SHANGGUAN Yan
English Department
College of Foreign Languages
China Three Gorges University
Teaching Outline
1 About this course and some of my
teaching ideas
2 About your assessment
3 About some rules and regulations
4 The brief introduction to American
literature study
5 How do we learn American Literature
efficiently
6 Early American Literature (17th-18th
centuries)
2 About your assessment
40% :
Class attendance
Presentation (24/ life/ PPT/2 or 3 )
Quiz (both oral and written
preview and review )
A term paper
60%:
Final exam
4 The brief introduction to
American literature study
4.1 What is literature?
4.2 How to define American literature?
4.3 Some basic qualities of American
writers .
independent / individualistic / critical/
innovative/ humorous
5 How do we learn American
Literature efficiently?
5.1 Literary periods—
17th-18th Early American Literature
1815-1865 The Literature of Romanticism
1865-1914 The Literature of Realism
1914- 1945 The Literature of Modernism
5 How do we learn American
Literature efficiently?
5.2 Great and major writers
5.3 Literary terms
Reading List for This Course
1常耀信, 美国文学简史（第2版）——A
Survey of American Literature(the 2nd
Edition, 天津:南开大学出版社,2003.
2李宜燮，常耀信,《美国文学选读》（上、
下册）天津:南开大学出版社,1997.
3翟士钊，《美国文学选读》，开封：河南
大学出版社，2001
4吴定柏, 《美国文学大纲》， 上海外语教
育出版社， 1998
Early American Literature
(17th-18th centuries)
1 A Historical Survey
1492, Christopher Columbus
1607, The first British colony
1620, Mayflower
1776, The Declaration of Independence
1789, George Washington
1791, Washington D. C.
2 The Puritans and Puritanism
2.1 The Puritans
purify the English Church / restore
church worship / “pure and unspotted”
opposed the elaborate rituals
believed that the Bible was the revealed
word of God/ people should guide their
daily behavior with the Bible.
2.2 American Puritanism
Religious: a highly strict religious
doctrine/ the new continent /
worship God in the way they
thought true Christians should
Practical: practical aspect/ work hard
/ make a living /be ready for any
misfortunes & tragic failures
2.3 The impact of Puritanism
1. American literature -- a literary
expression / the pious idealism of
the Puritan request
2. American literary symbolism
3. style :fresh, simple and direct
Reading Assignments
Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography
Philip Freneau
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