This class focuses on two of the most celebrated works of American Literature: Leaves of Grass and Moby Dick. Read both texts as anti-Christian manifestos which attempt to lay the foundations for a new democratic faith that, while open to transcendence, places primary emphasis on the divinity resident in the human breast. Emphasis will be given to a comparative examination of the authors' aesthetics, spirituality, and politics: their innovative styles, their spiritual visions, and their responses to major social issues of their day--slavery and the Civil War, the movement for women's rights, industrialization and wage labor. Assignments will include quizzes, student reports on scholarship, and a research paper.
CRN: 16897