Reading List
By: Claudia Susanne Ofner
Tags: Academia, Readinglist, Literature, Summary

As part of my studies I have to do an oral exam on American Literature. It will comprise works dating from the 15th and 16th century up to today. In order to keep myself motivated I thought I would upload my progress and discussion of each literary work here as a short summary. Overall, it will be about 70 literary works, consisting of novels, short stories, poems, and plays.

Lets’s see how it goes.

15th and 16th century (Early Encounters):

Genres: Journals, Reports, Native American Tales of Origin

Christopher Columbus, “The First Voyage” (1492–93)

1620s — 1760s (Colonial and Puritan literature):

Genres: Indian Captivity Narratives, Jeremiads, Sermons, Spiritual Autobiographies

Mary Rowlandson,

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs Mary Rowlandson (1682)

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs Mary Rowlandson (1682) John Winthrop,

A Model of Christian Charity (1630; 1830s)

A Model of Christian Charity (1630; 1830s) Anna Bradstreet,

The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung up in America (1678)

The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung up in America (1678) John Cotton,

“God’s Promise to His Plantation” (1630)

1770s — 1820s (early Romanticism, Revolutionary/ Post-Revolutionary texts)

Genres: Epistolary Novels, Frontier Novels, Gothic Fiction, Pamphlets, Picaresque Novels, Political Satires, Seduction Novels, Short Fiction, Slave Narrative

Charles Brockden Brown,

Edgar Huntly, or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker (1799)

Edgar Huntly, or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker (1799) Washington Irving,

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1819)

“Rip Van Winkle” (1819)

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1819) “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) Thomas Jefferson,

Declaration of Independence (1776)

Declaration of Independence (1776) Susanna Rowson,

Charlotte Temple, A Tale of Truth (1791/94)

Charlotte Temple, A Tale of Truth (1791/94) Jean Hector St. John de Crèveoeur,

“What is an American?” [Letter Three] (1782)

“What is an American?” [Letter Three] (1782) James Fenimore Cooper,

The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

The Last of the Mohicans (1826) Phillis Wheatley,

“On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773)

1820s — 1860s (light/dark Romanticism and American Renaissance):

Genres: Dark Romanticism, Detective Fiction, Epic Novels, Short Fiction, Transcendentalism, Sentimental Novel, Slave Narrative, Travel Literature

Emily Dickinson,

“There’s a certain slant of light” (posthum. 1890)

“I heard a Fly buzz — when I died” (posthum. 1896)

“Much Madness is divinest Sense” (posthum. 1955)

“There’s a certain slant of light” (posthum. 1890) “I heard a Fly buzz — when I died” (posthum. 1896) “Much Madness is divinest Sense” (posthum. 1955) Ralp Waldo Emerson,

“Self-Reliance” (1841)

Nature (1836)

“Self-Reliance” (1841) Nature (1836) Nathanial Hawthorne,

“Young Goodman Brown” (1835)

“The Birthmark” (1843)

The Scarlet Letter (1850)

“Young Goodman Brown” (1835) “The Birthmark” (1843) The Scarlet Letter (1850) Herman Melville,

excerpts from Moby-Dick, or, The Wahle (1851)

“Bartleby the Scrivener” (1853)

excerpts from Moby-Dick, or, The Wahle (1851) “Bartleby the Scrivener” (1853) Edgar Allan Poe,

“The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839)

“The Raven” (1845)

“The Black Cat” (1843)

“The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) “The Raven” (1845) “The Black Cat” (1843) Henry David Thoreau,

excerpts from Walden, or, Life in the Woods (1854)

excerpts from Walden, or, Life in the Woods (1854) Walt Whitman,

“Song of Myself” (1855)

“I sing the Body Electric” (1871)

“Song of Myself” (1855) “I sing the Body Electric” (1871) Harriet Beecher Stowe,

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

1865 — 1920s (Realism and Naturalism):

Genres: Expatriate Literature, Impressionism, Local Color, Melodrama, Muckraking, Novel of Manners, Psychological Realism, Regionalism, Tales of Adventure, Tall Tales,Utopian Fiction, Western Fiction

Stephen Crane,

“The Open Boat” (1898)

“The Open Boat” (1898) Mark Twain,

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865)

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865) W.E.B. Du Bois,

excerpts from The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

excerpts from The Souls of Black Folk (1903) Henry James,

excerpts from The Portrait of a Lady (1881)

excerpts from The Portrait of a Lady (1881) Charlotte Perkins Gilman,

“The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892)

“The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) Louise May Alcott,

Little Women (1869)

Little Women (1869) Paul Laurence Dunbar,

“We Wear the Mask” (1896)

“We Wear the Mask” (1896) Earnest Thompson Seton,

one story from Wild Animals I have known (1898)

one story from Wild Animals I have known (1898) Kate Chopin,

“The Story of an Hour” (1894)

“The Story of an Hour” (1894) Anzia Yezierska,

“Children of Loneliness” (1923)

1900s — 1950s (Modernism):

Genres: Agiprop Theater, Avant-garde, Collage Texts, Expatriate Literature, Experimental Fiction & Poetry, Expressionist Drama, Harlem Renaissance, Novels of Passing, Social Problem Writing

T.S. Eliot,

“The Waste Land” (1922)

“The Waste Land” (1922) William Faulkner,

“A Rose for Emily” (1930)

“A Rose for Emily” (1930) F. Scott Fitzgerald,

The Great Gatsby (1925)

The Great Gatsby (1925) Earnest Hemingway,

“The Sun Also Rises” (1926)

“The Short Happy Life pf Francis Macomber” (1936)

“The Sun Also Rises” (1926) “The Short Happy Life pf Francis Macomber” (1936) Zora Neale Hurston,

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) H.P. Lovecraft,

At the Mountains of Madness (1936)

At the Mountains of Madness (1936) Arthur Miller,

Death of a Salesman (1949)

Death of a Salesman (1949) Ezra Pound,

“In a Station of the Metro” (1913)

“In a Station of the Metro” (1913) Theodore Roethke,

“My Papa’s Waltz” (1942)

1940s — 1970s (Postwar Literature, Ethnic and Beat Writing):

Genres: African American Literature, Anti-Detective Fiction, Beat Literature, Black Literature, Confessional Poetry, Experimental Urban Writing, Feminist Literature, Jazz Poetry, Native American Renaissance, New Journalism, Queer Literature, Quest Narratives, Neo-Slave Narratives

Saul Bellow,

excerpts from The Adventures of Augie March (1953)

excerpts from The Adventures of Augie March (1953) Ralph Ellison,

excerpts from Invisible Man (1952)

excerpts from Invisible Man (1952) Allen Ginsberg,

“Howl” (1956)

“Howl” (1956) Jack Kerovac,

excerpts from On the Road (1957)

excerpts from On the Road (1957) Flannery O’Connor,

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1955)

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1955) J.D. Sallinger,

The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

The Catcher in the Rye (1951) Isaac Asimov,

one story from I, Robot (1950)

one story from I, Robot (1950) Sylvia Plath,

“Daddy” (1965)

“Daddy” (1965) Shirley Jackson,

The Haunting of Hill House (1959)

1960s — today (Postmodernism and Neo-Realism):

Genres: Anti-Detective Fiction, Confessional Poetry, Ethnic Writing (African American, Asian, Chicano/a), Experimental Urban Writing, Feminist Literature, Magical Realism, Native American Renaissance, New Journalism, Queer Literature, Neo-Slave Narratives