The early-American fiction writers Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe contributed significantly to the American literary canon with their unique styles of writing and their varied literary themes and forms. Analyze and research their literary works to support your thesis on the writing styles, themes, and forms of Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. As you explore pertinent contexts, be careful to use appropriate literary, political, and cultural
terminology in your writing.
Essay Topic II
Both Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe were influential writers of the Civil War era; and this turbulent time in American history also gave rise to the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs. After analyzing and researching the writings of Douglass, Jacobs, Lincoln, and Stowe, form a thesis that enables you to address Douglass and Jacobs lives as slaves and Lincolns and Stowes influences in bringing the institution of slavery to an end. A thesis is one sentence of no more than 25 words, so choose your words carefully because you must address both aspects of this topic in the one thesis. As you explore pertinent contexts, be careful to use appropriate literary, political, and cultural terminology in your
writing. To be graded and to receive credit, your essay must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document (.doc
or .docx)
How to cite textbook:
Our textbook is an ANTHOLOGY (a collection of works by multiple authors, curated by an editor), and as such, can be cited two different ways in your paper and on your Works-Cited page.
Primary sources (works and words by the authors themselves) will appear on the Works Cited page as follows:
Author. “Title of Poem.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Robert S. Levine, shorter 9th ed., Vol. 1: Beginnings to 1865, W. W. Norton, 2017, page range of selection.
Sample Primary Source Citation (dont use this one unless youre actually citing Anne Bradstreet):
Bradstreet, Anne. “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” The Norton Anthology of A
***pick one of the topics
*** databases (use four sources from here) (use english and history): https://researchguides.cpcc.edu/az.php
*** textbook is located in online pdf
Textbook: Textbook: The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1865, Robert S. Levine, General Editor.
