American Lit Traditions II

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this course, we will study landmark literary works published in the United States from 1865 to the present. Reading closely, we will track fundamental tensions in the history of this nation and its literatures, including tradition/change, inclusion/exclusion, and unity/diversity. Proceeding from an understanding of US literature as multiracial and polyvocal, our historically grounded units will bring us through major developments including Reconstruction, realism and naturalism, modernism, midcentury social movements, postmodern narrative innovations, and contemporary engagements with the past that never really goes away. We will read novels, short stories, poems, and essays, and we'll also attend to popular music and other forms of art and media that influence US literature. Texts will include works by Charles Chesnutt, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry James, Jack London, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, Jennifer Egan, and many others.