Course Description and Goals: "Literature and Human Experience: American Mosaic" is designed to provide an introduction to the study of literature with an emphasis on reading analytically and responding critically to a variety of representative literature from the several traditions that make up the North American cultural experience.

The Statue of Liberty beacons the world to “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Through the study of the literature of these “homeless, tempest tost” immigrants and of those they meet when they arrive, we will encounter the American Mosaic in several of its contact zones.

Through our reading, writing, and discussion of the elements, themes, and styles that constitute the literary works we read, we will ponder together what I call the paradox of interpersonal understanding--namely, that however foreign or proximate the "other" may be, it is at the same time both utterly impossible and yet absolutely necessary that we understand each other. As we analyze and discuss the content and contexts of literary texts (prose fiction, drama, poetry, and nonfiction) from across the continent, we will explore both cultural diversity and human commonality, two aspects which lead us to a deeper respect for individual human experience and to greater understanding of humans as members of various interdependent communities. Furthermore, we will reflect on the pivotal cultural implications of why we read, what we read, how we read, and who we think "we" are.

After a semester of English 221, 222, or 223, students should

·        be able to read any text critically and actively

·        have confidence in their own abilities to read analytically

·        know and understand a variety of critical approaches to texts and be able to take different approaches to texts as contexts require--e.g., cultural background, biographical information, conditions of the production of a text, etc.

·        be able to respond critically, thoughtfully, and creatively to texts they read.

To this end, we will address the following questions:

·        How are texts defined--in different cultural traditions and through different critical approaches?

·        How and why are texts canonized? How and why have canons changed?

·        How can texts be read in a variety of critical traditions and from different critical approaches?

Or, in other words, why do we read what we read how we read it?

Required Texts:

Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Davenport, Kiana. Shark Dialogues. New York: Dutton/Plume, 1995.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925 [editorial material copyright 1991, 1992].

Gillan, Maria Mazziotti and Jennifer Gillan, eds. Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. New York: Penguin, 1994.

Houston, Velina Hasu, ed. But Still, Like Air, I'll Rise: New Asian American Plays. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1997.

Magona, Sindiwe. Mother to Mother. Boston: Beacon, 1998.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York: Garland Publishing, 1999.

Wanek, Connie. Hartley Field. Duluth, Minnesota: Holy Cow! Press, 2002.

Recommended Handbook:
Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. The Pocket Handbook. Second edition. Boston: Heinle, 2003.

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