2:30p-3:45p TR (30) 3 cr.
This course will survey a number of texts with the intention of examining how the concepts of nation and literature intersect and are imagined and portrayed in fiction and poetry. This is not a "masterpieces" course, although all of the works we will read have their own unique literary merit. Instead, what we will focus on is the text as it performs the cultural work of creating individual, communal, and national identity. Discussing the critical issues of race, gender, class, and the relation between "citizen" and “nation" will move us toward understanding competing national narratives and how we strive to understand ourselves in and of the nation.