Download capitulo v silabo y guia de trabajo

CAPITULO V
SILABO Y GUIA DE TRABAJO
A continuación se presenta el documento titulado El Sílabo, que es una
reestructuación del programa de Literatura Norteamericana de la Universidad Francisco
Gavidia. Los cambios efectuados a dicho programa son los que a través de la investigación
fueron detectados como necesarios para el logro de los objetivos de la asignatura de
Literatura Norteamerican de la carrera de Licenciatura en Idioma Inglés.
Al mismo tiempo, se proporciona La Guía de Trabajo diseñada para ser
implementada en el desarrollo del curso de Literatura Norteamericana, la cual incluye
material bibliográfico representativo de diversos autores.
A.
S~LABOEN ESPAÑOL
UNIVERSIDAD FRANCISCO GAVlDlA
FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES
ESCUELA DE EDUCACION
PROGRAMA DE ESTUDIO
l. GENERALIDADES
ASIGNATURA
LITERATURA NORTEAMERICANA
CARRERA
LICENCIATURA EN IDIOMA INGLES
PRE-REQUISITO
LECTURA Y CONVERSACION EN
INGLES
II
Y
COMPOSlClON
INGLESA I
CREDITOS
4 U.V.
CICLO
li (VI DE LA LICENCIATURA)
N" DE ORDEN
24
CODIGO
LNAO
N" DE HORAS POR CICLO
80
N" DE HORAS TEORICAS
SEMANALES
4
DURACION DEL CICLO
20 SEMANAS
DURACION HORA- CLASE
50 MIN.
II. DESCRlPClON
En el curso de Literatura Norteamericana se hace un estudio de autores
reconocidos de las diversas épocas de los Estados Unidos de America. Se destaca cada
movimiento literario con respecto a la época en la que vivió cada autor y cómo repercutía en
su forma de expresión. Se examinan las épocas literarias con las biografias de autores
respectativas. Se estudian obras literarias junto con los géneros literarios correspondientes.
Se da un enfoque de los elementos culturales.
III. OBJETIVOS
A. GENERAL: Estudiar y comprender épocas literarias, biografias de autores y las
obras literarias más respresentativas de los Estados Unidos de America desde sus origenes
hasta el presente.
B. ESPECIFICOS:
1. Los estudiantes desarrollarán la habilidad de lectura comprensiva.
2. Los estudiantes desarrollarán las habilidades de análisis y sintesis.
3. Los estudiantes adquirirán conocimientos literarios y culturales norteamericanos
a través de las obras.
4. Los estudiantes desarrollarán sensibilidad para apreciar las obras de la literatura
de los Estados Unidos de America.
5. Los estudiantes reconocerán la influencia que tuvieron los hechos históricos de
cada época literaria norteamericana en la forma de expresión de cada autor por
medio de la lectura de diversas obras.
