English 430: Modern American Authors

Course No: 1430
Subject: English
Grade Level: 12
Course Length: Semester
Course Type: Elective
UC/CSU Subject Approval: B
Prerequisite: English 100 or 103H; 200 or 203H; 300 or 303H
Criteria for Enrollment: None
Fulfillments: Eight-semester graduation requirement

NOTE:  This course will not be offered for the 2024-2025 school year. It may be available the following year.

In this course we will do an in-depth study of modern authors, contextualizing these voices as they fit into our cultural identity.  In this one semester course, we will read short stories, creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and song lyrics.  We will examine the narrator and the self, analyzing the way American individuality has shifted American literature.  We will identify and analyze literary devices and structures in popular texts, and use these as models for our own creative writing.  Formal grammar and vocabulary lessons will focus on clarification of voice.  In addition to standard 5 paragraph analytical essays, we will write creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and a multi-genre research paper.