We will read and discuss several novels, autobiographies, treatises and other writings by American writers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Students will be expected to attend class regularly, keep up with reading assignments, and write a series of between five and ten in-class essays in response to study questions handed out in advance.

Texts: John Tanner, THE FALCON; Benjamin Franklin, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND OTHER WRITINGS; Charles Brockden Brown, WIELAND; Michael Kammen, ed., THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION; Susanna Rowson, CHARLOTTE TEMPLE and LUCY TEMPLE; Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER; Hannah Foster, THE COQUETTE; and Washington Irving, THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW AND OTHER STORIES