ENG 20800 American Values in Literature

Explore together values such as self-reliance, democracy, diversity, and personal and political freedom in the lives of Americans as students read, analyze and write about literature that focuses on the closing of the frontier (1870) to the present. The class will engage in examination of the era’s historical, geographic, and social forces which have shaped American identity and cultural consciousness. Students will apply close reading and literary criticism to a variety of genres in fictional and non-fictional works of American literature.