F or most of us, American literature is a familiar and beloved subject. We know our history and ourselves through the work of classic writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, Zora Neale Hurston, and Robert Frost. We come to understand our nation and its culture by reading Emily Dickinson, Sherman Alexie, Tim O’Brien, and Edwidge Danticat. Most of these are authors of fiction and poetry, yet today nonfiction has taken its rightful place as part of our American literary tradition. In Conversations in American Literature: Language · Rhetoric · Culture, our goal is to bring all of these elements together: poems, short stories, memoir, speeches, essays, visual texts, history, ideas, and culture. You’ll find many of the classic examples of fiction and poetry that define American literature set in the context of the cultural conversations, historical debates, and literary legacies that have shaped—and continue to shape—our national identity.

Conversations in American Literature is designed to help teachers and students explore American literature while balancing the current emphases on nonfiction, rhetoric, argument, and synthesis required by both the AP English Language and Composition course and the Common Core State Standards. As such, we hope that the book you have in your hands strikes you as a bit different, even innovative: a literature anthology that puts nonfiction on equal footing with fiction and poetry; a literature anthology that is both chronological and thematic; a literature anthology that emphasizes close reading, critical thinking, rhetoric, argument, and synthesis.

How the Opening Chapters Work

Featuring accessible texts for effective scaffolding and an engaging activity-driven approach, the four opening chapters of Conversations in American Literature provide an approachable introduction to the fundamentals of rhetoric, close reading, argument, and synthesis.

Working with Literature

Those of you who know The Language of Composition will find the structure of these introductory chapters somewhat familiar, but you will also notice that we have added instructional sections on working with literary texts, as well as numerous literary examples throughout the chapters. While we approach these literary texts aesthetically, we also ask students to consider how literary texts can be read rhetorically, analyzed as arguments, and used as evidence in their own writing. The glossary includes literary and rhetorical terms and examples that are helpful in the analysis of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.

Working with Visual Texts

We know our students live in a visual world, which makes it vital that they develop the critical tools and habits of mind to be able to analyze how visual texts work—how they persuade a viewer, how they reflect the culture, how they challenge beliefs and ideas. Throughout these introductory chapters, we incorporate instruction in the rhetorical and stylistic analysis of visual texts.

Just as a writer uses verbal humor to make a point, a political cartoonist might use visual humor. Just as a writer uses evocative language to engage her audience, so might a photographer use evocative images. Especially in this information-rich age, facts and figures, statistics, and numerical data are just as likely to be presented in visual form—in charts, tables, graphs—as in prose. For these reasons, we have interspersed visual texts of all kinds throughout the opening chapters rather than focusing on them in a single chapter on visuals.

How the Readings Chapters Work

In keeping with the tradition of the American literature course, the readings chapters of Conversations in American Literature are organized chronologically; however, since we see our American tradition less as a linear progression than an ongoing dialogue, we have introduced thematic TalkBacks and Conversations. We have found in our own classrooms that such connections encourage engagement and stimulate lively discussion of how the past continues to influence the present.

Illustrated historical introductions provide essential context. To support the historical exploration of American literature, each chapter of readings begins with an introduction to the major events and social forces that define the time period. We have made these introductions brief yet thorough, and whenever possible we have tied the events of the period directly to the pieces within the chapter to provide students with both a sense of the historical importance of each work as well as its context.

TalkBacks pair classic pieces with more recent responses. We recognize that for students older literature can sometimes seem a bit dusty. The aim of the TalkBacks is to show the enduring relevance of these classic pieces, either as topics of debate in society or as sources of inspiration for more recent writers.

Sometimes the TalkBack is a direct response, as is the case with Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s twentieth-century poetic response to the seventeenth-century captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson. At other times, the TalkBacks are indirect responses. For example, Martin Luther King Jr.’s classic “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is paired with “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” Malcolm Gladwell’s comparison of the strategies that made the civil rights movement a success with those of more recent revolutions organized through social media. Another pairs a section of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle that describes conditions in a turn-of-the-century slaughterhouse with a startlingly similar passage from Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation.

Whether direct or indirect, the instructional purpose of the TalkBack pairing remains the same: to inspire students and draw connections between texts and across the ages. In a way, these pairings re-create the old-fashioned filing cabinet in which teachers stored clippings and connections as they developed lessons around central texts of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.

Conversations explore cultural issues and literary legacies. The heart of Conversations in American Literature is the Conversations sections, which make up nearly half of each chronological chapter. These eighteen Conversations are thematic clusters that explore a cultural issue, historical figure, or literary legacy from its historical roots to the present. So, while the Conversations are indeed synthesis practice, they are also much more. They are opportunities to enter long-standing cultural conversations and debates in an informed way and with a true historical understanding of the issues. They are an opportunity for students to investigate how the past continues to shape the present. For instance, the Conversation on the Columbus Day Controversy in Chapter 6 begins with primary-source documents from Columbus and King Ferdinand of Spain before moving forward into argumentative pieces regarding Columbus’s legacy and the suitability of a national holiday in his honor.

Other Conversations ask students to tackle today’s controversial issues—such as immigration or income inequality—by studying the history of the issue as expressed in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction of the day along with contemporary op-ed pieces. Other Conversations have literary angles, such as exploring the legacy of Henry David Thoreau, considering the influence of Phillis Wheatley on later African American writers, and asking the larger question about what defines American literature.

