Course Description
ENG 205 is a comprehensive survey of American literature from the pre-Columbian period to the twentieth century. As that encompasses a lot of material, the course has been organized into three somewhat arbitrary but nonetheless useful chronological periods: "Early" (pre-1800), "Middle" (1800-1900), and "Late" (post-1900). The course satisfies the Liberal Arts in Action "Literature" Connector requirement and counts toward either the major or the minor in English. The only prerequisite for the course is the satisfactory completion of ENG 112 or ENG 113; students currently enrolled in ENG 112 may take ENG 205 only with the instructor's permission.

Required Texts
All course texts are available at the college bookstore on Main Street. If you decide to buy the books from some other source, please make sure you purchase the exact editions noted—other editions are not acceptable.

• American Passages: A Literary Survey. New York: Norton, 2004. (ISBN 0393979393) — see website
• Baym, Nina, gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2003. (ISBN 0393972836)
• Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Eds. Hershel Parker & Harrison Hayford. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2002. (ISBN 0393979695)

Instructional Methods
This course will be primarily discussion-based supplemented by regular presentations both by me and by students.