GNCS 328 - Literature of the American Renaissance

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as ENGL 328) In-depth study of major works by American writers of the mid-nineteenth century. Authors may include: Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Fuller, Stowe, Delany, Wilson, Melville, Whitman, and Dickinson. In addition to placing the works in historical and cultural context, focusing on the role of such institutions as slavery and such social movements as transcendentalism, the course also examines the notion of the American Renaissance itself. Zachary Roberts

Topic for 2022/23a: American Renaissance. The 1840s and 1850s have often been seen as a period of extraordinary literary and intellectual flourishing in the United States; it was also a period marked by extraordinary political, social, and racial tensions which culminated in the Civil War. In this class we explore some of the literature of this period with particular attention to ways in which writers both engaged with and evaded the urgencies of their historical moment by looking at questions of individuality and self-reliance, nationality and citizenship, and freedom and fugitivity. In addition to placing the works in historical and cultural context, focusing on the role of such institutions as slavery and such social movements as transcendentalism, the course also examines the notion of the American Renaissance itself. Authors will include Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Douglass, Hawthorne, Stowe, Jacobs, Brown, Melville, and Delany. Zachary Roberts.

This course satisfies the pre-1900 requirement for the English major.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS