ENG 209: Survey of American Literature

Course Description

This course is a survey of American literature over the last century, beginning with the Modernist period and the first World War. Through readings of fiction, poetry, drama, and essays, students will be introduced to major authors and significant movements in American literary history. Authors will be selected from a variety of cultural traditions in the United States. As the course moves into later readings, there will be a consideration of how individual authors respond to and diverge from the traditions and influence of those who came before. Throughout, the identification of what is specifically “American” about American literature will be a central focus. (3 credits)

Prerequisites

  • ENG 101: English Composition 1
  • ENG 102: English Composition 2
  • U.S. History course (Recommended)

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

  1. Read American literature carefully and demonstrate comprehension through identification of and commentary on details, tone, audience, distinguishing features and cultural assumptions.
  2. Identify, describe and compare the characteristics and dominant themes of major movements and schools within American literature since 1900 and of significant authors in that time.
  3. Identify the contributions made to American literature by women and discuss this work in the context of specific social and cultural contexts.
  4. Identify the contributions made to American literature by members of a variety of cultural traditions and discuss this work in the context of specific social and cultural contexts.
  5. Respond to prompts in written English that is clear and mechanically sound.
  6. Synthesize original arguments about the meaning and form of literary texts supported with evidence from the readings and supplementary research.
  7. Draw conclusions about American literature, culture and history from the readings.
  8. Reflect on and revise previous assumptions about American literature and history.
  9. Access, evaluate and employ research sources for literary study.
  10. Compare and contrast texts by different authors and from different points in American literary history to draw original conclusions about theme, focus, tone, voice and other literary qualities.

Course Activities and Grading

AssignmentsWeight

Discussions (Weeks 1-8)

32%

Response Papers (Weeks 1-6)

18%

Research Paper (Week 7)

25%

Final Exam (Week 8)

25%

Total

100%

Required Textbooks

Available through Charter Oak State College's Book Bundle

  • Levine, Robert S. (2022). The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 10th ed. Volumes C, D & E. W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-88443-2

    Note: This package is less expensive than purchasing two individual volumes. Although no readings from Volume C are explicitly assigned in this class, you are encouraged to use selections from the text to provide additional context and comparisons in your discussions and writing assignments. Feel free to contact your instructor with questions about this.

Course Schedule

Week

SLOs

Readings and Exercises

Assignments

1

1-3,5-7

Topic: Modernist American Poetry

  • Readings:
    • Robert Frost (page 241), “Mending Wall,” “Home Burial,” “The Road Not Taken,” “Birches,” “Out, Out--,” and “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
    • Wallace Stevens (page 291), “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” “Anecdote of the Jar,” and “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
    • William Carlos Williams (page 303), “Spring and All,” “The Red Wheelbarrow,” and “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”
    • Ezra Pound (page 313), “In a Station of the Metro,” “The River Merchant’s Wife,” and “Canto I”
    • H.D. (page 345), all selections
    • T. S. Eliot (page 368), “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land”
    • Norton, Volume D
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Submit response paper

2

1,2,5-7

Topic: Modernist American Fiction

  • Readings:
    • Sherwood Anderson (page 273), all selections
    • F. Scott Fitzgerald (page 657), “Babylon Revisited”
    • William Faulkner (page 774), “A Rose for Emily” and “Barn Burning”
    • Ernest Hemingway (page 903), “Hills Like White Elephants”
    • Norton, Volume D
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Submit response paper

3

1-7

Topics: The Harlem Renaissance and African-American Voices

  • Readings:
    • Zora Neale Hurston (page 538), “How It Feels to be Colored Me”
    • Jean Toomer (page 648), all selections
    • Langston Hughes (page 944), all selections
    • Countee Cullen (page 965), all selections
    • Richard Wright (page 971), “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”
    • Norton, Volume D
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Submit response paper

4

1-7

Topic: An Overview of Postwar American Poetry

  • Readings:
    • Allen Ginsberg (page 413), “Howl”
    • Anne Sexton (page 457), all selections
    • Adrienne Rich (page 465), “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law,” “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” and “Diving into the Wreck”
    • Sylvia Plath (page 632), all selections
    • Yusef Komunyakaa (page 883), all selections
    • Louise Erdrich (page 984), “Dear John Wayne” Li-Young Lee (997), all selections
    • Norton, Volume E
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Submit response paper

5

1,2,5-7,10

Topic: American Drama

  • Readings:
    • Arthur Miller (page 192), “Death of a Salesman”
    • August Wilson (page 825), “Fences.”
    • Norton, Volume E
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Submit response paper

6

1-7,10

Topic: African-American Fiction

  • Readings:
    • Ralph Ellison (page 163), all selections
    • James Baldwin (page 335), “Going to Meet the Man”
    • Toni Morrison (page 617), “Recitatif”
    • Alice Walker (page 818), “Everyday Use”
    • Norton, Volume E
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Submit response paper

7

1-10

Topic: More Contemporary Fiction

  • Readings:
    • John Updike (page 643), "Separating”
    • Raymond Carver (page 738), “Cathedral”
    • George Saunders (page 1028), “Civil War Land in Bad Decline”
    • Alexie (page 1060),
    • Lahiri (page 1081)
    • Norton, Volume E
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Submit response paper

8

1-8,10

Topic: Postmodern American Narratives

  • Readings:
    • Kurt Vonnegut (page 298), all selections
    • Ursula K. Le Guin (page 508), all selections
    • Thomas Pynchon (page 726), “Entropy”
    • Art Spiegelman (page 896), from “Maus”
    • Norton, Volume E
  • Read assigned selections
  • Participate in the Discussions
  • Review the Lecture material
  • Complete Course Evaluation

COSC Accessibility Statement

Charter Oak State College encourages students with disabilities, including non-visible disabilities such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities, head injury, attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, or psychiatric disabilities, to discuss appropriate accommodations with the Office of Accessibility Services at OAS@charteroak.edu.

COSC Policies, Course Policies, Academic Support Services and Resources

Students are responsible for knowing all Charter Oak State College (COSC) institutional policies, course-specific policies, procedures, and available academic support services and resources. Please see COSC Policies for COSC institutional policies, and see also specific policies related to this course. See COSC Resources for information regarding available academic support services and resources.