Literature of the American Renaissance
Fall 2009 ENGL 1511H S01
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Instructor: Drayton Nabers III
Please check the Detailed Class Information for up to date information about this course.
Information on meeting times for this course can be found on Course Schedule at http://selfservice.brown.edu
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Course Description
A survey of the major figures of mid-19th-century American literature, with a particular emphasis on how the writers of the period engaged the political and legal issues informing the sectional conflict on the eve of the Civil War. Authors to be considered include Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, Stowe, Douglass, Brown, Jacobs, and Whitman. Students who have taken ENGL 0600F may not register for this course.
Instructor's Description
This course surveys the development of American literature from the 1830s through the Civil War, a period famously described by F. O. Matthiessen as the American Renaissance. Three sets of interrelated questions will command our attention and organize our discussions: 1) Did American culture undergo a renaissance on the eve of the Civil War? If so, from what was it reborn, and what are the marks of its renewed vitality? 2) What characteristic obsessions—formal, thematic, ideological, or psychological—recur throughout the diverse array of literature appearing in this period? Mid-nineteenth-century culture is often described as a culture of sentiment. What is at stake in such a characterization? How well does this framework account for the literary culture of antebellum America? 3) How do nineteenth-century authors engage the political worlds of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s? In what ways do the major literary monuments of the period participate in, or challenge the terms of, the debates that led to the Civil War? In what ways do they represent, or question, the ideological commitments that would underwrite the emerging industrial economy in the United States?
In addressing these questions, we will develop a set of interpretive techniques for mapping the complex interactions between literary history and political authority. If all goes well, by the end of the semester you will have a strong grasp on both the major literary developments in America between the 1830s and the 1870s and the ways in which those developments shaped and were shaped by transformations in American political and economic history.
Assignments and Grading
The course requirements are simple. You must write three short four-page papers (45% of the final grade) and complete one take-home final examination (35% of the final grade). You must also show up at each class session ready to participate in a vigorous discussion of the assigned material (20% of the final grade).