observing and participating
In this course covering roughly two-and-a-half centuries of American literary production from the period of British colonization to the mid-19th century, we have a short amount of time to cover a lot of history. Since we cannot address every text and critical response, this course is designed to introduce you to a variety of literary works and to expose you to some of the more prominent conversations taking place in Early American Studies. (It’s worth noting that texts, traditions, and critical inquiries not included in this survey are no less significant than those that are.)
Instead of taking a straightforward chronological approach, our readings have been organized to encounter three prominent themes addressed in current literary study: religion and secularity as they pertain to political formations (i.e. nation-states); the enlightenment dialectic of captivity/freedom; and memory/forgetting in the early U.S. nation.
With the Revolutionary War serving as a pivot point in history, we grapple with various discourses holding sway in the colonial era, and then consider their evolution in a new and developing national context. Altogether, we hope to gain a stronger understanding not only of the texts and contexts of British America and U.S. literary history, but also various cultural texts that were competing in an ever-changing marketplace of tastes, material technologies, politics, and identities. We do so in order to develop a stronger grasp of the elements of literary studies, the earlier history of Anglo-American literatures, the intersection of aesthetic texts and history writ large, and the skills needed to articulate cogent critical insight.
UNIT 1: RELIGION & SECULARISM
UNIT 2: CAPTIVITY/FREEDOM
UNIT 3: REMEMBERING & FORGETTING
Week 11: 10-14 November
Week 12: 17-21 November
Week 13: 24-28 November
Week 14: 1-5 December