Course Description
Significant work by American writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Writers may include William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, T.S. Eliot, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Elizabeth Bishop, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Ted Chiang, and Adrienne Rich.
Athena Title
American Lit Since 1914 H
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ENGL 2340
Prerequisite
(ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S) and permission of Honors
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will be familiar with representative texts of major American writers from 1914 to the present.
- Students will contextualize and analyze examples from multiple literary genres including prose fiction, poetry, essays, and drama. They will practice analyzing literary form and thinking critically about literature and culture.
- Students will practice engaging in collaborative discussion with their peers, in both small groups and full-class discussion. They will improve their ability to express their ideas cogently and effectively.
- Students will improve their abilities to argue persuasively, use textual evidence, and write vigorous prose that adheres to conventional standards of grammar and usage.
Topical Outline
- The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester. A possible series of topics and assignments might resemble this:
- Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vols. D and E.
- Wright, Native Son
Eliot, selected Poems
Frost, selected poems
- Bellow, Henderson the Rain King
Erdrich, The Beet Queen
Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!
Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
Morrison, Song of Solomon
General Education Core
CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