V. CONTENIDOS
UNIDAD 1: LITERATURA DE LA EPOCA COLONIAL Y REVOLUCIONARIA (1600-1787)
A. Autores: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Scott Key, Anne
Bradstreet, John Smith
B. Géneros: Narrativa y ensayo
C.Trabajos literarios: The Declaration of
Congress,"lnformation
lndependence as Adopted by
for Those Who Would Remove to America", "The Star
Spangled Banner ", "To My Dear
and Loving Husband
". "The General Historie of
Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles "
UNIDAD 2: LITERATURA DE LA EPOCA NACIONALISTA (1787-1836)
A. Autores: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Iwing, James
Fennirnore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
B. Géneros: Ensayo, cuento, novela, poesia
C. Trabajos 1iterarios:"Self-Reliance", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Fall of the
House of Usher", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ", "Rip Van Winkle", The Last of the
Mohicans, The Courtship of Miles Standish
UNIDAD 3: LITERATURA DE LA EPOCA DEL RENACIMIENTO (1837-1852)
A. Autores: Henry David Thoreau. Walt Whitman. Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe
B. Géneros: Narrativa, poesia y novela
C. Trabajos literarios: Walden, "Leaves of Grass", "Because I Could Not Stop for
Death", The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, Uncle Tom's Cabin
UNIDAD 4: LITERATURA DE LA EPOCA POST GUERRA CIVIL (1852-1922)
A. Autores: Mark Twain, Robert Frost, T.S. Elliot, Booker T. Washington, Jack London
B. Géneros: Ficción, poesía, autobiografia, y novela
C. Trabajos literarios: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, "Birches", "The Road Not
Taken", "The Hollow Men", "The Waste Land", Up from Slavery, Cal1 of the Wild
UNIDAD 5: LITERATURA DE LA EPOCA POST PRIMERA GUERRA MUNDIAL (1922-1940)
A. Autores: John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald
B. Géneros: Novela
C. Trabajos literarios: The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, A Farewell to Arms, The Great
Gatsby
UNIDAD 6 : LITERATURA DE LA EPOCA POST SEGUNDA GUERRA MUNDIAL (1940-1998)
A. Autores: Alice Walker, Arthur Miller, Robert Hayden
B. Géneros: Novela, obra teatral y poesía
C. Trabajos literarios: The Color Purple, Death of a Salesman, "Those Winter
Sundays"
VI. CRONOGRAMA
Unidad 1
:2 semanas
8 horas
Unidad 2
:5 semanas
20 horas
Unidad 3
:5semanas 20 horas
Unidad 4
:4 semanas
16 horas
Unidad 5
:2 semanas
8 horas
Unidad 6
:2 semanas
8 horas
VII. METODOLOGIA
El curso se desarrollara a través de los siguientes métodos: analítico y sintético. El
método analitico conlleva una presentación de la obra en su totalidad al igual que un estudio
minucioso de sus partes. Por otra parte, el método sintético se desarrolla en forma
progresiva, en donde se examinan las partes hasta llegar a su totalidad.
VIII. ACTIVIDADES
Para el desarrollo del curso, se implementarán las siguientes actividades: discusión
de grupo, ordenamiento cronológico de los hechos en una obra literaria, lectura comentada,
argumentación, interrogatorio, debate, investigación, tarea dirigida, exposición, exhibición de
películas y cine fórum.
IX. AYUDAS AUDIOVISUALES
El docente podrá utilizar los recursos que estén a su disposición. Se podrá usar la
grabadora, la video-casetera, proyección de transparencias, carteles, el internet, proyector,
La Guía de Trabajo, fotocopias, la biografía y otros.
X. EVALUACION
El ciclo está dividido en tres períodos; cada periodo tiene un número de evaluaciones
que corresponden al 60% y un parcial que conforma e1 40%. Después de cada unidad habra
una evaluación que corresponderá a1 60%. Al mismo tiempo habrán tres evaluaciones que
conllevan un reporte oral, un reporte escrito y un trabajo de investigación a los cuales se les
asignará el 40%.
XI. BlBLlOGRAFlA
1.UNIVERSIDAD FRANCISCO GAVlDlA
Bailey, Thomas A. The American Spirit. D.C. Heath and Company, U.S.A., 1968.
Bazerman, Charles. The lnformed Reader. Houghton Mifflin Company, U.S.A., 1989.
Brent, Harry and William Lutz. The Horizon Reader. St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York,
1992.
Colombo, Gary , Robert Cullen and Bonnie Lisle. ReadingAmerica. St. Martin's Press, Inc.,
New York, 1989.
Famous American Plays of the 1940's. Dell Publishing, New York, 1988.
Four Stories by Stephen Crane. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D. C., 1985.
Gatell, Frank Otto and Allen Weinstein. American Themes in Historiography. Oxford
University Press, New York, 1968.
James. Henry. The Turn of the Screw. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Madden-Simpson, Janet and Sara M. Blake. Emerging Voices. Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
Inc., U.S.A., 1990.
Neider, Charles. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. English Language Programs Division,
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency,
Washington D. C., 1985.
Norton Reader, the. W. W. Norton &Company, Inc., U.S.A., 1992.
