everything.study
AP/EN 2230

Introduction to American Literature

6.0 credits

Fall/Winter 2026–2027

Topics

  • American literature from colonial encounters to the present
  • National belonging and ideas of freedom
  • Race, slavery, immigration and class
  • Individuals, communities, religion and government
  • Competing narratives of American identity

Readings

  • Required: Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007).
  • Required: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850).
  • Required: Robert S. Levine, editor, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 10th ed., two volumes; source lists 2017.
  • Required: Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955).
  • Required: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).
Sources