LITR221

In this class we will examine American literature from the late nineteenth century to the present. Beginning roughly from the Romantic writers ofthe mid nineteenth century and then moving on to the Realistic and Naturalistic writers ofthe post#Civil War period up through the Modern era, we consider what kinds ofstories Americans wrote about themselves and how we should interpret these texts. We want to consider these texts in their own right and as products ofa grander American literary tradition that we can trace back to the nineteenth century and beyond. This class will also encourage students to hone their reading and writing skills. Students will be asked to read and annotate the literature with an analytical eye. Since students will be writing literary analysis papers, they will want to write these papers using the MLA (Modern Language Association) format.