ENGL 360-01, American Literature to 1860, Fall 2001

Abstract

In this course we will read and analyze selected works of American literature published during the second half of the 19th century. We will begin with an examination of the Transcendentalist movement, with selected readings from Emerson and Whitman, and then we will look at two authors who maintained an ambiguous, often critical relationship with that distinctly American school of thought. After the fall break, we will look at one more post-Transcendentalist figure, Dickinson, before charting the gradual development of both “realism” and its late-19th Century offshoot, “naturalism.” We will examine these texts both as free-standing works of art and as formative declarations of a young and still evolving American tradition.