Literature II

Literature II: American Literature Course Outline (30 Weeks)

📖 Focus: Exploring faith, heroism, morality, and the search for meaning in American literature, covering major literary movements from the colonial period to the mid-20th century.

🔹 Course Format:

1-hour weekly live session
3 hours of independent reading, writing, or multimedia study per week
Assessment: Essays, close readings, discussion forums, creative responses, quizzes
Teachers: Ferdi McDermott, Headmaster of Chavagnes International College and professor in English literature at the Catholic University of the Vendée, ICES; Charles Coulombe, American author and lecturer.

Unit 1: Beginnings – Colonial, Puritan & Revolutionary Literature (Weeks 1-5)

📖 Focus: Faith, struggle, and the early American identity.

Week 1: Native American Myths & European Encounters
- Oral storytelling tradition (The Iroquois Creation Story)
- Christopher Columbus (Letter to Luis de Santangel)
- John Smith (The General History of Virginia)
Week 2: The Puritan Tradition – Religious Conviction
- William Bradford (Of Plymouth Plantation excerpts)
- Anne Bradstreet (Verses Upon the Burning of Our House)
- Jonathan Edwards (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God) – Rhetoric & persuasion
Week 3: The Age of Reason & Revolutionary Literature
- Patrick Henry (Speech to the Virginia Convention) – The art of rhetoric
- Thomas Paine (Common Sense excerpts)
Week 4: The Founding Fathers & Moral Vision
- The Declaration of Independence (literary style and argument)
- Selections from the Federalist Papers
Week 5: The First American Catholic Writings
- John Carroll (America’s first bishop) & early Catholic presence
- Phillis Wheatley (On Being Brought from Africa to America)

Unit 2: The Romantic Era & Transcendentalism (Weeks 6-10)

📖 Focus: Nature, individualism, and the search for truth.

Week 6: Washington Irving & American Mythology
- Rip Van Winkle – Time, change, and tradition
Week 7: The American Gothic – Sin & Guilt
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter excerpts) – Moral responsibility & redemption
- Edgar Allan Poe (The Tell-Tale Heart) – The psychology of guilt
Week 8: The Transcendentalists – Rejection of Christian Doctrine?
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance) – Individualism vs. community
- Henry David Thoreau (Walden excerpts) – Nature & simplicity
- Catholic critique of transcendentalism
Week 9: Herman Melville – Faith & Doubt
- Moby-Dick (excerpts) – Biblical themes and the search for God
Week 10: Catholic Converts in 19th-Century America
- Orestes Brownson (The Convert excerpts)
- Isaac Hecker (The Paulist Fathers)

Unit 3: The Civil War, Realism & Catholic Immigrant Voices (Weeks 11-14)

📖 Focus: The moral struggles of America at war and Catholic contributions.

Week 11: The Civil War & American Conscience
- Abraham Lincoln (Gettysburg Address, Second Inaugural Address)
- Frederick Douglass (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass excerpts)
Week 12: Catholic Writers of the American Experience
- Father Abram Ryan (The Conquered Banner) – A Catholic priest’s Civil War poetry
Week 13: The Rise of Realism
- Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn excerpts) – Moral dilemmas & human conscience
Week 14: Midterm Review & Assessment

Unit 4: The Gilded Age, Modernism & Moral Conflict (Weeks 15-21)

📖 Focus: Wealth, morality, and the search for meaning.

Week 15: Henry James & The Moral Novel
- Daisy Miller (excerpts) – Innocence vs. worldliness
Week 16: Catholic Fiction in America
- Willa Cather (Death Comes for the Archbishop excerpts) – Catholic missionaries in the Southwest
Week 17: The American Dream & Its Costs
- F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby excerpts) – Wealth & moral decay
Week 18: The Rise of Modernism
- T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land excerpts) – Post-war disillusionment & Christian hope
Week 19: Southern Catholic & Christian Fiction
- Flannery O’Connor (A Good Man is Hard to Find) – Grace & redemption
Week 20: Ernest Hemingway – Faith in Hardship
- The Old Man and the Sea – Perseverance & spiritual struggle
Week 21: Review & Creative Writing Assignment

Unit 5: The Great Depression, WWII & The Crucible (Weeks 22-26)

📖 Focus: Struggle, resilience, and human dignity.

Week 22:John Steinbeck & The Dignity of Work
- Of Mice and Men – Brotherhood & moral responsibility
Week 23: The Lost Generation – Catholic Perspectives
- Catholic critiques of modern disillusionment
- Dorothy Day (The Long Loneliness excerpts)
Week 24: WWII Literature & Catholic Martyrdom
- Thomas Merton (The Seven Storey Mountain excerpts) – A spiritual autobiography
Week 25: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
- Themes of justice, fear, and moral panic
- Historical context: McCarthyism & the Salem Witch Trials
Week 26:Poetry of the 20th Century
- Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken)
- Wallace Stevens (Sunday Morning) – A secular poet’s search for God

Unit 6: Post-War America & Final Assessments (Weeks 27-30)

📖 Focus: Literature’s role in shaping modern American identity.

Week 27: Christian Writers in a Secular Age
- Walker Percy (The Moviegoer excerpts)
Week 28: The Evolution of American Literature
- How literature reflects moral, social, and religious struggles
Week 29: The Future of Storytelling
- Digital storytelling, new media, and literature’s evolving role
Week 30: Final Review & Exam Preparation

Assessment & Grading

Weekly readings & discussion posts (20%)
Close reading analysis & response essays (30%)
Creative writing tasks (10%)
Midterm assessment (20%)
Final project or exam (20%)