In 1782, the French American writer J. Hector St. John de Crévecœr famously asked, “What is an American?” In this course, we will comparatively study the literature of several North, Central, and South American cultures, including the Caribbean, in order to better understand how American identity has been constructed from the fifteenth century to the present. Some of the topics to be considered include the European discovery of America, colonial cultures, the independent movements, and the postcolonial nation states. Not only will you learn how to “read” America by encountering a range of diverse hemispheric texts, but you will also begin to articulate your own interpretations of the region via a series of weekly writing prompts.