Information Package
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Program of American Culture and Literature (English)

ACL223

SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE 1

Course Code
ACL223
Semester
Third Term (Fall)
Theory+Practice
3 + 0
ECTS
6
Course TypeCompulsory Course
Course LevelBachelor's Degree
Year of Study2
SemesterThird Term (Fall)
ECTS6
Name of Lecturer(s)
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

  1. Recognize the major periods and movements in American literature from the colonial times until the American Civil War.
  2. Illustrate the characteristics of the literary movements by providing examples from American literature from the colonial times until the American Civil War.
  3. Connect the major works of American literature from the colonial times until the American Civil War to global and contemporary issues including discussions on race, gender, politics, and human rights.
Mode of Delivery
PrerequisitesNo
Recommended Optional Programme Components
Course DescriptionThis course offers a historical survey of American literature through a selection of texts from the colonial times to the end of the American Civil War. The students will learn the major periods, schools of thought, and aesthetic principles that have contributed to the development of American literature.
Course Contents
WEEK TOPICS
1st Week Introduction to the Course & Overview of the Syllabus. Lecture on First Colonial Settlements and Pre-Colonial America & Puritan Society and Literary Tendencies
2nd Week First Encounters & Introduction to Native American Literatures and Oratures: The Iroquois Creation Story, "Powhatan?s Speech of Peace and War" Thomas Harriot "A Brief and True Report of the Newfoundland of Virginia" John Heckwelder "From History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations"
3rd Week Literature of the Colonial Period: Puritan Literature William Bradford (1590-1657) from Of Plymouth Plantation (started 1630) Book I Chapter IV & Chapter IX. John Smith (1580-1631) excerpts from The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624), John Smith "A Description of New England" (1616)
4th Week Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) "The Prologue [To Her Book]" (1650), Edward Taylor (1642-1729) from Preparatory Meditations: "Prologue" (c. 1682) "Huswifery"
5th Week The Eighteenth Century Age of Enlightenment in America: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) from The Autobiography (1771-1790): Part Two "Continuation of the Account of My Life, Begun at Passy, 1784"
6th Week Thomas Paine (1737-1809) from Common Sense: "Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs" (1776)
7th Week J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813) "What Is an American" (1782), Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741)
8th Week Midterm Examination (Date will be announced!)
9th Week The Nineteenth Century to 1865, American Romanticism and Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) "The American Scholar" (1837) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selections from Nature (1836)
10th Week Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Selections from Walden (1854) "Chapter 2: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Henry David Thoreau "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849)
11th Week The Nineteenth Century to 1865: American Romanticism and the Search for a National Literature: Washington Irving "Rip Van Winkle" Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) "Young Goodman Brown"
12th Week Instructor on Leave, No Class, Make-Up Date TBA
13th Week MAKE UP TOPIC (Week 12) American Gothic Fiction Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) "The Raven" (1845), "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846)
14th Week The Nineteenth Century to 1865: Race and Gender Issues in America in the 19th Century: Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" (1852) Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) "Speech to the Women?s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio" (1851) William Apess (1798-1839) "An Indian?s Looking-Glass for the White Man" (1833) Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) "Declaration of Sentiments" (1898)
15th Week The Nineteenth Century: The Later Romantic Poets Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Poems 256 [285] The Robin?s my Criterion for Tune?; ?409 [303] The Soul selects her own Society?" Walt Whitman ?I Hear America Singing?
Recommended or Required ReadingBaym, Nina, et al., editors. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th edition, Volumes A and B, New York, Norton, 2012.
Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature, London, Routledge, 1991.
American Passages: A Literary Survey
The Heath Anthology of American Literature Online Study Center.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature StudySpace.
Handouts in Moodle
Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods
  • Lecture
  • Discussion
Assessment Methods and Criteria
Quantity Percentage (%)
Mid-term 1 40
Quiz 4 20
Total(%) 50
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%) 50
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%) 50
Total(%) 100
ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload
Activities Quantity Duration (Hour) Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam 1 2 2
Preparation for Quiz 2 4 8
Individual or group work 14 4 56
Preparation for Final exam 1 20 20
Course hours 14 3 42
Preparation for Midterm exam 1 20 20
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam 1 2 2
Homework 2 8 16
Quiz 2 2 4
Article Presentation 1 8 8
Total Work Load178
Total Work Load / 30 (h)5.93
ECTS Credit of the Course6
Language of InstructionEnglish
Work Placement(s)No

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

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