to broaden and intensify the literary-critical skills and understanding attained by students at earlier levels, particularly where essay-writing and extra-literary issues are concerned;

to attain detailed knowledge of each of the set texts, their structures and narrative strategies;

to acquire the ability to read the set texts in their cultural and historical contexts;

to develop an understanding of the importance of some landmark American texts of the 19th century to the development of national myths;

to develop an understanding of how 20th century American writing engages with those myths;

to understand recent challenges to the authority of the American literary canon.