Description
This course is designed to offer students a survey of the literature of the American South from the colonial period through the late twentieth century. The main focus will be to provide a general picture of Southern Literature - some of its major themes and writers, as well as its construction as a scholarly field of study. The class will read primarily short stories and novels, but also some poetry, drama, and critical essays, and will examine literature as a reflection of southern culture during that period, attempting to reconstruct the historical and social context(s) in which these works were produced. This course will also examine issues of gender, class, race, and region, as well as aesthetic and thematic techniques.