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Catalog Description Prerequisite: Eligibility for ENGL C1000 Hours: 54 lecture Description: Survey of major authors, themes and genres of American literature from its beginnings through the Civil War. Students may begin with either 30A or 30B. (C-ID ENGL 130) (CSU, UC) Course Student Learning Outcomes CSLO #1: Compare, interpret, and evaluate the major and some of the minor works of American literature through the Civil War. CSLO #2: Analyze, synthesize, and generalize about themes and genres of early American literature across periods and works by various authors. CSLO #3: Correlate the relationship between paradigm shifts, such as the Age of Enlightenment and/or Romanticism, and the historical and cultural events which surround them. CSLO #4: Analyze the relationship between the ideals of democracy, the evolution of American literary identity, and the influence of European thought and cultural production on the emerging American literary corpus. Effective Term Fall 2025 Course Type Credit - Degree-applicable Contact Hours 54 Outside of Class Hours 108 Total Student Learning Hours 162 Course Objectives Students will, through oral and written work: 1. Identify, compare and contrast the major and some of the minor writers of American literature through the Civil War. 2. Analyze and chart the major themes of early American literature as they are evidenced in the assigned texts. 3. Identify and compare major genres of early American literature. 4. Describe and discuss the relationship between paradigm shifts, such as the Age of Enlightenment and/or Romanticism, and the historical and cultural events which surround them. 5. Communicate analyses, interpretations, and critiques of single works, or several works by the same author, or to several closely related texts in class discussion and in required essays and exams. 6. Synthesize and generalize about themes and genres of early American literature across time, across thematic periods, and across works by various authors. 7. Describe and discuss the relationship between the ideals of democracy and the evolution of an American literary identity. 8. Describe and discuss the influence of European thought and cultural production on the emerging American literary corpus. General Education Information Approved College Associate Degree GE Applicability AA/AS - Literature & Language CSU GE Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU approval) CSUGE - C2 Humanities Cal-GETC Applicability (Recommended - Requires External Approval) IGETC Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU/UC approval) IGETC - 3B Humanities Articulation Information CSU Transferable UC Transferable Methods of Evaluation Essay Examinations Example: Students will have two hours to write an essay style answer to one of the following questions. Be sure to write an introduction with a thesis, body paragraphs developed with examples and analysis and a conclusion. Use at least three different authors to support your assertions. Grading is based on a Rubric. 1. What is Puritan "plain style" writing? How does it complement Puritan ideology? Where do you see it at work in the Puritan writers? How does it compare or contrast with the style of other American writers we have read so far? 2. References to deities and to religious literature abound in the work we have read so far. Choosing three writers from at least two periods, compare and contrast their conceptions of God/the gods and their incorporation of religious themes. How do you account for the similarities and differences? Projects Example: Film a video involving 3 or 4 of the people we’ve read from the past 7 weeks having a conversation about one of the topics that would interest the group. Each person needs to be from a different week and the each person must remain true to their character during the course of the conversation. For this to work, each actor should do a bit more research into each character and be familiar with the reading they did of that character. Rubric Grading During the conversation, each character needs to: Introduce themselves, where they are from, and how they came to America. Say specific quotes from the text in the course of the conversation. Requirements for this project: A script must be written collaboratively using either Word Online or Google Docs. In the script, quotes from the text must be cited. The easiest way to film the conversation would be to use Google Hangouts. However, if you are in a group that lives near each other, you can choose to film it together, too. The conversation needs to be at least 10-12 minutes long. You might think about people who might have something to say to each other, either a disagreement one or more of them might have, or maybe how one or more of them might tackle a problem of their times. Repeatable No Methods of Instruction Lecture/Discussion Distance Learning Lecture: Instructor leads a discussion on several Puritan texts covered in the course materials such as, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, etc. and asks the student to come up with similarities in the Puritans’ “plain style” writing. Instructor asks how it complements Puritan ideology or how it compares or contrasts with the style of other American writers. The Instructor then uses their observations to explicate literary terms such as tone, inference, connotation, etc. Instructor asks the class to brainstorm what they consider many core American ideals, such as hard work, individualism, etc. Each group takes one of the terms and looks for instances of the value in Ben Franklin’s “Autobiography.” The Instructor then asks the students to relate these ideas to current examples in American popular culture to see how the legacy of hegemonic American ideals persist. Distance Learning Instructor will post lecture related to reading on LMS and have students discuss it in Discussion Boards. For example, the instructor will post a lecture on Nathanial Hawthorne: Puritanism and Science and then ask the students to post reactions to the stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Birth-mark.” Typical Out of Class Assignments Reading Assignments 1. In the assigned anthology of American literature, read several creation myths. Provide a short summary of the myths. 2. Read selections from Melville's "Battle Pieces" and Whitman's "Drum Taps." Be prepared to discuss in class. Writing, Problem Solving or Performance 1. Write an essay in which you answer the following question. In 1616, in "A Description of New England," John Smith writes in positive terms about the possibilities for those people who are willing to move across the ocean to "New England." What kind of England does he imagine as possible on the American continent? What are its pleasures going to be? What values will it have? More than a decade after John Smith's experience in Virginia came to an end, Puritans William Bradford and John Winthrop arrived in what is now Massachusetts (Bradford in 1620 and Winthrop in 1630). How do their visions and aspirations for what American could be compare or contrast with Smith's dream? 2. Write an essay in which you consider the ways in which the selected chapters from Incidents that are reprinted in the Norton Anthology tell the woman slave's story. How does it tell the female slave's story as opposed to the male slave's story? Douglass showed how slavery prevents one from being a man. How, according to Jacobs, does slavery prevent one from being a woman? Other (Term projects, research papers, portfolios, etc.) Required Materials The Norton Anthology of American Literature Author: Baym, Nina Publisher: WW Norton and Company Publication Date: 2016 Text Edition: 9th Classic Textbook?: OER Link: OER: The Bedford Anthology of American Literature, Volume One: Beginnings to 1865 Author: McQuade, Donald Publisher: Bedford Publication Date: 2013 Text Edition: 2nd Classic Textbook?: OER Link: OER: The Heath Anthology of American Literature Author: Lauter, Paul Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Publication Date: 2013 Text Edition: 7th Classic Textbook?: OER Link: OER: Other materials and-or supplies required of students that contribute to the cost of the course.