This course explores how American writers responded to the experience of living in a modern, multicultural and globalized America, 1865 to the present. The first goal is to trace the emergence of literary realism and modernism between the Civil War and WWII to more precisely define the significance and implications of these terms. The second goal of the course is to examine the form and legacy of the twentieth-century American novel, particularly its representations of regional communities and borderlands. This comparative approach frames a conversation in the third unit about the continuities and discontinuities of postmodern and contemporary American literature since 1980. Throughout the course, we will attend to a variety of African-American, Native-American, Latino, and immigrant writers whose voices complement and contest prevailing narratives of American identity between 1865 and 2017.

Writing About American Literature, by Gocsik, Karen, Coleman Hutchinson

Cities of the Plain, by Cormac McCarthy

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, by Cormac McCarthy

The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 1, Shorter 8th Edition

Life on Mars: Poems, by Tracy K. Smith