Department of English

This course examines the American South as a place where history (colonization, slavery and Reconstruction, the forced relocation of native Americans, the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement) and culture (Southern hospitality and chivalry, agrarianism, evangelical Christianity) indelibly mark the literature of the region. Students will examine several important texts, from the early 19th century up to the late 20th, that define the American South as a region originally and still grappling with race relations, religion, a strong sense of landscape, and a weird sense of humor (a.k.a., The Grotesque").