In this course, we will survey American literature from its beginnings to the middle of the nineteenth century.  We will consider the voices of men and women, the enslaved and the free, the colonized and the colonizer.  By reading first-hand accounts, journals, lectures, novels, and poetry, we will: 

• explore how early Americans viewed and responded to the various events of their day, 
• consider how these writers try to make sense of their world and their roles within it, 
• examine how these texts reflect Pratt’s notion of the “contact zone,”  
• consider how these texts reflect a constantly-evolving definition of what counts as “America” and what it means to be an American,  
• reflect on the continued relevance (and impact) of these texts today