ENGL 201 - Rethinking Gender in American Literature

FC ARHU CD

4 credits
The list of candidates for the elusive title of “Great American Novel” has long been dominated by cisgendered men. In this course, we will consider an alternative literary history of the United States, swapping out Huckleberry Finn for bildungsromans by Zitkala-Ša and Willa Cather; exploring modernism through the eyes of Nella Larsen and Djuna Barnes rather than F. Scott Fitzgerald; and confronting queerness in texts by Sarah Orne Jewett, James Baldwin, and Ocean Vuong. As we read and discuss a diverse array of writers and literary genres, we will also put pressure on the practice of constructing literary hierarchies altogether.