This course is designed to give English majors and minors, as well as students in American Studies, Africana Studies, and Liberal Studies: Humanities and Social Sciences, a foundation in some of the major texts and contexts of the ethnic American literary canon. Students will analyze fiction, non-fiction, poems, and plays by African American, Asian American, Native American, and US Latino/a writers to better understand how ethnic American literature contributes to larger cultural questions regarding race, ethnicity, indigeneity, class, gender, and sexuality in the United States. No prior coursework in ethnic American literatures or in ethnic studies is required.