American Experiences Literature

This class is a thematic survey of literature with the overriding question of “What experiences of Americans are reflected in literature?”  Reading assignments include excerpts from many American authors, past and present, organized thematically.  Required books include Inside Out and Back Again; The Things They Carried and selected short stories from Love Medicine; The Latehomecomer; The Glass Castle; and Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun; as well as nonfiction texts to provide historical context for reading. (The material in this course differs from the reading in American Voices Literature.)