O. Henv's American Scenes. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D. C., 1985
Poe, Edgar Allan. Six Tales of Fear. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs. Literature: An lntroduction to Reading and Writing.
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1986.
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing Themes About Literature. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey, 1991.
Selections From Washington Irving. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Shaw, Peter. The Autobiography and Other Writings by Benjamin Franklin. Bantam Books,
Inc., U.S.A., 1982.
Thoreau, Henry David.
Walden.
English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
To Build a Fire and Other Stories by Jack London. English Language Programs Division,
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency,
Washington D. C., 1985.
Twelve Tales by Nathaniel Hawihorne. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. English Language Programs Division, Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Wister, Owen. The Virginian. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs. United States lnformation Agency, Washington D. C., 1985.
2.CENTRO CULTURAL EL SALVADOR
Atkinson, Brooks. The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Random House, Inc.,
U.S.A, 1950.
Arthur Miller's Collected Plays. The Viking Press. New York. 1967.
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc., New York, 1962.
Cooper, James Fennimore. The Last ofthe Mohicans. Barnes and Noble. Inc., U.S.A., 1993.
Complete Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman, the. Garden City Books, New York, 1954.
Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the. Hanover House, Garden City, New
Jersey, 1959.
Concise Dictionary of American Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1980.
Cowley, Malcom. The Portable Hawthorne. The Viking Press, New York, 1967.
Dickinson, Emily. A Collection of Critica1 Essays. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey, 1963.
Edel, Leon.
The Complete Tales of Henry James from 1876 -1882. J. B. Lippincott
Company, Philadelphia, 1962.
Faber, Doris and Harold Faber. Great Lives American Literature. Atheneum Books for
Young Readers, U.S.A., 1995.
Hart, James D. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press,
New York, 1965.
I ~ i n gWashington.
,
The Sketch Book. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1954.
James, Henry. The American. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1907.
Johnson, Thomas H. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Little, Brown and Company,
Toronto, 1960.
Lathem, Edward Connery. The Poetry of Robert Frost Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.,
U.S.A., 1969.
Lauter, Paul. The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volumes One and Two. D. C.
Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1994.
Matthiessen, F. O. Oxford Book of American Verse. Oxford University Press, Inc., U.S.A.,
1967.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1962.
Messerole, Harrison T . American Literature Tradition and lnnovation Volumes One and Two.
D. C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1969.
Mumford, Lewis. Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays and Joumals. Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
Garden City, New Jersey, 1968.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Tales and Poems. Mladinska Knjiga, Yugoslavia, 1966.
Shaw, Sarnuel. Ernest Hemingway. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc., U.S.A, 1973.
Van Doren, Carl. Benjamin Franklin. The Viking Press, New York, 1957.
UNIVERSIDAD FRANCISCO GAVlDlA
FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES
ESCUELA DE EDUCACION
PROGRAM OF STUDY
l. GENERALITIES
COURSE
AMERICAN LITERATURE
MAJOR
LICENCIATURA EN IDIOMA INGLES
PRE-REQUISITE
ENGLISH
READING
AND
COMPREHENSION II AND ENGLISH
COMPOSITION 1
CREDITS
4 U. V.
SEMESTER
1I
ORDER No
24
CODE
LNAO
N" OF CLASS HOURS PER
SEMESTER
80
N" OF CLASS HOURS PER WEEK :
4
SEMESTER LENGTH
20 WEEKS
CLASS HOUR LENGTH
50 MINUTES
II. COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is oriented towards the study American literature through the exarnination
of literary time periods, well-recognized authors and their literary works. Each work is studied
according to the time period during which each author lived. Biographies are also studied in
order to discover the influence the author's life had on his or her work. Literary time periods
are exarnined along with the biographies of authors. The pieces of work that are studied
represent various types of genre. Through the course of study focus is given to cultural
elements.
