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Housekeeping:
Agenda:
Thomas Cole "Catskill Mountain: The Four Elements"
Welcome to American Literature Beginnings - 1865
Welcome to American Literature I! This semester we are going to be studying American encounters. The history of the New World is one of international encounters that much of the world watched with wonder. It could be argued that human history is a record of encounters, clashes, and hostile takeovers. However, with the "New World," these encounters generated international interest that seems to set them apart from other international cultural collisions.
Encounters, Not Discoveries
How many of you have heard of the "discovery" of the New World by people like Christopher Colombus? Discover implies the idea that something is unknown or lost. The Americas were a landmass unknown to Europeans, but they were never lost or unknown to the cultures that inhabited them.
The tension between "encounter" and "discovery" was one that was being worked out in American literature, which we will be studying.
American Melting Pot
The term "American Melting Pot" came to us in 1908, but the idea of America as a geographic, political, and social space where different people groups merged has been around since the 1490s. The mixing and merging of people global people groups has been one of Americas defining characteristics; it separated the Old World from the New.
In this course we will be studying the myriad discourses that arose from the American collision of cultures. Whether the texts and authors in this class are new or familiar, I hope that as a class we'll be able to consider these texts in a new light and discover the ways that encounters with different cultures shaped this nation.
Pathway to Discovery: The Syllabus
Finding Early American Literature Online
Early American Literature is often stereotyped as inaccessible, but there are myriad online resources freely available! Let's explore some together and start this semester thinking about ways to make American Lit meaningful for readers today!
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