ENG 254 - American Lit - 19th Century

4 Credit(s)

Prerequisite(s):

WR 115 or designated placement.

WR 115Q as required.

Course Description: Surveys the period of American literature between the 1830s and the turn of the century, and includes such diverse forms as essays, journals, sermons, political documents, poetry, and fiction. In many of the works, historical events such as slavery and the Civil War provide both background and subject matter for the artistic productions of the authors studied.

Course Learning Outcomes:

CLO#1: Explain the ways in which social, philosophical, and political currents influence literary expression.
CLO#2: Describe the uniquely American elements in a range of texts through focusing on the formation of an American identity, the Civil War, the issue of slavery, emerging feminist literature, and the capitalism of Wall Street. (ILO: Communication)
CLO#3: Explain how race, gender, time, and place shape a given text.
CLO#4: Explain changes in the prevailing American philosophies during the time period covered in the course.

Typical Course Content:

Transcendentalism

Henry David Thoreau [Walden in its entirety]

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Margaret Fuller

W.E. Channing

Theodore Parker

The Dial

The American Renaissance

Herman Melville [Moby Dick, Or the White Whale in its entirety]

Walt Whitman

Emily Dickenson

Literary Realism

Kate Chopin [The Awakening in its entirety]

Mark Twain [one novel in its entirety]

William Dean Howells [The Rise of Silas Lapham in its entirety]

Henry James [one novel in its entirety]

Minority Voices

Fredrick Douglass and Other Ante-Bellum Slave Narrative and Poetry

Charles Chesnutt and Other Post-Civil War African American Fiction and Poetry

(The particular works under each major heading are typical examples of required reading. They are not necessarily all included in one term’s work.)

ACTI Code and Course Type
100 Lower Division Collegiate

Length of Course:
A required state minimum of (40) and a standard RCC delivery of (44) lecture hours per term, not to exceed (48) hours per term.