III. GENERAL OBJECTIVE
Study and comprehend literary time periods, biographies of well-recognized authors,
and their rnost farnous literary works from the United States of America from their origins to
the present
IV. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1. The students will develop reading comprehension skills
2. The students will develop analysis and synthesis skills
3. The students will acquire literary knowledge and a knowledge of American culture
through the use of the material provided in the workbook.
4. The students will develop sensitivity to appreciate American literary works
5. The students will recognize the influence that American historical events had in the
way each author expresses himself.
V. COURSE CONTENT
UNlT 1: COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE (1600-1787)
A. Authors: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Scott Key, Anne
Bradstreet, John Smith
B. Genre: Non-fiction and essay
C. Literary Works: The Declaration of lndependence as Adopted by Congress,,
"lnformation for Those Who Would Remove to America", "The Star Spangled Banner",
"To My Dear and Loving Husband ", "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England,
and the Summer Isles"
UNlT 2: EARLY NATIONAL LITERATURE (1787-1836)
A. Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Iwing, James
Fennimore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
B. Genre: Essay, short story, novel and poetry
C. Literary Works: "Self-Reliance", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Fall of the House
of Usher", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "Rip Van Winkle", The Last of the
Mohicans, The Courtship of Miles Standish
UNlT 3: AMERICAN RENAISSANCE (1837-1852)
A. Authors: Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe
B. Genre: Non-fiction, poetry and novel
C. Literary Works: Walden, "Leaves of Grass", "Because I Could Not Stop for Death",
The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, Uncle Tom's Cabin
UNlT 4: POST-CIVIL WAR LITERATURE (1852-1922)
A. Authors: Mark Twain, Robert Frost, T.S. Elliot, Booker T. Washington, Jack London
B. Genre: Fiction, poetry, autobiography and novel
C. Literary Works: The Adventures of Tom Sawer, "Birches", "The Road Not Taken",
"The Hollow Men", "The Waste Land, Up from Slavery, Cal1 of the Wild
37
UNlT 5: POST WORLD WAR I LITERATURE (1922-1940)
A. Authors: John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald
B. Genre: Novel
C. Literary Works: The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, A Farewell to Arms, The Great
Gatsby
UNlT 6: LITERATURE SlNCE WORLD WAR 11 (1940-1998)
A. Authors: Alice Walker, Arthur Miller, Robert Hayden
B. Genre: Novel, play and poetry
C. Literary Works: The Color Purple, Deafh of a Salesman, "Those Winter Sundays"
VI. TIME LlNE
Unit 1
:2 weeks
8 hours
Unit 2
:5 weeks
20 hours
Unit 3
:5 weeks
20 hours
Unit 4
:4 weeks
16 hours
Unit 5
:2 weeks
8 hours
Unit 6
:2 weeks
8 hours
VII. METHODOLOGY
The course will be developed using the following methods: analytic and synthetic. The
analytic method consists of a presentation of an author's work in its totality and then a
meticulous study of its parts. On the other hand, the synthetic method, is developed in a
progressive form, where the parts are examined first in order to reach the whole.
VIII. ACTIVITIES
In order to teach the course, the following activities will be implemented: group
discussion, chronological order of events within a story, questions and answers, expression
of point of view, debate, research reports, oral reports, rnovies and specific assignments.
IX. AUDIOVISUAL AIDS
The professor may use the materials that are at his or her disposition, including tape
recorder, VCR, posters, the Internet, overhead prolector, slides, handouts, workbook, and
others.
X. EVALUATION
The semester is divided into three periods: each period has a certain number of
evaluations which corresponds to 60%, and an exam which corresponds to 40%. After each
unit there will be an exam worth 60%. There will also be three evaluations, an oral report, a
written report and a research paper, which will be worth 40%.
XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. UNIVERSIDAD FRANCISCO GAVlDlA
Bailey, Thomas A. The American Spirit D.C. Heath and Company, U.S.A., 1968.
Bazerman, Charles. The Informed Reader. Houghton Mifflin Company, U.S.A., 1989.
Brent, Harry and William Lutz. The Horizon Reader. St. Martin's Press, inc., New York,
1992.
