Thursday, May 24
12:09 pm    Passing Period

American Literature and Nature: Claiming the Self	012A	2 Credits
American Literature and Nature: Claiming the Self/Honors	012B	2 Credits

The American sense of self, individuality, nonconformity, “rugged individualism,” and freedom of self-expression is often connected with the American landscape itself; with open and sparsely inhabited spaces; with rivers, mountains, fields, and forests; with nature in all its diversity.  American authors have associated great spiritual power and symbolic meaning with nature.  This course celebrates works of nineteenth and twentieth century writers from a variety of regions and cultural and ethnic backgrounds, with readings from (among others):  Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Twain, Whitman, Dickinson, Chestnutt, Melville, Chopin, Jewett, Faulkner, and Silko.  Students will be encouraged to develop their own understandings of the natural world as a symbol in literature and the connection of the natural world to the search for the true self.

Curriculum Map for American Literature and Nature: Claiming the Self