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ENGL 190O - American EncountersSemester Hours: 3
Literature does not merely record the world; it creates it. This course
will trace the ways in which early American writers, in asking very new
questions about their society and themselves, shaped our world. We will
watch Americans struggle with guilt, fear, and extravagant hope as they
attempt to turn strange experiences into familiar stories. Among the
problems we will consider are how John Smith’s fanciful love story
about an Indian princess helped to inspire English doubters; how
Frederick Douglas used heroic white and Christian stories to challenge
white Christians; and how Edgar Allan Poe used unsettling tales to
protest nineteenth-century success stories. We will also consider how
lesser-known writers including Mary Rowlandson, Phillis Wheatley,
Hannah Foster, and Royall Tyler – shaped and challenged American
stories, and we will view two films, Terrence Malick’s “The New World”
and Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York.” Written requirements include
two six-page papers and a final exam.
January 2007 Offering:
10336: M-Th 6:10-9:20 p.m.; Fichtelberg; 135 Gallon Wing
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