Survey II from Whitman to the present day. Course readings stress primary material. Discussions focus on the coherent intellectual currents which inform and affect America's literature, and give it its unique flavor, and serve also to illuminate the range of genres and types of writings covered by the reading. This course is designed primarily to improve the skills of writers of short works of fiction. A variety of techniques are analyzed, including description, narration, characterization, setting, plot, voice, point of view, and style.
Assignments address particular skill areas as they are studied.
Students will be expected to complete a major project in creative writing in fulfillment of course requirement. Communication is viewed as a behavioral science involving interaction between the message sender and the audience. Emphasis is on practical techniques of professional communication through letters, memorandums and reports. Chaucer's major works are studied. Emphasis is on the special problems of language, cultural world view, and structural composition of the literature of a period fundamentally different from the modern world.