ENGL 2040 - Introduction to American Literature: Civil War to the Present

(crosslisted) AMST 2040
(LA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

G. Hutchinson.

This course will introduce students to American literature from the Civil War to the present. We will consider a wide range of authors and literary movements while paying close attention to radical shifts in American culture in the past century and a half. We will ask: What traditions do American authors inherit and what new ones do they invent? How does this writing engage central issues of modern American culture such as race, immigration, class mobility, and technology? The class will examine a variety of genres including poetry, novels, manifestos, and drama. Authors include Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, Felipe Alfau, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, and others.