Butte College

Course Outline

2026-2027 Catalog

ENGL 16 - U.S. Literature II

Catalog Description

Transfer Status
CSU/UC
Prerequisite
Eligibility to enroll in a transferable English composition course
Unit(s)
3.00
  • Lecture: 51.00 Contact hours/102.00 Out of class hours/153.00 Total hours/3.00 Unit(s)
  • Total: 51.00 Contact hours/102.00 Out of class hours/153.00 Total hours/3.00 Unit(s)

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

  1. View literary works through (or interpret literary works through) different lenses that may include political, socioeconomic, geographical, ethnic, cultural, ecological, psychoanalytical, historical, gender, sexuality, or genre development
  2. Demonstrate familiarity with important authors, works, genres, and themes of the period.
  3. Analyze and interpret themes found in the literature and intellectual movements of the period.
  4. Demonstrate understanding of appropriate academic discourse and the conventions of critical literary analysis
  5. Relate the literary works to their historical, philosophical, social, political, regional, and/or aesthetic contexts.
  6. Demonstrate comprehension of the above through class discussion, written exams, and essays using appropriate citation form.

Course Content

Topic Titles / Suggested Time Topic

Lecture

Lecture topics and suggested hours
TopicsLec Hrs

Introduction to Course and Literary Study
A.    Literary terms
B.    Themes and context
C.    Chronological and thematic development of literature

3.00

Realism
A.    Man and Nature
B.    The Industrial Revolution
C.    Spiritual Unrest
D.    Racial Identity at the Turn of the Century 

Read: Stephen Crane Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Zitkala-Sa “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” and “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” Sui Sin Far “Mrs. Spring Fragrance,” and excerpts from Frederick Jackson Turner “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” Upton Sinclair The Jungle, and W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folks.

12.00

Regionalism and Naturalism
A.    The Age of Expansion
B.    Masculinity and the American West
C.    The Gilded Age
D.    Race and Gender in the Post-Civil War United States

Read: Mark Twain “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Bret Harte “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” Jack London “The Build a Fire,” Kate Chopin “Desiree’s Baby” and “The Story of an Hour,” Sarah Orne Jewett “The White Heron,” Henry James Daisy Miller and excerpts from Charles Chesnutt The Conjure Woman.

12.00

Modernism
A.    World War I and World War II
B.    Literary Renaissance
C.    The Harlem Renaissance
D.    Expatriates and American Writers in Europe
E.    Imagism and Formal Experimentation

Read: Ernest Hemingway “Soldier’s Home,” William Faulkner “A Rose for Emily,” F. Scott Fitzgerald “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” Edith Wharton “Roman Fever” and “The Other Two,” Langston Hughes “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “I, Too,” and excerpts from Ezra Pound The Cantos, Wallace Stevens Harmonium, William Carlos Williams Spring and All, Gertrude Stein Tender Buttons, Countee Cullen Color, and Zora Neale Hurston Mules and Men.

12.00

Post-Modernism
A.    Counterculture
B.    Spirituality and a Crisis of Beliefs
C.    Race and Sexuality in the 20th Century

Read: Allen Ginsberg “Supermarket in California,” Anne Sexton “The Truth the Dead Know,” Audre Lorde “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” Adrienne Rich “Diving into the Wreck,” Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool,” and excerpts from Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar, Carl Rakosi Amulet, Lorine Niedecker North Central, and Maxine Hong Kingston Woman Warrior.

6.00

Contemporary Literature
A.    Globalization
B.    Questioning the Canon of American Literature
C.    Race and Sexuality in the Late 20th and 21st Century

Read: Toni Morrison “Recitatif,” Alison Bechdel Fun Home, and excerpts from Tommy Orange There, There, Sandra Cisneros Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, and Ocean Vuong Time is a Mother.

6.00
Total Hours:51.00

Methods of Instruction

  1. Collaborative Group Work
  2. Discussion
  3. Homework: Students are required to complete two hours of outside-of-class homework for each hour of lecture
  4. Lecture
  5. Multimedia Presentations
  6. Reading Assignments
  7. Students are expected to write a minimum of 4000 words for this course.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Exams/Tests
  2. Homework
  3. Journal
  4. Class participation
  5. Written Assignments
  6. Essays and research papers

Examples of Assignments

Reading Assignments

  1. Read the selected title assigned by the instructor and be prepared to discuss in class the way masculine language is used to describe "radical" women of the nineteenth century.
  2. Analyze the reading assigned by the instructor and look for a theme related to industrialization. Be prepared to discuss your findings in class.

Writing Assignments

  1. Analyze the way gender is portrayed in three of the literary works we've covered in class and write a four page informative essay of your analysis. Share your findings with the class.
  2. Create a conversation among yourself and two or three of the characters that most intrigue you from the literary works we have read. Write a scene that incorporates the conversation and other minor details from the narratives, but only use the details you deem necessary for the characters. Share your scene with the class.

Out-of-Class Assignments

  1. From the perspective of a particular literary character we have discussed in class, write a one-page journal entry for each day in one week of the life of that character.  Share your character with the class.
  2. Attend a local literary public reading and write a two-page critique of the event that focuses on a nineteenth century theme we have discussed in class and share your findings.

Recommended Materials of Instruction

Levine, R., Elliot, M., Gustafson, S., & Hungerford, A. (2022). Norton Anthology of American Literature (Volumes C,D,E). Norton, 10th. 978-0-393-88443-2.

Berke, A, Cofer, J, and Robert Beil. (2015). Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 - present. University System of Georgia, n/a. OER.

Grogen, Christine. (2021). Authoring America: A Survey of American Literature from the Beginnings to 2020. University of Delaware, OER. n/a.

DuBois, W.E.B. (2022). The Souls of Black Folk. Norton, n/a. 978-0393870749.

Sinclair, Upton. (2023). The Jungle. Norton, n/a. 978-0393871579.

Vuong, Ocean. (2022). Time is Mother. Penguin, n/a. 978-0593300237.

Other Learning Materials

Literary Works:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston

Dispatches, Michael Herr

Old Times on the Mississippi (1875) Mark Twain

The Conjure Woman (1899) Charles Chesnutt

Impressions of an Indian Childhood (1900) Zitkala-Sa

The Weary Blues (1926) Langston Hughes

Mules and Men (1935) Zora Neale Hurston

The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938) Ernest Hemingway

Annie Allen (1949) Gwendolyn Brooks

Howl and Other Poems (1956) Allen Ginsberg

Other appropriate selections, selected titles and/or handouts by instructor.

Minimum Qualifications

English (Masters Required)