Course

I. What does it mean to be an American?

* American Literary Movement lecture

A. Religious Perspective

            1. The Scarlet Letter

            2. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

            3. The Crucible

B. Political Perspective

            1. The Declaration of Independence

            2. Speech in the Virginia Convention

            3. American Crisis

            4. I Have a Dream

            5. Civil Disobedience

            6. John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

            7. The Gettysburg Address

II. How does culture and race expand the definition of an American?

            A. African American Perspective

                        1. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

                        2. What the Black Man Wants

                        3. Invisible Man

4. Learning to Read and Write

5. Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space

6. Notes of a Native Son

            B. Latin American Perspective

                        1. How to Tame a Wild Tongue

                        2. Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood

            C. Asian Perspective

                        1. Notes of a Native Speaker

                        2. Mother Tongue

            D. Gender Perspective

                        1. Ain’t I a Woman?

                        2. Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

                        3. Myth of the Latin Woman . . .

                        4. The Story of an Hour

III. What is the relationship between the American individual and his society?

            A. The Grapes of Wrath

            B. Of Mice and Men

            C. Letter from Birmingham Jail

IV. How does nature affect the individual’s relationship in society?

            A. from Walden

            B. Self-Reliance

            C. Shooting an Elephant

            D. Into the Wild

            E. Stephen Crane

V. Satire

            A. Me Talk Pretty One Day

            B. A Modest Proposal

C. Rules by Which a Great Empire May be Reduced to a Small One

            D. All 7 Deadly Sins Committed at a Church Bake Sale

VI. Poetry: American Voices

            A. Whitman

            B. Dickinson

            C. Frost

            D. Sandburg

            E. Hughes

            F. “Richard Cory”

            G. “Minever Cheever”

VII. Modern Novel:

A.    The Great Gatsby