Colombo, Gary , Roberi Cullen and Bonnie Lisle. Reading America. St. Martin's Press, Inc.,
New York, 1989.
Famous American Plays of the 1940's. Dell Publishing, New York, 1988.
Four Stories by Stephen Crane. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency. Washington D. C., 1985.
Gatell, Frank Otto and Allen Weinstein. American Themes in Historiography. Oxford
University Press, New York, 1968.
James. Henry. The Turn of the Screw. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Madden-Simpson, Janet and Sara M. Blake. Emerging Voices. Holt. Rinehart and Winston,
Inc., U.S.A., 1990.
Neider, Charles. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. English Language Programs Division,
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency,
Washington D. C., 1985.
Norton Reader, the. W. W Norton Kompany, Inc., U.S.A., 1992.
O. Henry's American Scenes. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency. Washington D. C., 1985.
Poe, Edgar Allan. S k Tales of Fear. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs. Literature: An lntroduction to Reading and Writing.
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1986.
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing Thernes About Literature. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey, 1991.
Selections From Washington Irving.
English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency. Washington D.
C., 1985.
Shaw, Peter. The Autobiography and Other Wntings by Benjamin Franklin. Bantam Books,
lnc., U.S.A., 1982.
Thoreau, Henry David.
Walden.
English Language Programs Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnforrnation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
To Build a Fire and Other Stories by Jack London. English Language Programs Division,
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency,
Washington D. C., 1985.
Twelve Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. English Language Prograrns Division, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. English Language Programs Division, Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D.
C., 1985.
Wister, Owen. The Virginian. English Language Programs Division, Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs, United States lnformation Agency, Washington D. C., 1985.
2. CENTRO CULTURAL EL SALVADOR
Atkinson, Brooks. The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Random House, Inc.,
U.S.A, 1950.
Arthur Miller's Collected Plays. The Viking Press, New York, 1967.
Clemens, Sarnuel Langhorne. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc., New York, 1962.
Cooper, James Fennimore. The Last of the Mohicans. Barnes and Noble, Inc., U.S.A., 1993.
Complete Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman, the. Garden City Books, New York, 1954.
Complete Shori Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the. Hanover House, Garden City, New
Jersey, 1959.
Concise Dictionary of American Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1980.
Cowley, Malcom. The Portable Hawthorne. The Viking Press. New York, 1967.
Dickinson. Emily. A Collection of Critica1 Essays. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey, 1963.
Edel, Leon. The Complete Tales of Henry James from 1876 -1882.
J. B. Lippincott
Company, Philadelphia, 1962.
Faber, Doris and Harold Faber. Great Lives American Literature. Atheneum Books for
Young Readers, U.S.A., 1995.
Hart, James D. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press,
New York, 1965.
Irving, Washington. The Sketch Book. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1954.
James, Henry. The American. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1907.
Johnson, Thomas H. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Little, Brown and Company,
Toronto, 1960.
Lathem, Edward Connery. The Poetv of Robert Frost. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.,
U.S.A., 1969.
Lauter, Paul. The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volumes One and Two. D. C.
Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1994.
Matthiessen, F. O. Oxford Book of American Verse. Oxford University Press, Inc.. U.S.A.,
1967.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1962.
Messerole, Harrison T. American Literature Tradition and lnnovation Volumes One and Two.
D. C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1969.
Mumford, Lewis. Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays and Joumals. Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
Garden City, New Jersey, 1968.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Tales and Poems. Mladinska Knjiga, Yugoslavia, 1966.
Shaw, Samuel. Ernest Hemingway. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc., U.S.A, 1973.
Van Doren, Carl. Benjamin Franklin. The Viking Press, New York, 1957.
C.
GUlA DE TRABAJO
A Workbook for the American Literature Course at the Universidad Francisco
Gavidia
Table of Contents
Page
. ....................................
lntroduction to the Workbook
44
Unit 1: Colonial and Revolutionary Literature (1600 - 1787)
lntroductio
44
Benjamin Franklin.................
