Instr:                 Jayson Iwen
Office:              CRT 569,     229-6047
e-mail:              jiwen@uwm.edu
Office hours:     by appointment.

Course Information:                    TR 12:30-1:45  AUP 189

Course Description

We will read a wide variety of texts' progressing, chronologically, from the first recorded Native American songs and creation myths to fiction and poetry at the eve of the Civil War. We will approach these texts not only as historic documents, representing different perspectives of the American experience, but also as works of art, requiring comparative, structural and stylistic analysis.

In addition to extensive readings of anthologized fiction and poetry, a series of complete, autobiographical texts will serve as landmarks in the course. The historic immediacy of first-person, non-fiction will help us to understand the daily lives and concerns of contemporary America's ancestors, and will introduce us to dramatically different types of American identity.

Required Texts:
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume One, Paul Lauter (ed.)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin
The African: the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah Equiano
Black Hawk: an Autobiography, Black Hawk

Course Requirements:
1) Weekly reading responses (200-300 words each)
2) Two essay examinations
3) A final paper (5-6 pages)
4) Attendance and participation in all class activities