ENGH 442: Topics: American Literary Periods

ENGH 442-001: American Literature 1865-1914
(Spring 2012)

09:00 AM to 10:15 AM MW

Section Information for Spring 2012

Literature of the Reconstruction--a period with striking similarities to our own, people becoming fabulously wealthy, exploitation of America's bounty, social unrest, and a sense that the old understanding and order cannot hold, without a sense of what would follow.

The original point is that the first class session, students themselves will figure how they want to focus the course, with my guidance. What will the sessions center on.

1. on the rise of business? If so, there is one reading list.

2. on women's emerging roles? If so, there's another.

3. on race relations? a third reading list.

4. on the naturalistic movement? a fourth list.

5. a mix of these? I can develop a hybrid but we can't read it all.

There may be some poetry included, maybe some song lyrics, some theoretical or economic readings. Since all of it is in the public domain, I can ask students to get the texts from the Gutenberg Project, although for convenience's sake, the first two books will be in the bookstore.

To start, we'll read a Horatio Alger novel (probably Ragged Dick) and Twain and Warner's The Gilded Age.

Then what will it be? Miss Ravenel's Conversion? The Rise of Silas Lapham? The Theory of the Leisure Class? The Octopus? The Financier? How the Other Half Live? Maggie, a Girl of the Streets?Crane's poems?McTeague, the Custom of the Country? The Portrait of a Lady? The Ambassadors? The Marrow of Tradition? Deephaven? Herland? A Hazard of New Fortunes? Martin Eden? The Sea-Wolf? The Virginian?

This is a period of great literary riches!

Three essays and a final. Class discussion.

Tags:

Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

In-depth study of selected period of American literature. In addition to literary examples, materials may be chosen from art, philosophy, or popular culture of time. Notes: May be repeated when topic is different with permission of department. Offered by English. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 6 credits.
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies
Recommended Prerequisite: Satisfaction of University requirements in 100-level English and in Mason Core literature.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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