ENGLISH 2230 -- AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1865

• 1492-1620 -- Literature of Exploration, Discovery, and Encounter
• 1620-1720 -- The Colonial Period / Puritanism
• 1720-1820 -- The Enlightenment Period / The Age of Reason and Revolution / Deism
• 1820-1865 -- The Romantic Period / Transcendentalism / Pantheism

ENGLISH 2235 -- AMERICAN LITERATURE SINCE 1865

• 1865-1914 -- Realism and Naturalism / Regionalism and Local Color
• 1914-1945 -- Modernism
• 1945-Present -- Post-Modernism

ENGLISH 2235 -- MAJOR COURSE TOPICS

1.) Social and Intellectual History - vs. - the Close Reading of Texts

2.) The Older Modes of Critical and Historical Analysis - vs. - Those Currently in Fashion

3.) The Traditional Canon - vs. - an Emerging Alternative Canon

• The Traditional Canon (dead, white, European, males) vs. Newer, More “Diverse” Writers
   
• Race -- White, Black, Native, Asian, Hispanic, etc.
• Ethnicity -- Jewish, Chinese, Latino/a, Chicano/a, etc.
• Class -- High, Middle, Low
• Gender -- Male, Female, Transgender
• Sexuality -- Heterosexual, Homosexual, Bisexual, etc.

4.) Interconnections Between Literature and History (examples):

• The Civil War and Slavery
• Continuation of Racism -- the Civil Rights Movement
• Expansion toward the West -- the Closing of the Frontier
• Women’s Rights
• Increasing Industrialization and Technological Advances
• World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf
• The Great Depression
• Native American Rights and Treaties

5.) Common “Conflicts” In Literature:

• Individual vs. Self
• Individual vs. Another Person
• Individual vs. Society or Community
• Individual vs. Nature
• Individual vs. Fate or Destiny or Chance
• Individual vs. the Supernatural

6.) What Is “Literature”? Common Genres vs. “Uncommon” Genres:

• Fiction -- short stories and novels
• Poetry
• Drama
   
• Autobiographies, Memoirs
• Journals, Diaries
• Historical Records
• Political Papers
• Journalism
• Essays
• Letters
• Speeches
• Sermons
• Travel Narratives, Exploration Reports
   
• Native American Oral Literature -- “Orature” (Oral Literature; Oral Culture)
• Songs and Chants
• Speeches
• Stories -- Creation Narratives, Trickster Tales, etc.
• Ceremonies and Rituals
• Names and Jokes
• Visual -- Shells/Beads on Clothing; Painted Hides, Tepees, Shields

7.)  How Is Reading All of This “Old Stuff” Useful or Important to Us Today?

“DIVERSITY” IN THE SHORTER 7th EDITION OF THE N.A.A.L.

1865-1914:

• Native Americans: Sarah Winnemucca, Zitkala Sa
• African Americans: Booker T. Washington, Charles W. Chesnutt, Pauline Hopkins, W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Eurasian-Chinese: Sui Sin Far
• Russian-Jewish: Abraham Cahan

1914-1945:

• Native Americans:
• African Americans: Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Richard Wright
• Polish-Jewish:
• Portuguese-American:
• Filipino-American: Carlos Bulosan

1945-Present:

• Native Americans: N. Scott Momaday, Simon J. Ortiz, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie
• African Americans: Robert Hayden, Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Lucille Clifton, Michael S. Harper, Alice Walker, Yusef Komunyakaa, Rita Dove
• Asian Americans: Maxine Hong Kingston, Cathy Song, Li-Young Lee
• Latino Americans: Gloria Anzaldua, Julia Alvarez, Cofer, Alberto Rios, Sandra Cisneros
• Indo-Euro-Americans: Jhumpa Lahiri

Any Questions?