American Literature gives students the opportunity to learn about and appreciate the origins of the United States and to come to recognize how closely American literature is tied to the land and its history – two things which American value deeply.

Students will demonstrate awareness of the development of American literature as reflected in the works of

• Native Americans
• Puritan settlers
• The American Revolution and the age of reason
• American Romantics and Transcendentalists
• The Civil War and post-war reconstruction
• American short story writers

Works read may include “Common Sense”, “The Declaration of Independence”, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”; various short stories by the likes of Poe, Irving, Hawthorne, Twain, Chopin, Cather, Hemingway, Malamud, Faulkner, Steinbeck, O’Connor, etc.; The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, etc.

Selected works of American poets such as Native Americans, Bradstreet, Taylor, Longfellow, Whitman, Dickinson, etc. will also be read.

Students will broaden their academic vocabulary and develop their essay writing, public-speaking, and group-working skills.