ENGL2303 - 01 - Dreams and Diversity in the American Novel

(LI) Literary Inquiry (AI-L) Aesthetic Inquiry Lit (DM) Diversity and Multiculturalism (WI) Writing Intensive

Focusing on a diverse group of American authors, this course will introduce students to a range of literary responses to the dramatic historical events and lived experiences of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The diversity of American identities, along with divergent experiences with the promise of an American dream, serves as a central thread connecting the assigned novels in the course. Recent semester have included novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nella Larsen, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Ruth Ozeki, Sandra Cisneros, and Junot Diaz, among others. Students will study the aesthetic originality of each novel, while also examining the significance of each work in relation to its historical context.