Discovering America with Literature

Literature connects people, ideas, and cultures. American literature is full of these, and through reading, one can see how those ideas evolved from each other. From colonial writings to Emerson, Thoreau, and into Dickinson and Whitman, the class brings it all together to tell one American story.

Associate Professor of English Justin Wert teaches American Literature (ENG 246), a three credit class. In previous years the class material was split into a fall section concerning earlier works and a spring section concerning more contemporary literature, but now those have become one single class in order to help the class credit transfer more seamlessly.

In the Spring 2023 semester, the class will be offered as a twelve week online-anytime course, or a sixteen week in-person class from 10-10:50 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in room D334. Professor of English Jennifer Koster teaches a section as a sixteen week online-anytime course. This class is described as a writing-intensive course.

Much of the class content centers around three reading lists, where students read excerpts of numerous works from a textbook, The Norton Anthology of American Literature , and write responses to them. Students also get to pick a novel for a research project which is completed later in the semester.

“I want students to read a little bit of the classics. You need to read Dickinson and Whitman as poets to understand modern contemporary poetry. You need to read a story by Poe or Steven Crane to understand where modern short stories develop out of,” Wert said.

Wert plans to teach James McBride’s book Deacon King Kong in upcoming semesters. “I decided, I’ve been teaching this [Kurt] Vonnegut book, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater – another good read – in the later American Lit course for several years, and I was like, ‘I love the book, but let’s do something new.’ So I decided since we’re creating essentially new classes, let me come up with something brand new. Like a contemporary book that is from the last couple years,” Wert said.

Wert also teaches the African American Literature course, which was similarly condensed from a two-part to a standalone course. Wert explained that many four year colleges would only count one course as a literature course and the other as a transfer elective.

By combining the classes Wert explained the freedom it gives him to pick the course content more freely. “I like the freedom to teach what you wanna teach, so if you wanna drop something or take something up, you can.… It’s trying to make those kinds of decisions about what do you think students might need to know, and what you think they might like too.”

Wert said American Literature is a course that will change as he teaches it. He explained that it is a great introductory course for literature for any English major or anyone who needs a humanities credit.

“It’s a new class, so you’re trying it out and seeing what works, seeing what doesn’t. (Seeing what’s good, and it’s the timing of everything.) What you’re reading, when, and how long it takes, how much writing I want students to do,” said Wert.