LIT060B CM - American Writers 1900-Present

This course is an introduction to modern American literature in different genres: though our emphasis will be on the novel, we will also be looking at short stories, poems, plays, essays, and films. We will study the evolution of American literature within the changing social, cultural, intellectual, and literary contexts and conventions of the last hundred or so years by tracing shifting mythologies and perceptions of Americanness in authors such as Cather, Hemingway, W.C. Williams, Faulkner, O’Neill, Ellison, Kerouac, and McCarthy. Our reading will emphasize the variety of narrative strategies and formal experiments authors developed and undertook in order to capture local color or distinct voices, to respond to or register changes in the modern world, or to shape discourses of nationhood, democracy, liberty, race, and gender.

Offered: Every other year

Credit: 1

Course Number: LIT 060B CM