Ms. M. Jackson – American Literature
Unit 3 – Agenda for Weeks of November 28th through December 16th
LITERARY PERIODS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS
Romanticism - 1800-1860 (includes American Renaissance, Transcendentalism, Dark Romantics or
Gothic)
Standards: ELAALRL1.1f – trace the history of the development of American fiction
ELAALRL3.1b – relate a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period
that it represents
Unit Objectives: SWBT
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Read American Romantic literature to learn characteristics of Romanticism
Learn about the Romantic approach to life, death, and truth by reading poetry by William
Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes
Learn about the principles of American Romanticism and its offshoot, Transcendentalism, by
reading essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau
Analyze beliefs associated with Gothic fiction by reading selections by Washington Irving,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, and Herman Melville
Information to know from the textbook:
CHARACTERISTICS
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Genre/Style
Effect/Aspects
Historical Context
Examples
Key Concepts
Genre/Style
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Character Sketches
Slave Narratives
Poetry
Short Stories
Novels
Effect/Aspects
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Value feeling and intuition over reasoning
Celebrates individualism, nature, imagination, emotions
Journey away from corruption of civilization and limits rational thought toward the integrity
of nature and freedom of the imagination
Helped instill proper gender behavior for men and women
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Allowed people to re-imagine the American past
Expansion of magazines, newspapers and book publishing
Slave debates
Industrial revolution brings ideas that the “old ways” of doing things are now irrelevant
Historical Context
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Encourages support for the Civil War
Examples – Authors and their Works:
Read and be prepared to discuss: (either from the textbook, Spring Board –Unit 3, Holt Reader,
personal novel, American Literature class notes, U. S. History lectures, etc.)
Reading Assignments, Projects and Reflective Journals
Poetry and Essays:
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William Cullen Bryant – “Thanatopsis,” p. 239
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – all poems, pp. 225-228
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” p. 280
Ralph Waldo Emerson – from “Nature,” p. 239
o “Self-Reliance,” p. 244
 Henry David Thoreau - “Walden,” p.253 and “Civil Disobedience,” p. 267; then complete the Civil
Disobedience Webquest (see Link below):
Civil Disobedience Webquest: http://questgarden.com/90/38/2/091109193454/index.htm
Novels – read and complete Journal assignments:
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Frederick Douglass – the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (if not already done)
Toni Morrison – Beloved
Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Jacobs – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Kate Chopin – The Awakening
Short Stories – to read and complete Journal assignments:
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Washington Irving – The Devil and Tom Walker
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Minister’s Black Veil
Edgar Allen Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven
Herman Melville – from Moby Dick
KEY CONCEPTS – p.204
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The Nation Expands
New Ideas Take Root
Differences Threaten National Unity
In Spring Board workbook, read: TBA
Be prepared for daily quizzes!!!