ENGL4700: American Colonial Voices (39470)

Payton, Jason

TR 11:10 AM

Park Hall 0136

This course will explore the literatures early America with a special focus on the colonial project and the modes of resistance it engendered. We will focus historically on the period of the European "discovery," conquest, and settlement of the Americas but will focus thematically on the ways in which these processes were contested by a range of actors including Native Americans, Africans and African Americans, Creole subjects, and the descendents of European settlers. We will ask how literary texts constructed the idea of America, for what purposes, and to what ends. We will explore social issues including the construction of race, gender, and sexuality, as well as the intersection between religion and politics. We will endeavor simultaneously to understand our own relationship to the contested histories studied in this course.

Major assignments include:

  • One short paper (5 pp.) designed to showcase your close reading skills
  • A midterm exam (a mixture of passage IDs and essay questions) designed to assess your ability to synthesize multiple texts
  • A final project (this can be a critical essay, a pedagogical project, or an artistic/creative project) designed to reflect on the course as a whole

The required texts for this course are:

Norton Anthology of American Literature, 9th Edition, Volume A. ISBN: 978-0393935714.

Winkfield, The Female American. ISBN: 78-1554810963.