“American Landscapes: Explorations in Twentieth Century Writing”

Many of the massive social, environmental, and political changes that unfolded over the course of the twentieth century America are reflected in the readings for this course, which aims to investigate works twentieth century fiction and non-fiction in the context of their historical reality. The reality and myth of the frontier, divisions separating urban versus rural experience, the rise of race awareness and the American civil rights movement, an emergent middle class and suburban lifestyle, are reflected in the content of these books. The protagonists and other characters in these works confront or find themselves entangled, actually and metaphorically, with an ever-altering American landscape as they seek to define themselves and their needs and make sense of a sometimes senseless and fraught social order.

“American Landscapes: Explorations in Twentieth Century Writing”

Many of the massive social, environmental, and political changes that unfolded over the course of the twentieth century America are reflected in the readings for this course, which aims to investigate works twentieth century fiction and non-fiction in the context of their historical reality. The reality and myth of the frontier, divisions separating urban versus rural experience, the rise of race awareness and the American civil rights movement, an emergent middle class and suburban lifestyle, are reflected in the content of these books. The protagonists and other characters in these works confront or find themselves entangled, actually and metaphorically, with an ever-altering American landscape as they seek to define themselves and their needs and make sense of a sometimes senseless and fraught social order.

Many of the massive social, environmental, and political changes that unfolded over the course of the twentieth century America are reflected in the readings for this course, which aims to investigate works twentieth century fiction in the context of their historical reality. The reality and myth of the frontier, divisions separating urban versus rural experience, the rise of race awareness and the American civil rights movement, an emergent middle class and suburban lifestyle, are reflected in the content of these books. The protagonists and other characters in these works confront or find themselves entangled, actually and metaphorically, with an ever-altering American landscape as they seek to define themselves and their needs and make sense of a sometimes senseless and fraught social order

Many of the massive social, environmental, and political changes that unfolded over the course of the twentieth century America are reflected in the readings for this course, which aims to investigate works twentieth century fiction in the context of their historical reality. The reality and myth of the frontier, divisions separating urban versus rural experience, the rise of race awareness and the American civil rights movement, an emergent middle class and suburban lifestyle, are reflected in the content of these books. The protagonists and other characters in these works confront or find themselves entangled, actually and metaphorically, with an ever-altering American landscape as they seek to define themselves and their needs and make sense of a sometimes senseless and fraught social order

Willa Cather, My Antonia
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Ernest Hemingway, The Nick Adams Stories
Richard Wright, Black Boy (autobiography) or Native Son (fiction)
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (fiction)
John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever;

Willa Cather, My Antonia
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Ernest Hemingway, The Nick Adams Stories
Richard Wright, Black Boy (autobiography) or Native Son (fiction)
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (fiction)
John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever;