English 130A

Description

A survey of English-language American literature to 1800. We will read a wide range of texts from narratives of colonial settlement through the literature of the American Revolution, the Constitutional Convention, and the early republic. Topics to be discussed include: the role of Puritanism in American society; the language of liberty, rights, and representation; the rise of the novel in America; evangelism and secularism; the rhetorics of slavery and abolition; and the price of independence.