This introduction to American literature involves a series of challenging analytical essays, and culminates in a major research paper. Students use The Norton Anthology of American Literature, and read plays, and novels by a variety of American authors. History and culture are best approached through the study of original documents and artifacts. Rather than read about the Magna Carta, students examine the Magna Carta itself. Students who feel the genius of Homer by actually reading his poems are better served than those who read about Homer in a history textbook.
Students learn to interpret culture by concentrating on close reading and expository writing.
The scale of the writing projects is graduated, proceeding from shorter assignments with emphasis on sentence and paragraph structure in the earlier grades, to full-scale research papers by grade eleven. Students share their findings in the form of public, oral presentations. This course adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of ancient cultures, with emphasis on Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The literature and art of these cultures are considered as expressions of individual genius, as reflections of cultural exchange and evolution, and as foundations for later developments in human civilization. Students read selections from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod.