Course Schedule and Catalog

Department: English

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE ***** DISTRIBUTION COURSE GROUP 1 ***** Introduction to the Study of American Literature: The Novelizing of America: We will examine the work of American novelists as self-conscious renderings of the nation that could not find reasonable expression in genres like poetry and autobiography. The expansive nature of the novel lent itself early on to capture, represent, and reify the progressive discourses of history that turned New England Puritan theocracy into a secularized form of government, known as democracy. On the other hand, the novel has also been a form conducive to critiques of society and the nation. Early in the nineteenth century, clergy, politicians, and cultural elites viewed the novel as a subversive form of entertainment that encouraged disruptive individualism. For women and/or people of color, the novel became the genre of choice when they allegorized their stories of oppression in hopes of changing the legal and material culture of their existence and those they represented. These matters, and others, will be taken up during the course.