This course is a part of:
Associate's Degree Program
Bachelor's Degree Program

This course will provide the student with an overview of the important writers and works of American literature from the post-Civil-War era through the present. Nonfiction essays, documents, poems, speeches and short stories relevant to their historical times will be introduced and discussed in addition to works of fiction. Students will be responsible for familiarity with the indicated required works, and they will choose additional readings in a subgenre of their choice to further inform their literary education. The course will include the introduction/review of literary elements and analysis in application to discuss works of literature.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• Recognize and appreciate the importance of American Literary texts
• Acquire familiarity with the idea of the literary canon, including issues of history, culture, race, ethnicity and gender
• Perform close readings and explicate texts written in a variety of modes
• Identify and analyze fundamental literary elements and devices within a text
• Identify and characterize the important features of nonfiction, fiction, speech and poetry
• Acquire a wide range of literary terms relating to literary history and history
• Synthesize ideas in literary form and use literary terms in historical context
• Develop and carry out research based writings, based on literary context including locating, evaluating, organizing and incorporating information
• Write clearly, grammatically correct and syntactically correct sentences
• Apply correctly the MLA Format to all their written work