Course Description

This course exposes students to the fiction, poetry, select non-fiction, and genre-defying work of diverse American writers from the Civil War through the present. Students examine the relationship between these writers and the shifting literary, historical, political, sociocultural, intellectual, and aesthetic contexts since the American Civil War. They investigate the varying ways in which the works represent the moral and social issues of their time. Students are introduced to the themes, literary devices, and styles authors employ in individual works. The course explores both writers from the traditional literary canon and those who have been historically underrepresented. The course also highlights the continuing evolution of traditional literary genres and the creation of new genres. C-ID: ENGL 135.