American Voices Literature

This class is a thematic survey of literature with the overriding question of “What does it mean to have a voice in American literature?” Reading assignments include excerpts from many American authors, past and present, organized thematically. Required texts can include The Catcher in the Rye, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, A Raisin in the Sun, The Crucible, and select short stories and poems from Gorilla, My Love; Drinking Coffee Elsewhere; How To Be An Indian in the 21st Century; I Am Not Your Indian Princess; Leaves of Grass; The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes and various supplemental nonfiction texts used to provide a historical context for reading. (The material in this course differs from the reading in American Experiences Literature.)