American literature to the modern era, emphasizing major writers. The course will deal with such ideas as the frontier, the "promised" land, the rise from rags to riches, the importance of self-reliance, and the love-hate relationship of the races. Readings may include such authors as Franklin, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, Frost, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, O'Neill, and Ellison.