“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

As the “sole owner and proprietor” of the fictional Yoknapatapwha County, William Faulkner created an innovative literary landscape to explore the history of the American South. This program will use the interests and themes of Faulkner’s saga to study the literature generated by Southern history. Beginning with Yoknapatawpha, our program will broaden to include the works of Southern novelists Ernest J. Gaines, Robert Penn Warren, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, Kate Chopin, and Pat Conroy. Throughout we will study the history of race, slavery, the Civil War, and segregation along with the themes of violence, class, and gender.

Students in this program will read novels as well as select literary criticisms and biographies. We will pay particular attention to the structure, aesthetic quality, and purpose of each writer’s work. Students will write responses to each reading and will produce an expository essay on a chosen aspect of the program’s theme. Classes will include seminars, lectures, film screenings, workshops on criticism, and recitations in which students will present their own writing. Throughout we will focus on the literature generated by the history of the American South.

Expectations : This program includes a substantial amount of reading, which students will need to complete on time. Students will write a two-page response paper to each reading, which must be completed and presented in seminar. Students will also be required to write one fifteen-page expository essay on Southern history and its literary legacy.