ENG 392 - Literature of the American South

In this course students explore works by eleven southern women writers including Dorothy Allison, Harriet Arnow, Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Sheri Reynolds, Alice Walker, Jesmyn Ward, and Eudora Welty.   Together we will encounter narratives that challenge our understanding of public and private histories and impel us to consider both theoretically and personally the effects of gender, race, class, and region on creative expression and the stories that unfold.  We will question the texts, their contexts, and ourselves, always acknowledging Welty’s assertion that “there is absolutely everything in fiction but a clear answer.”  The course will include both lecture and discussion. 

Counts toward the English major, the Gender & Sexuality Studies major, and the Africana Studies major.
Satisfies the distribution requirement in Literary Studies.

“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” Muriel Rukeyser

Prerequisites & Notes
First-year students require permission of the instructor. (Not offered Fall 2014.)