47
"lnformation for those Who Would Rernove to America "...
.............................................................
Thomas Jefferson..........
The Declaration of independence as Adopted by Congress
50
53
56
Unit 2: Eariy National Literature (1787 - 1836)
Introduction......................................................................................
59
Ralph Waldo Emerson.....................................................................
65
from "Self-Reliance"......... .
.
................................................
68
Washington Irving...
69
. ........,..
71
Edgar Allan Poe.... .... ...... ... ... .......-...... .... ... ,.. ...... ..,................. ...,.,..
93
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
"The Cask of Amontillado"
96
"Annabel Lee" .....................
1O3
Unit 3: American Renaissance (1837 - 1852)
Introduction...... ............ ... ... ... .....
1O5
Henry David Thoreau
1O9
111
from Walde
Walt Whitman
. ..............................................
120
122
from Leaves of Gras
124
Emily Dickinso
"Because 1 Could Not Stop for Death".................................
125
"The Day Carne Slow 'Till Five O'clock" ..............................
127
Nathaniel Hawthorne......................................................................
128
128
from Jhe Scarlet Letter........
Unit 4: Post-Civil War Literature (1852 - 1922)
Introduction........... .... ...... ... ...... ... .... .......... ... ... ...... ..... ....... ,.. ,,.,,... ...
42
137
Mark Twain..................................................................................
from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer............... .
.
............
Robert Frost................
"The Road Not Taken".......................................................
"Birches"............................................................................
"Tree a! My Window".........................................................
T. S. Eliot...............
"The Hollow Men"............................................................
Unit 5: Post World War I Literature (1922 - 1940)
Introduction........................
John Steinbeck............ .
..............................................................
from Jhe Pea
....................
Ernest Hemingway........................................................................
from A Farewell to Arrn
Unit 6: Literature Since World War 11 (1940 - 1998)
frorn The Color P u d e.........................................................
lntroduction to the Workbook
The following workbook has been designed to be utilized during the American
Literature course at the Universidad Francisco Gavidia. It is a tool to be used as a guide by
both students and teachers. The workbook contains the following elements: an introduction
to each literary period, biographies of American authors, literary works of those authors,
classroom assignments and homework assignments. This workbook has been developed in
order to enhance the teaching-learning process throughout the course of study.
Unit 1: Colonial and Revolutionary Literature (1600 - 1787)
lntroduction
During colonial times, Americans were mainly busy cawing out a new land and
establishing a new government, but they still produced come important pieces of literature.
The literature of the Colonial Period (1600 - 1760) dealt primarily with historical, religious, and
political issues.
In the seventeenth century a voluminous literature came from the New England
colonists who first settled a rocky, sandy coastline that reaches into the Atlantic like a
grappling hook. These Pilgrirn and Puritan Colonists aspired to be a "citty upon a hill," as the
Massachusetts Puritan governor John Winthrop put ¡t. Ideal city notwithstanding, they coped
at first with prirnitive conditions. In the 1600's they "forsook a fruitful land, stately buildings,
goodly gardens, orchards, dear friends, and near relations" to seek God's way in the "desert
wilderness" of the New World. In doing so, they also withdrew from the bitter religious
controversy that threatened their livelihoods and their sense of spiritual and psychological
well-being in England. In effect, King Jarnes I had carried out his threat against these
religious dissenters: "1 shall make them conform or I shall hurry them out of the land."
The writings of the early explorers are multinational, but the literature of colonial
America, north and south, is principally English, much of it rnotivated by religious comrnitment
and the need to justify the radical act of uprooting households, voyaging over three thousand
miles of heaving ocean, and starting life anew on a crudely mapped continent whose very
existente had been verified only a century earlier. Much of the literature of the English
families of such figures as William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Anne Bradstreet. Their lives
were entwined in the tumultuous religious Reformation begun by Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)
and spurred by the teachings of the French theologian John Calvin (1509 - 1564).
