ENGL 011A PZ -Survey Amer Lit before 1865

Institution: Pitzer

Description: Starting in the early 1500s and ending in 1865, ENGL11a surveys texts from the American Hemisphere that participate in discovery, colonialism, and nation-building. Along the way, we will see how violence and consumption drove Hemispheric-American narratives of ?progress,? from the early Puritan settlements to the Age of Revolutions, and how these same impulses bring about the internal fracture of the United States in 1861. We will trace these patterns through texts by famous white-male cis-het writers such as Thomas Jefferson and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as writers of color such as the enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley Peters and the Mohegan writer Samson Occom. Through poetry, fiction, oratory, memoirs, and drama, we will consider together how the literature of Early America is intoxicated with its own promises and explosive implications.

Prerequisite(s): Please check course schedule for requirements.

For up-to-date information on current course offerings and details, please refer to the Pitzer class schedule on MyCampus2 Portal.