ENGL 328 - Literature of the American Renaissance

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2026/27b: Chasing the White Whale: Literary Art, Canon, and the American Renaissance. (Same as AMST 328 and GNCS 328) This seminar examines a crucial period in American literary history that critics term the “American Renaissance, ” during which writers like Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne sought to create uniquely American forms of literary expression. Because works from this period continue to influence our ideas about what literary art and authorship look like, we interrogate how these writers define the literary and who and what gets left out of their formulations. At the same time, we trace alternative concepts of literary value in works by now lesser-known (but often, originally, more popular) authors of the day. Throughout the course, we focus on the ways our readings comprehend literature and its relation to the world, ultimately aiming to answer, what should the future of American literary studies look like, and why does it matter? Readings include works by Hawthorne, Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Fanny Fern, and others. Blevin Shelnutt.

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

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS