This course is designed to provide you with a survey of American literature from 1492 to present that includes correspondence, personal narratives, essays, poetry, drama, short fiction, novels, and combinations thereof. Through class discussion and written analyses, you will develop a working understanding of the role literature plays in creating, challenging, and/or upholding our nation’s sense of identity. We will also discuss the means by which we assess a work’s literary merit, asking ourselves how our expectations for what constitutes literature have changed over the centuries. Put another way, this class will encourage you to ask, “What’s so American about American literature anyway?”
Required Texts and Supplies:
- Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition (2011)
- Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (Penguin Books, 1991)
- Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig (Knopf Doubleday, 2011)
- Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (Harper Perennial, 2006)
- Ticket to REP’s production of Wit (April 24–May 10) (optional)
- Access to Sakai
- Access to the Oxford English Dictionary (UD Databases)
- One class notebook; sticky notes (flags and tags)
- Printer paper and ink cartridges
Virginia Garnett 