EN 209 - Survey of American Literature

Lecture Hours: 3
Lab Hours: 0
Credit Hours: 3

“It’s a complex fate, being an American.” When Henry James wrote these words, he had in mind certain persistent conflicts in the American mind and imagination. This course is an introduction to the major writers from the Colonial period to the present who have helped to define these conflicts and thus to illuminate the complex fate of this country. The course will consider such things as America’s sense of destiny; the tension between individual rights and social imperatives; the encounter of black, red, and white on this continent; the role of the artist in a democratic society; changing perspectives on nature; the old world versus the new; the American dream; and the American nightmare.