Literature of the New World

Full-year course. Explore pivotal works of literature from early North American colonization to the present. Examine how novels have shaped modern North American narratives; analyze literature’s reflection on and influence over culture; explore historic and dystopian settings as critiques of “contemporary” society; and discuss the through lines of social, political, and moral discourse in “modern” American literature.. This course provides an in-depth exploration of North American literature, focusing on the historical and cultural factors that molded and are reflected in these works. Grounded in classical education principles, this course fosters advanced critical thinking and literary analysis skills through deep exploration of New World literature.

Highlights include:

  • Exploration of the development and impact of the American novel on the shape of storytelling in the New World.
  • Discussions relating to the social, political, and moral discourse of the New World.
  • Analysis of various literary movements including colonial writings, writings from the Enlightenment and Revolutionary period, Romanticism, Transcendentalism, American gothic, literary realism/naturalism/modernism, and dystopian literature in historical and contemporary contexts.
  • Weekly writing assignments and substantive analytic papers each semester to help students hone their critical analysis and writing skills.

Students will complete various assignments, including short weekly responses to prompts relating to the week’s reading to ensure understanding and engagement with the text, two substantive (600-800 word) response papers to engage more deeply with the texts each semester, and in-depth midterm and final papers to demonstrate a thorough literary analysis of one or more texts.  

This is an upper-level course. Students should have had exposure to analytic writing and feel comfortable critically engaging with literature through thesis-based writing assignments. 

We recommend reviewing the proposed readings to ensure they are suitable for your student’s maturity level. The course covers narratives addressing challenging topics such as slavery, racial injustice, and historical inequality. Please make sure you are comfortable with your student reading about and engaging in discussions on these subjects.


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Literature of the New World Information




  • Example Syllabus
  • Class meets once per week for 50-55 minutes.
  • Class cap: 20 students.
  • Designed for grades 10-12.
  • High school students may be awarded 1 Language Arts credit upon completion of this course.
  • Taught by Lauren Upton

Course Materials




  • Click here to purchase the course texts.
    • To My Husband and Other Poems, Anne Bradstreet
    • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin
    • Common Sense, Thomas Paine
    • Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
    • Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
    • The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Allan Poe
    • Billy Budd and Other Tales, Herman Melville
    • The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
    • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
    • The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
    • Up from Slavery, Booker T Washington
    • Complete Poems of Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman
    • Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce
    • The Road Not Taken and Other Poems, Robert Frost
    • The Complete Stories, Flannery O’Connor
    • Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
    • To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
    • The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway


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