Within each Conversation, a set of questions guides students through the individual piece’s issues and style. Making Connections questions help students compare and contrast the various arguments in the texts, a key intermediary step in moving from analysis to synthesis. And finally, we ask students to “Enter the Conversation” through writing prompts that require synthesis of the materials and ideas as students develop their own voices and viewpoints.

Guided questions target key skills. In Conversations in American Literature, we have included support for every piece in the book to help your students hone the key AP and Common Core skills of close reading, literary and rhetorical analysis, and synthesis. We want students to read with a writer’s eye—to see how the techniques of professional and published writers might be used in their own writing.

Exploring the Text questions are approachable yet rigorous prompts for discussion, writing, and even group work that promote close reading and critical thinking. The questions take students from an understanding of the piece and its ideas to an investigation of how authors and artists shape meaning.

Making Connections questions accompanying the TalkBacks and Conversations move students from analysis to comparison and contrast—a key step on the path to synthesis.

Entering the Conversation questions after each Conversation are synthesis and research prompts that give students an opportunity to bring multiple sources to bear in supporting an argument or illustrating an issue.

Suggestions for Writing at the end of each chapter guide students toward written responses that connect multiple pieces within and beyond the chapter and even beyond the book. Each set includes—but is not limited to—essay prompts that simulate the rhetorical analysis, argument, and synthesis questions that appear on the AP English Language exam.

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style sections give grammar purpose. These sections reinforce students’ understanding of grammar while showing how grammar can serve a rhetorical and stylistic purpose. In each chapter, we focus on one element—such as appositives, parallel structures, or modifiers—and draw examples from the readings so that students can see, for instance, how Martin Luther King Jr. uses parallel structure and to what effect, or how John Steinbeck uses precise, active verbs.

Resources for You and Your Students

Conversations in American Literature Teacher’s Manual (ISBN: 978-1-4576-7300-9) Comprehensive and user-friendly, this teacher’s manual is an indispensable guide for teaching both AP English Language and Common Core American Literature courses, offering a wealth of resources for teachers of all levels:

Conversations in American Literature e-Book Conversations in American Literature is available electronically in a number of different formats.

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ExamView Quizzing Resource for AP English Language Finally, the AP English Language exam preparation your students need comes to the ExamView platform you love. With more than 1600 AP-style multiple-choice questions, this testbank is our biggest exam preparation tool ever! ISBN 978-1-4576-5762-

Conversations in American Literature Media Page Here you will find reading comprehension quizzes, a links library to audio/video for every piece, and other great Bedford/St. Martin’s resources, like Re:Writing for Literature, a free collection of tutorials, quizzes, and videos. bedfordstmartins.com/cialit

Acknowledgments

We want to extend our heartfelt appreciation to the team at Bedford/St. Martin’s. We’ve enjoyed the support, guidance, and encouragement of many talented professionals, starting with the leadership of founder Joan Feinberg, vice president of editorial for the humanities Denise Wydra, editor in chief Karen Henry, and former director of development Erica Appel, who have been committed to this project from the start. Our decision to dedicate Conversations in American Literature to Nancy Perry, former editor in chief and editorial director of custom publishing, was an easy one. She has encouraged us through three books, and it is no exaggeration to call her role in this project, as well as in the others, visionary; none of our books would exist without her initial ideas and continuing belief in them. Our gifted editor, Nathan Odell, just gets better and better. We would be nowhere without his ability to see the big picture; his appreciation for language and literature; his energy, enthusiasm, and patience; and his friendship. Many thanks to senior marketing manager Lisa Erdely for her support, expertise, humor, and perspective. We thank Dan McDonough, executive editor, for his creativity and faith. He brought us together at Bedford/St. Martin’s and has supported every project since. We also want to thank our many dedicated and innovative colleagues in the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board, the Educational Testing Service, and classrooms across the country for sharing their knowledge of their subject matter and their passion for preparing students for success in college. We would like to thank our reviewers, whose expertise guided us at every turn: John Brassil, Sandra Coker, Carol Jago, Denise Hayden, Jennifer Barbknecht, Allison Casper, Timothy Cook, Beth Dibler, Frances Fok, Susanne Harrison, M. Kamel Igoudjil, Christine Kervina, Bill Kirby, Sylvia Kranish, Fernanda Kray, Shaylene Krupinski, Linda Mayfield, Linda Mirro, Lisa Moore, Valerie Morehouse, Sherry Neaves, Rebecca Swanigan, Gwendolyn Todd.

As always, we thank our partners, Arthur Aufses, Michael Shea, and Mary-Grace Gannon, for their support and encouragement. This time our list of co-authors does include Kate Aufses, whose study of American literature at Kenyon College and Cambridge University helped jump-start this book. But we know that all our children—Michael Aufses, Meredith Barnes, Christopher Shea, Alison Scanlon, Lindsay Prezzano, Maura Liguori, and Kaitlin Scanlon—are our co-authors of the heart. Finally, we are grateful to our students—the ones in our classrooms and the colleagues in our workshops—for teaching us well.

Robin Dissin Aufses

RenÉe H. Shea

Lawrence F. Scanlon