Course Description
A special topic not otherwise offered in the English curriculum. Topics and instructors vary from semester to semester.
Athena Title
Topics in American Literature
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, students, having read a substantial body of literature, will be able to discuss the assigned works (orally and in writing) with a considerable degree of critical sophistication, to read them with pleasure, and to converse with fellow students about texts and issues related to the subject matter of the course. Topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester, addressing the career of a single author, exploring a particular theme in American writing, or examining a literary problem or issue of particular interest to a given instructor. Each version of the course will consist of selected works by various authors to be read outside of class and discussed in class and to be examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and the circumstances of their composition. Periodically during the semester, students will perform a number of graded tasks, including some combination of tests, oral presentations, and out-of- class papers. Recent examples of topics courses include classes organized around: the work of Edgar Allan Poe, American Pragmatism, Henry James and Willa Cather, the novels of Mark Twain.
Topical Outline
The topical outline for each version of this course will vary from instructor to instructor. A sample syllabus on Mark Twain's career might include the following reading list as a basis for discussion and for written assignments throughout the semester: The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Mysterious Stranger, supplemented by works of biography and criticism on Twain, as well as by selections from his shorter pieces.