American Literature. What makes the literature particularly American?
We'll look at this literary question by looking at what we consider to be
particularly "American"--history, philosophy, ideas, dreams, and identity.
We'll start with a reading quiz on A Farewell to Arms (the summer reading
book due for the first day of school). We'll discuss the book in terms of
the book itself, Hemmingway, the time period, and our questions.
We'll then step back in time to the beginning of the "settling" of this
country. We'll look the ideas/ideals with which our country was set up.
We'll need to keep this in mind as we move forward.
You will also have a major project on an American Writer to work on
throughout the entire year. It's a fruitful project and yields a great
discussion piece at the end of the year--something I've come to look forward
to every year.
