This survey course will cover the development of American literature from the end of the Civil War to the present. Using The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Vol. 2) as our primary text, we will examine the cultural, aesthetic, and historical contexts of major American writers and their contributions to larger literary movements such as Realism, Naturalism, Regionalism, Modernism, and Postmodernism. We will bring the "Great American" writers into dialogue with dissenting and often silenced voices. The course will offer readings from male and female writers from different racial and ethnic backgrounds to reflect the diversity of a nation shaped by shifting borders, constant migrations and immigrations, and shifting sexual politics. Course requirements include active participation in class discussion, two brief papers, one of which will require outside research, a group presentation, and two exams.