, historical, and critical perspectives to the understanding of individual literary works.
• Ability to identify a variety of literary genres ands sub-genres, recognize their structural elements, and understand how these all contribute to literary meaning.
• Critical perspective on the “myths” of American culture and how these function in the human situations depicted in American literature.
• Sufficient control over the thinking processes of comprehension, interpretation, analysis, application, synthesis, and evaluation to write clear and convincing responses to a variety of critical questions, which address outcomes 1-5 above.

Required Course Materials

Anthology of American Literature, Volume I. 10th ed. McMichael, George; Leonard, James S.; Fishkin, Shelley Fisher; Bradley, David; Nelson, Dana D.; Csicsila, Joseph Longman, 2010. ISBN 10-0205779395. ISBN 13-9780205779390. (Copyright 2011)

Cooper, James Fennimore. The Last of the Mohicans (a library copy or paper edition).*

Melville, Herman. Typee (a library copy or paper edition).*

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin (a library copy or paper edition).*

*You are welcome to find an audiobook recording to listen to, however the exams are open-book, so a physical copy will benefit you in quoting or referencing direct excerpts.

View Course Syllabus

Sponsor Institution

Credits earned for this course are included in a LC State transcript.

This is an INDEPENDENT STUDY IN IDAHO course

To learn about program and refund policies, visit www.uidaho.edu/isi.

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