Writing, Revolution & Resistance in US Literature Before 1865

What stories do Americans tell about their origins? How have they used the power of the word to define their communities, justify or contest colonization, resist oppressive regimes, raise their voices, and imagine a new nation? What did it mean to claim the right to write? This course considers questions such as these in exploring a rich variety of texts, including Indigenous oral narrative, oratory, captivity and slave narratives, political tracts, short stories, and myriad forms of poetry; we will also come to understand why these stories still matter today. Readings will include work by Elias Boudinot, Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Sojourner Truth, Phillis Wheatley, and Walt Whitman. Covering the pre-colonial period through the mid-19th century, this course satisfies the US Literature I requirement for the English major and concentration; an elective for the English minor and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities major; and an Exploration requirement for the Core Curriculum.