Diaries, journals, and histories give great insight into the times, and they were read
with great interest by men in England and others around the world who were curious about
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this new land. Captain John Smith wrote about his adventures with the Indians and his
explorations in the colonies. His True Relation of Virginia written in 1608 could be considered
the first book in American literature. Most of the writers of colonial times were staunch
Puritans who were vitally concerned with spiritual matters, and they contributed many
devotional poems, sermons. spiritual histories, tracts, and pamphlets. The first book printed
in America was the Bay Psalm Book of 1640, which contained metrical translations of the
Psalms to be sung in public and private worship. It was compiled by Puritan Ministers.
The subject of apocalypse recurs repeatedly in the literature of New England. The
ideal of the peaceable kingdom of the millennium set a very high standard for the city on the
hill. The new Jerusalem in America would have to be objectified in colonial life just as it was
proclaimed in literature. Colonization itself, from felling trees to writing poems, was set
preparation for the Christian millennium. Though the definition may have varied over the
years, that may have been the first and deepest "American dream." That dream absorbed
the daily energy of settlement, whose activities, terminology, and values also found their way
into literature. What were those activities? How did these people live? As middle-class
husbandmen and tradesmen, they brought English conventions to America, including belief
in the great value of a permanent house and enclosed lands that kept the chaos of the
dreaded wilderness out. During the first few years of New England settlernent, scouting
parties of leading men surveyed the inland areas for good soil, arnple fresh water,
tirnberlands, and natural meadows vital for feeding livestock. Returning to the coast, they got
permission from the General Court (the legislature) to settle the area of their choice, then in
good weather lead their families associates, and animals to it..Setting out in spring, they had
almost eight months to settle before winter closed in.
The Declaration of lndependence proclaimed the political freedom of the American
colonies and launched their self-conscious quest for a national identity. Arnericans quickly
found themselves grappling with many momentous issues, not the least of thern being, "What
is an American?'Along with that overarching question carne several other related issues that
were debated for the next century: Did America possess a unique, distinctive culture? Was
there such a thing as an American language? Did an authentic American literature exist?
That such issues were debated is not at al1 surprising given the colonies' newly won
independence from England, but what is surprising is that they continued to be public
concerns for many decades afker the new nation had been founded.
The founding of the American republic hardly seemed auspicious in literary terms.
Most literary historians have tended to dismiss the Revolutionary period "as a sort of blank
space between the Revohtion and the mature work of lwing and Cooper." Others judged the
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writers of the new republic "blind sailors navigating the Dead Sea of Federalist Pessimism."
Yet important literary accomplishments do mark the Revolutionary period. American writers
expressed the essential feature of a distinctive national literature during these years. For the
first time, they consciously, though anxiously, asserted their autonomy, sought workable
alternatives to servile imitation of English neoclassical models, and abandoned the traditional
literary expressions of Enlightenment social consciousness in favor of greater individuality in
more spontaneous forms commensurate with the powerful presence of the American
landscape.
American writers during this period articulated the literary values that would define
much of subsequent American literary history -indigenous values that would define their fullest
expression in the years after. Revolutionary literature constitutes the United States of
America's first comprehensive attempt to establish an independent literary identity.
Controversy, anxiety, falce starts, numerous obstacles, and impressive accomplishments
characterize this quest.
Activities
Classroom Assianment:
Answer the following questions and discuss them in groups of three.
1. Why were the Pilgrims willing to travel thousands of miles across a vast ocean in order to
reach the New World?
2. What do you think life was like for the Pilgrims? Do you think it was easy for them? Why
or why not?
3. Why did Americans have trouble identifying their own reality after the Revolutionary War?
4. What momentous issues were American writers faced with during this time period?
5. Imagine what it must have been like living during this time period compared to the way
Americans live today. Make a list of things Americans have today that they did not have in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to compare and contrast the way of life.
Homework Assianment:
Find out the causes of the Revolutionary War and be prepared to discuss the causes during
the next lesson.
Read the poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet. Be prepared to
discuss the poem during the next lesson.