English 250 is designed to introduce students to some of the basic themes underlying American national literary character. What do I mean by this? As critics like Cathy Davidson and Michael Warner have noted, American national culture has from its inception been a culture of letters, disseminated through pirated novels, black market pamphlets, periodicals, and other literary forms circulating throughout the new nation. Literary texts, as well as film, have been instrumental in institutionalizing themes of American identity with their audiences, thus naturalizing these ideals into American characters.

This course will begin with an examination of basic historical events of American history, paired with some methodological readings of nationalism and mythology. The following nine weeks will take students through five key themes in American culture that can be termed “mythologies of Americana”: liberty, piety, entrepreneurialism, individualism, and agrarianism. We will examine a number of texts ranging from the 17th century through the 21st that take up these themes critically and uncritically, including Rowlandson, Hawthorne, Cooper, Franklin, Ellison, McInerney, Kerouac, and others.



In this course, students will be expected to complete a bibliographic website and a 5-10 page critical paper, along with GoPost weekly responses and quizzes to demonstrate consistent engagement with the required texts. Students should prepare for a heavy reading schedule and to participate every day in class.


Book List:

- A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

- The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

- Autobiography by Ben Franklin

- Invisible Man by Ralph Waldo Ellison

- On the Road by Jack Kerouac

- Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

- Course Pack available at Ave Copy Center