ENGL 206 - American Literature: Realistic and Modern

3 Credits: (3 lecture)

Course Description
A survey of representative American authors from the end of the Civil War to the present, this course explores the continuing genesis and development of American literature’s diverse aesthetic and cultural traditions. This course meets the General Education competency of Critical Thinking (CT).

Prerequisite ENGL 101 or permission of instructor.

Levine, Robert, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 10th ed. Vol. 2. Norton, 2022.

Objectives
The student will be able to: 

A. Evaluate a diverse collection of evidence related to an American Literature research question/thesis. (CT) 

B. Synthesize the evidence and draw conclusions regarding various authors’ response to basic questions about the nature of Americans. (CT) 

C. The student will be able to compile a written, verbal, or visual response to the evidence that acknowledges alternative explanations and views. (CT) 

D. Identify, define, and cite examples of literary forms/genres and themes prominent in each era and among various  cultural/racial/gender groups. 

E. Identify and explain some of the environmental, social, political, scientific, religious, or artistic influences that manifest themselves in the literature produced in each era. 

Content
The following periods, groups, and authors will be included. Others may be included. 

A. The Age of Realism:  1865-1914 

Major Fiction:  Clemens, James, Wharton, Cather. 

Women’s Issues in Fiction:  Chopin, Gilman. 

Regionalism:  Harte, Harris, Jewett, Freeman, Austin, and/or Cable. 

Naturalism: Garland, Norris, Crane, London, and/or Dreiser.Page Break 

B. The Modern Period: 1914-1945 

Major Fiction:  Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald. 

Drama:  O’Neill and/or Williams. 

African-American Literature:  Hughes, Cullen, Wright, and/or Ellison. 

Poetry:  Frost, Williams, Cullen, Moore, and/or Jeffers. 

C. The Post-War and Post-Modern Periods:  1945 to the Present 

Major Jewish-American Fiction: Malamud, Roth, Doctorow, and/or Bellow. 

The Beat Movement:  Writers such as Ginsberg, Kerouac, and/or Snyder. 

Emergence of Major Native American Fiction:  Momaday and/or Silko. 

Poetry:  Writers such as Berryman, Wilbur, Plath, Sexton, Kinnell, Baraka. 

Drama:  Miller and/or Wilson. 

Student Evaluation
A. Literary research paper 

B. Class discussion, Exam essay questions 

C. Literary analysis paper 

D. Exams 

E. Class discussion, Exam essay questions  

Bibliography
Davidson, Cathy N. and Linda Wagner-Martin.  The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States. Oxford UP, 1995. 

Gray, Richard. A History of American Literature. 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 

Hart, James D.  The Oxford Companion to American Literature.  6th ed. Oxford, 1995. 

Perkins, George, Barbara Perkins, and Philip Leininger, eds.  Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature. Harper Collins, 1991. 

Snodgrass, Mary Ellen.  Encyclopedia of Southern Literature. ABC-CLIO, 1997. 

Spiller, Robert E., et al.  eds.  Literary History of the United States.  3rd ed.  Revised.  Macmillan, 1963. 

Whitson, Kathy J.  Native American Literatures. ABC-CLIO, 1999.