it is "better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." - Cyril Connolly

We’ve covered 147 years of American literature in this course and I don’t want to write an essay here in the discussion format. Suffice it to say that after starting with our most famous regionalist, Mark Twain, who introduced us to realism in “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” we moved through Crane’s naturalism with “Maggie, a girl from the streets,” with its pessimistic gloominess where people are condemned to their circumstances and hereditary background. The social and cultural changes written about by Susan Glaspell extended the women’s rights issues we were introduced to by Chopin in “The Awakening.” Fitzgerald’s “Babylon revisited,” and Steinbeck’s “The chrysanthemums,” and the urgency of poetry in the works of Frost, Pound, and Eliot brought us to the age of anxiety and post war. For years the feelings of hopelessness were put forward by writers such as Williams in “The Glass Menagerie,” Malamud’s “The Mourners,” and Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible.” Here we must include the poetry of depression and suicide by Sexton and Plath.

Now with the multicultural expansion of American literature we are experiencing a resurgence of subjects with faith, hope and renewal.

In the end though, American literature: 1865 – present, no matter its changing quality was and is always about the human condition.

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Reflect and relate your stance on the superlatives in this study:

· What has been the most important learning experience?

· What has been the most interesting reading?

· What has been the most difficult reading?

· Which author would you most like to have met?

· Which author is most representative of an "American" writer?

· Which author's work represents the highest literary quality?

·

· Reading to discern the author’s motives in writing a piece rather than to read for the pleasure of the piece alone was an eye opener for me.

· I found everything I read throughout the course interesting if not enthralling. The most interesting though was Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles.” I say that because in doing some research for this piece to include in an essay choice I came upon a reference to a man named Floyd Dell who was a friend of Glaspell. I retrieved a copy of his autobiography, “Homecoming,” from a local university and although I really couldn’t afford the time, read it and found myself learning some facts about the times of my paternal grandfather.

· Without reservation I can say the most difficult reading for me was: Pound, Eliot, Moore, and Cummings poetry. Trying to understand their poetry was like trying to solve the Rubik’s cube for me.

· I’d like to meet Stephen Crane and discuss “The Red Badge of courage.” Eugene O’Neil, Susan Glaspell and Tennessee Williams to talk about plays and acting on stage. To Edna Millay and have her tutor me in sonnet writing. I’d like to meet Alan Ginsberg just so I could punch him in the mouth. I like to commiserate with Bob Dylan and sing “Blowin’ in the wind” with him. But mostly I’d like to meet and take a course or two from John Barth. And I’d like to stand in close proximity to Mark Twain and breathe the same air.

· Most representative of an “American” writer? Robert Frost. As I said in an essay; if I met an alien from another sphere and they asked me about our species I’d tell them to read Robert Frost’s poetry and they’d know all they need to know.

· Highest literary quality? Who am I to judge? I’m not even sure I can make a reasoned response but in that light I’ll say Toni Morrison because I think she tells it with sensitivity and insight, her storey that is.