The following list shows a summary of the topics covered in this course. To see all of the course pages, visit the Table of Contents.
Module 1: Reading and Interpreting Literary Texts
- How to Analyze a Short Story
- A Short History of the Early American Novel
- Approaching Poetry
- Free Verse
- Literary Terms: A Guide
- Literary Criticism
Module 2: Early American and Puritan Literature (1650–1750)
- American Puritanism
- A Model of Christian Charity
- Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
- The Pilgrim’s Progress
- Verses upon the Burning of Our House
Module 3: Enlightenment Literature (1760–1820)
- Video: Edwards and the Transition to Enlightenment
- Video: The American Enlightenment
- Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Module 4: Romantic Literature (1820–1860)
- The Romantic Period, 1820–1860: Essayists and Poets
- Thanatopsis
- Wakefield
- Song of Myself
- The Use of Nature in American Gothic
- The Indian Burying Ground
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- The Raven
- History of American Literature
- The Second Great Awakening and Transcendentalism
- Nature
- The American Scholar
- Self-Reliance
- Walden
- Women’s Sphere and the Emergence of the Women’s Rights Movement
- Woman in the Nineteenth Century
- Resistance and Abolition
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Module 5: Writing About Literature
- Distinguish Between Primary and Secondary Sources
- Annotated List of Useful Online Resources
- Using Databases: Periodical Indexes and Abstracts
- Annotated List of Useful Databases
- Finding and Evaluating Research Sources
- Finding Literary Criticism
- Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Style