Lecture: The History of American Literature

This lecture will provide a survey of American literature from the colonial period until today. We will look at the way that the particular history of North America continually shaped its literature, from the religious writings of the early settlers and the revolutionary writings that led up to independence through the increasingly successful attempts at finding a genuinely American literary voice, and all the way to the ethnic and aesthetic diversifications that particularly mark the 20^th century. The aim is to help students put individual texts into a larger context.

For a selection of texts that will be central to the lecture, please consult the reading list which you can download from our website. The majority of texts can be found either in the Heath Anthology of American Literature or the Norton Anthology of American Literature (5 vols.). Also recommended is H. Zapf (ed.) Amerikanische Literaturgeschichte.