ENGL 3235 American Novel

INSTRUCTOR CONTACT:

Erin Kingsley, Ph.D.
Email:  Erin.Kingsley@colorado.edu

ABOUT THE COURSE:

What crucial American authors and novels have shaped the past 100 years? In this online course, you will learn about essential American authors and novels of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will learn about big movements in American writing that affected these novels, and how the authors were responding to vital events and ideas in their real lives. It is going to be a very exciting course. I am so glad you are joining us!

OBJECTIVES:

Students are expected to do the following via the assignments noted:

• Describe the broad history of 20th -21st century American literature (via discussion posts and quizzes)
• Explain select fundamentals of literary studies, including key critical schools and key literary terms (via quizzes, discussion posts, and the analytical paper)
• Describe the differences in authorial style and voice among select canonical authors/novels (via discussion posts)
• Write questions about the texts; perform close reading, research, and written critical analysis (via short papers and the analytical paper)
• Analyze and explain published critical commentary on canonical works (via the short papers)
• Employ MLA format in writing a standard research paper in literature (via the analytical paper)
• Increase digital literacy by learning how to use Google Drive (via the Google Drive posts)

REQUIRED TEXTS:

All books can be purchased online as well as in the bookstore; any edition will do):

• A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway (ISBN: 978-0684801469 )
• On the Road, by Jack Kerouac (978-0140283297)
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison (978-1400033416)
• White Noise, by Don DeLillo (978-0140274981)
• No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy (978-0330440110)
• We Need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo (978-0316230841 )
• CHOOSE ONE GRAPHIC NOVEL: The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud (978-1596435735)
  OR
  Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel (978-0618871711)

GRADING:

Grades are based on a scale of 100 points and are distributed as follows: