This course traces the development of American literature from the nation's founding to the late Twentieth Century. Readings may include classics by Bradford, Bradstreet, Wheatly, Crevecoeur, Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, Hawthorne, Whitman, Melville, Douglass, James, Crane, Chopin, Gilman, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hurston, O'Connor, Pynchon, Major, Morrison, Cisneros, and Alexie among others. Different authors are highlighted in each term, and all readings are situated within specific historical, cultural, philosophical, political, and literary contexts.