ENGL 285-01, Text and Context, Spring 2011

Abstract

This course emphasizes the close reading of literary texts in relation to their cultural contexts. In order to expose students to a variety of texts/contexts, our readings will cover a wide range of American literature. We'll begin by analyzing J. Hector St. John De Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer as a vision of the American dream colliding with the nightmare of history, and Charles Brockden Brown's foundational novel Wieland as a reflection of the anxieties over America's emerging democracy. Then we'll turn to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat," which subtly suggests the horrors of southern slavery, and Harriet Wilson's Our Nig, which exposes the brutalities of northern indentured servitude. Next we'll examine the Henry James classic, Daisy Miller, a novella that dramatizes the clash between America's nouveau riche and European society. Moving to the twentieth century, we'll consider Flannery O'Connor's novel Wise Blood as a Gothic meditation on religious faith in the South, and Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City as a portrait of decadence in 1980s New York. The course will conclude with Wesley Brown's Darktown Strutters, a postmodern historical novel about the days of blackface minstrelsy, and Joyce Carol Oates' appalling (but fascinating) Zombie, the tale of a serial murderer who incarnates America's darkest impulses. A few other texts have been sprinkled in along the way. This course assists prospective majors and minors in acquiring the necessary tools for middle- and upper-division classes in English. Each seminar will focus on the necessary skills for reading literary texts, the development of critical argument, and the ability to situate the text in relation to significant contexts.