Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences

Branch II—Department of English

Course Description for the New Curriculum (LMD)—BA Program 2022-2023

Course Code LIAN L3111

Course Title American Literature up to 1865

Course Type Obligatory Elective Free Elective

Course Credits Total: 50 TH: 30 TD: 20 TP:
Course Track Literary Linguistics Common

Semester 1 2 3 4 5 6

Course Description This course introduces students to American literature from its Puritan origins
(two-three lines) until the early19th Century. We will study how diverse writers represented,
challenged, and helped to create the dominant cultural mythologies that remain
powerfully influential today. Authors include, but are not limited to, Anne
Bradstreet, Benjamin Franklin, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Emerson, Poe and
Dickinson.

Course Content - Historical and socio-cultural background of American literature

(major axes or - Puritanism and Secularism
concepts) - American Literary Renaissance

Course Objectives By the end of the course, students should be able to

- identify major hallmarks of American colonial period
- discuss the elements of change that led to the rise of the American Literary
Renaissance in the 19th Century.
- analyze representative works to highlight early and 19th century American
experience and art
- apply active reading strategies to fiction which helps develop critical analysis
skills.

Teaching ● lectures by the instructor

Methodology ● class discussions
● group and/or individual writing in response to the literary texts assigned.

Course Textbook(s) Baym, Nina, Gen. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol.1. New
York: Norton, 2003.

Major References Gray, Richard J. A Brief History of American Literature. Chichester, West Sussex:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
Hutchinson, Stuart. The American Scene: Essays on Nineteenth-century American
Literature. New York: St. Martin's, 1991. Print.

Course Assessment Class Class work Midterm: 10 Final: 70

participation: 10 & tests: 10
Teacher Name: Dr. Hala Haddad Signature:

Chair Name: Dr. Anny Joukoulian Signature:

Detailed Plan of Weekly Distribution of Course Content

English Department—Fanar - Course Title: American Literature up to 1865 - Course Code: LIAN L3111

Week 1 Course overview

Introduction: the historical and intellectual background of the 17th and 18th century.

Week 2 Puritanism:
● John Winthrop From A Model of Christian Charity (1630)
● Anne Bradstreet “The Prologue” (1650) “The Author to her Book” (1666)
“In Memory of my Dear Grandchild” (1665)
Assignment

Week 3 Rationalism: Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography From part 1 (1771) and part 2
(1784)

Week 4 Rationalism:
● Abigail Adams From Letters to John Adams (1776–83)
Assignment

Introduction: the historical and intellectual background of the 19th century

Week 5 Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson From Nature (1836) From Self Reliance
(1841)

Week 6 Transcendentalism: Henry David Thoreau From Walden (1854)

Week 7 Romanticism: Walt Whitman From Leaves of Grass (1855)

Week 8 Romanticism: Edgar Allan Poe “The Raven” (1845) From “The Philosophy of
Composition” (1846)

Week 9 Romanticism: Emily Dickinson: 303, 435, 536, 1624, 712, 280 (late 1850s to mid
1860s)

Week 10 Romanticism: Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Week 11 Romanticism: cont. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Week 12 Romanticism: cont. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Week 13 Review of the course

Teacher’s Name Dr. Hala Haddad

Chairperson Dr. Anny Joukoulian Signature: