This course will give an introduction to the diversity of North American literatures. Reading and analyzing texts from pre-colonial times to the present, we will try to get an overview of important movements and authors. In our discussions of writings taken from all main literary genres we will attempt to determine some of the characteristics of North American literature in general and of individual periods and writers in particular. Short introductory lectures on the various periods of North American literature will provide the literary and cultural contexts for our discussion of exemplary texts. Students should purchase the following text: Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). This class will allow students to improve their Analysis and Intercultural Knowledge competences.