Colonial Period Literature

Study Colonial Literature using Online Video

With this title, you'll trace the development of American literature from the lore of Native Americans to the rise of Gothic novels. Use our 3 online educational video titles to trace the development of American literature from the lore of Native Americans...to early colonial writings...to the conflict between Enlightenment thought and Puritan ideals...to the emergence of sentimental, Gothic, and satirical novels. Writers discussed include James Fenimore Cooper, Benjamin Franklin, Washington, Irving, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain insight to the early history of American literature from the colonial era to the mid-nineteenth century, examining the lore of Native Americans, the accounts of early European explorers, Puritan values, the ideals of the Enlightenment, the political writings of the revolutionaries, and the social impact of the Salem witch trials.
• Explore how the proverbs of 'Poor Richard Saunders', the fictional lore of Natty Bumppo, and the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence sparked the imagination and inspired a national vision of vast frontiers and a promising destiny.
• Explain the significance of American themes and settings in early American novels.
• Identify colonial and early American writers, including Washington Irving, the first American author to have his works received with critical acclaim abroad.

• Literature > The History Of American Literature > The Literature Of The Colonies And The Revolution
• The Literature of the Colonies (Runtime: 16:23)
• The Literature of the Revolution (Runtime: 14:38)
• The Birth of a National Literature (Runtime: 16:11)