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Survey of American Literature:
ENGL 204 (Departmental Syllabus)
Course purpose and
objectives:
Survey of American Literature, ENGL 204, is designed to familiarize
students with the rich variety of literature produced in
America--from the Colonial through the Modern periods. Students
will be exposed to a range of writers and traditions that constitute
the diverse and multicultural American experience, through
discussion and through critical thinking and writing about
significant literary works. In addition to tests and quizzes,
students will be required to write and revise at least two formal,
critical essays or equivalent writing (1,000-word computer drafted
minimum); however, instructors are encouraged to assign significant
amounts of writing beyond the required minimum in order to
facilitate students’ continued acquisition of critical thinking,
reading, and writing skills.
Essential skills
and/or outcomes to be acquired through the course include:
1) an ability to
render close textual analysis;
2) an ability to
synthesize information from multiple texts;
3) an ability to
render clear, cogent ideas;
4) an ability to
structure well-developed essays, with thesis, textual support, and
analysis;
5) an ability to
correctly employ standard written English usage;
6) an
understanding of and respect for ethnic/cultural diversity;
7) an aesthetic
and critical judgment for literature;
8) a concept of
chronology associated with literary periods;
9) an
understanding of the inter-relationship of the arts, history, and
philosophy through the study of literature.
Required texts and
materials:
A Writer's
Reference, Diana Hacker, St Martins Press;
Norton
Anthology of American Literature
or department approved text.
The University
Writing Center:
To
receive individual instruction and feedback on writing in progress,
students should be encouraged to visit
The
Academic Support
Center in Knutti 106.
Visits are by appointment or through ShepOwl at
http://www.shepherd.edu/scwcweb/tutorform.htm.
Appalachian
Heritage Writer-in-Residence Project:
Instructors are encouraged to utilize works by the
Writer-in-Residence in their course and incorporate at least one of
the residency events each fall into their curriculum, as this
important program presents an extraordinary opportunity for General
Studies students at Shepherd to come in contact with a regional
writer of note. For information and lesson plans, see residency
webpage at
http://www.shepherd.edu/ahwirweb/.
Course content:
Below is a list of authors and works which should be covered in the
course. Where no specific works are listed, it is assumed that
students will read representative works from the author’s canon.
The course is not limited to the authors and works listed; where
appropriate, works by women and minority/ethnic writers should be
included in the list of supplemental or alternative works. Whenever
possible, the instructor will teach whole works rather than
excerpts; the instructor will teach one nineteenth-century or one
twentieth-century American novel in its entirety.
Native American
Selections
Bradstreet: selected poems
Edwards or
Taylor: selections
Franklin:
selections
Poe:
“Philosophy or Composition” or “Poetic Principle,” selected poems,
and selected tales
Hawthorne or
Melville: selected fiction
Emerson:
“Self-Reliance” or “Nature”
Thoreau:
Walden
Slave
Narrative: Douglass, Jacobs, H. Taylor, or other
Whitman:
“Song of Myself”
Dickinson:
selected poems
James or Twain
Representative
Writer from the Local Color Movement: Chopin, Jewett, or Freeman
Representative
Writer from the Naturalistic School: Crane, Hemingway,
Steinbeck, Wright, or other
American Drama:
Williams, O’Neill, Miller, Wasserstein, Hansberry, or any
contemporary playwright
Faulkner or
O'Connor: selections
T. S. Eliot:
selected poetry
Modernist
Writer: Frost, Stevens, Williams, H. D., Pound, Moore, Langston
Hughes, or other
Post-1945
Writer:
Plath, Rich, Brooks, Bishop, Lowell, Ashberry, Barth, Pynchon,
Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Erdrich, Morrison, Oates, or other
Revision Approved
04-02-08 |
