Example #1, ENGL 262
ENGL 262, American Literature Before 1900 (Weathers)
The readings listed below are from the Norton Anthology of American Literature, unless otherwise noted,
and are due on the dates specified. If logistics require a change in schedule, students will be informed in
advance.
08/26
Intro to course; intro to Colonial and Revolutionary Periods.
08/28
William Bradford: Intro (88-89); Of Plymouth Plantation (89-96, 102-06); John
Winthrop: Intro (106-07); Journal of John Winthrop (118-27).
09/02
Mary Rowlandson: Intro (147-48); A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs.
Mary Rowlandson (148-64).
09/04
Anne Bradstreet: Intro (127-28); “To Her Father with Some Verses” (133); “The Author
to Her Book” (140); “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” (140-41); “To My Dear
and Loving Husband” (141); “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild” (142); “Here Follows
Some Verses” (143-44); Edward Taylor: Intro (164-65); “Meditation 42” (170-71);
“Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children” (171-72).
09/09
Jonathan Edwards: Intro (174-76); “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (200-11).
09/11
Benjamin Franklin: Intro (211-13); “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America”
(219-23); Samson Occum: Intro (285-86); “A Short Narrative of My Life” (286-92).
09/16
Thomas Paine: Intro (308-09); from Common Sense (309-16); Thomas Jefferson: Intro
(322-23); “Letter to John Adams” (338-42).
09/18
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur: Intro (292-93); from Letters from an American Farmer
(293-302); Philip Freneau: Intro (353-54); “On the Emigration to America” (355-56);
“On Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man” (356-57); “On the Religion of Nature” (357-58).
09/23
Olaudah Equiano: Intro (342-43); from The Interesting Narrative (343-53); Phillis
Wheatley: Intro (358-60); “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (360); “To the
Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth” (362-63); “To the University of
Cambridge, in New England” (363).
09/25
Intro to New Republic Period.
09/30
Exam #1: Colonial and Revolutionary Periods.
10/02
Washington Irving: Intro (426-28); “Rip Van Winkle” (428-40).
10/07
Paper #1 due. James Fenimore Cooper: Intro (440-42); from The Pioneers (442-49);
William Cullen Bryant: Intro (470-71); “Thanatopsis” (471-73); “To a Waterfowl” (47374); “The Prairies” (474-77).
10/09
The Cherokee Memorials (449-458); William Apess: Intro (477-78); “An Indian’s
Looking-Glass for the White Man” (478-83).
10/14
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Intro (493-96); “The Divinity School Address” (538-50).
10/16
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Intro (584-87); “Young Goodman Brown” (613-22); Edgar Allen
Poe: Intro (697-700); “The Tell-Tale Heart” (731-34).
10/21
Margaret Fuller: Intro (764-66); “The Great Lawsuit” (766-75); Harriet Beecher Stowe:
Intro (791-93); from Uncle Tom’s Cabin (793-802).
10/23
Harriet Jacobs: Intro (826-28); from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (828-48).
10/28
Henry David Thoreau: Intro (849-52); “Resistance to Civil Government” (852-67); from
Walden (904-09).
10/30
Walt Whitman: Intro (1001-04); from Song of Myself, 1 (1057); 5 (1060); 6 (1060-61); 7
(1061-62); 11 (1063-64); 16 (1068); 21 (1071); 24 (1073-75); 32 (1078-79).
11/04
Herman Melville: Intro (1103-08); “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1109-34).
11/06
Paper #2 due. Emily Dickinson: Intro (1190-94); 49 (1194); 67 (1194); 241 (1196-97);
249 (1197); 303 (1198); 341 (1199); 435 (1200); 449 (1201-02); 501 (1202-03); 632
(1204); 640 (1204-06); 712 (1206-07); 986 (1207-08); 1078 (1208); 1129 (1208-09).
11/11
Intro to the Era of Maturity.
11/13
Exam #2: The New Republic Period.
11/18
Samuel L. Clemens: Intro (1258-61); “The Notorious Jumping Frog” (1261-64); W.D.
Howells: Intro (1465-68); “Editha” (1468-77).
11/20
Henry James: Intro (1491-94); “The Real Thing” (1533-50).
11/25
12/02
12/04
12/12
Sarah Orne Jewett: Intro (1594-96); “A White Heron” (1596-1603); Kate Chopin: Intro
(1603-05); “At the ’Cadian Ball” (1605-12); “The Storm” (1612-15).
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: Intro (1620-21); “A New England Nun” (1621-29); Charlotte
Perkins Gilman: Intro (1656-57); “The Yellow Wall-paper” (1657-69).
Booker T. Washington: Intro (1629-31); from Up From Slavery (1631-39); W.E.B. Du
Bois: Intro (1685-86); “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” (1692-1701).
Exam #3: Era of Maturity (2:00-4:00 PM).
Note that exam dates and major deadlines are highlighted.