ENLT 2513: Major American Authors

Crossings: Race and Transatlantic American Literature

How do we determine the boundaries of a nation’s literature? In particular, how do we determine the boundaries of what we call “American” literature when people and texts are always in motion? In this course, we will read a variety of exciting texts that explore American literature from a trans-Atlantic perspective, focusing on "crossings" both literal and metaphorical. We will examine how works of American literature both reflect and respond to the historical construction and permeability of racial, cultural, and national boundaries. Assigned readings will include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry by writers from the 18^th, 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st centuries. Our discussions will explore how the texts on our syllabus interrogate concepts such as race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and citizenship and how they represent the complex web of history, memory, and myth that ties the present to the past. We will learn how the formal aspects of the texts—from verse forms to kinds of narration—shape the ways that texts make meaning for their audiences, and we will also look for ways in which the texts are in conversation with each other and with broader social trends. This course fulfills the second writing requirement.

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