Download Reading List for 2005-06

Reading List and Writing Assignments for American Literature
(Sommers 2005-06)
Pre-Puritan:
 Excerpts from People’s History of the United States and Rethinking Columbus
Puritanism: Beginnings -1760
 Introduction, pages 2-5
 Plain and Ornate Style, pages 32-33
 Anne Bradstreet, “Upon the Burning of Our House” pages 34-37
 Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” pages 54-59
 Arthur Miller, The Crucible and related essays (book)
 Olaudah Equiano, “Interesting Narrative…”
 Writing a personal narrative (POV, theme, tone) page 63
Classicism: 1760-1800
 Introduction, pages 66-73
 Did You Know… Revolutionary War Trivia
 Ben Franklin, “The Autobiography,” “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” “A Printer’s Epitaph” pages 74-88
 Writing aphorisms, epitaphs
 Thomas Paine, “The Crisis, Number 1” pages 95-96
 Michele de Crevecouer, “Letter From an American Farmer” pages 106-107
 Short essay: What is an American?
 Phyllis Wheatley, “To His Excellency General Washington,” pages 109-110; “On Coming From
Africa” (handout)
First Harvest: New Republic 1800-1840
 Introduction, pages 116-125 (What is Classicism? What is Romanticism?)
 Washington Irving, “The Devil and Tom Walker” pages 126-128; “Rip van Winkle” (handout)
 William Cullen Bryant, “To a Water Fowl” and “Thanatopsis” pages 150-157
 E. A. Poe, “Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Raven,” “Poe and the Surrealists” page 158-196
 Literary Analysis of Poe poem or short story, page197
The Flowering of New England: 1840-1860
 Introduction, pages 200-211
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, “from Nature” (214), “from Self-Reliance” (215), “The Rhodora” (225),
“Brahma” (226), “Concord Hymn” (227)
 Henry David Thoreau, “From Walden” pages 230-232
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” pages 249-255, “The Minister’ s Black Veil” pages
247-256
 Herman Melville, excerpts from Moby Dick (handouts); “Shiloh: A Requiem,” “Maldive Shark” pages
294-295
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life” (297), “Nature” (298), “The Arrow & the Song,”
(298), “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” (302)
 Emily Dickinson, “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” (323), “Faith Is a Fine Invention” (324), “Success
Is Counted Sweetest” (325), “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” (326), “There’s a Certain Slant of
Light” (328), “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” (329)
 Writing a personal essay, page 335)
A House Divided Against Itself: 1860-1890
 Introduction, 338-348
 Frederick Douglass, excerpts from My Bondage, My Freedom pages 363-365
 Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address,” pages 366-367
 Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” (351), “I Hear America Singing” (354), “When Lilacs Last in
Dooryard Bloom’d” (handout)
 Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” page 422-429
 Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (in class edition)
Realism and Naturalism: 1980-1914
 Introduction, pages 436-449
 Paul Lawrence Dunbar, “Douglass” “Life’s Tragedy” pages 506-508
 Stephen Crane, “Open Boat,” pages 450-467
 Willa Cather, “The Sculptor’s Funeral,” pages 470-481
 Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Richard Cory” (497), “Miniver Cheevy” (497)
 Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” “A Pair of Silk Stockings” (handouts)
Literature of the Immigrant Experience:
 Introduction, pages 516-519
 Mary Antin, “The Promised Land,” pages 526-532
 Upton Sinclair, excerpts from The Jungle, pages 533-539
 Hamilton Holt, Lives of Undistinguished Americans, excerpts handed out
 Interview and Narrate an Immigrant’s Story (Project)
Modern Fiction:
 Introduction, pages 564-579
 William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily,” pages 624-633
 Ernest Hemingway, “In Another Country” pages 645-653; excerpts from In Our Time
 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (novel)
 Term Paper: TBD
Modern Poetry:
 Introduction, pages 738-739
 Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” (741), “Fire and Ice” (742), “Stopping By Woods On a Snowy
Evening” (742), “Out, Out--”
 Claude McKay, “The Tropics of New York” (798)
 Langston Hughes, “Dream Deferred,” “Dream Variations” “A Negro Speaks of Rivers” (handouts)
 Film: Bamboozled (history of blackface in America)
Postmodernism: 1950-present
 Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (handout)
 Sylvia Plath, “Daddy” (handout), “Lady Lazarus” (handout)
 Allen Ginsberg, excerpts from Howl
 Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried” (handout)
 Write a “beatnik” poem