The end of the American Civil War (1861-65) inaugurated a period of vast economic and industrial expansion in the U.S., attracting millions of immigrants in pursuit of the American Dream. The promise of social and economic betterment also lured masses of rural Americans to cities like Chicago, which almost overnight was transformed from a backwater into a metropolis. The expanding economy enabled large numbers of Americans to join the ranks of the middle class, while a happy few gained fortunes. For many others, however, facing long working hours in the factories and the squalor of city slums, America turned out to be a land of broken dreams. Widespread corruption earned the post-Civil War era the name of the Gilded Age. The Civil War ended slavery, but Jim Crow laws in the South relegated the newly freed blacks to second-class citizenship. These historical developments and the emergence of a consumer culture had a profound impact on the literary world, creating a mass market for fiction and changing literary tastes and ambitions. While regional literature offered an escape from the complexities and anxieties of modern life with nostalgic depictions of a simpler world in rural America, there was also a great demand for realistic accounts of life in the industrial age: literature, according to the influential novelist and editor William Dean Howells, should depict “life as it really is,” but Howells’s definition of “the real” was called into question by “naturalist” writers. In this course we will be reading some of the classics of the age of literary realism and naturalism, as well as works by women, African American, and immigrant writers whose voices challenged some of the assumptions and conventions of the dominant literary scene.

Rooster

The timetable will be available from June 1st on the internet.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" /?>

Onderwijsvorm

One-hour lecture and one-hour seminar per week.

Leerdoelen

This course aims to give a survey of and critical insight into representative works of fiction and poetry by canonical and some non-canonical American writers in the period between 1865 and 1917, in the context of developments in social and cultural history and the emergence of literary realism and naturalism and the transition to modernism. The course will also help students develop research skills with the purpose of writing a research essay at the end of the course.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" /?>

Literatuur

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FONT face=Tahoma> Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th ed. vol. C for Whitman, Twain (Huck Finn) and Chopin (The Awakening); short stories by Jewett, Freeman, Gilman, Chesnutt.

William D. Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (Penguin).

Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (Penguin).

Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin).

Abraham Cahan, Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of Yiddish New York (Dover).

Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (Penguin).

Stephen Crane, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets and other stories (Penguin).

Toetsing

2 essays of 1200 words each (or 1 of 2400 words) 50%; written test (50%).

Informatie

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Department of English, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, building 1168, room 102c, tel. 071 527 2144, email: english@let.leidenuniv.nl.

Blackboard/webpagina

This course is supported by <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" /?> <personname w:st="\"on\"">Blackboard</personname>. Please enrol.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" /?>

Overzicht

1. Feb.4/5 Introduction: The Civil War and the Beginnings of American Realism<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" /?>

Read: Walt Whitman, all poems from _Drum-Taps_ in the anthology (_NAAL_, C, 109-16), but focus on “Beat! Beat! Drums!,” “The Wound Dresser,” and “Reconciliation”__

American Literary Realism

2. Feb.11/12 Twain, _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (1884) (_NAAL_, C, 219-407)__

Read also: Twain, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (NAAL_, C, 215-19)

3. Feb.18/19 Twain, Huck Finn_

4. Feb. 25/26 Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham_ (1885)

Video: The House of Mirth_ (140 minutes): date, time and place will be announced

5. Mar 3/4 Wharton, The House of Mirth_ (1905) 

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6. Mar 10/11 James, Portrait of a Lady_ (1881)

Video: Jane Campion’s movie Portrait of a Lady_: date, time and place will be announced

7. Mar 17/18 James, Portrait of a Lady_

Thursday, March 20: due date short Essay # 1

Reading week: March 24-28; no class

****Regionalism, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

36.0pt 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none\”>8. Mar 31/ Jewett, “A White Heron” (1886); (NAAL_, C, 595)

14.2pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify; tab-stops: -36.0pt 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none\”> Apr 1 Cahan,_ SPAN style=\“mso-bidi-font-family: Arial\”>Yekl__ (also on Blackboard)_

36.0pt 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none\”> Gilman. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892) (NAAL_, C, 831-845)

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9. Apr 7/8 Chopin, _The Awakening_ (1899) (_NAAL_, C, 633-723)__

72pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify; tab-stops: -36.0pt 0cm 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none\”>10. Apr 14/15 Du Bois, ch. 1 from _Souls of Black Folk_ (1903) (_NAAL_, C, 876-84)__

72pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify; tab-stops: -36.0pt 0cm 36.0pt; mso-hyphenate: none\”> Chesnutt, stories from _The Conjure Woman_ (1899): “Goophered Grapevine” (_NAAL_, C, 782-89)and “<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" /?> <place w:st="\"on\"">Po</place>’ Sandy” (Blackboard, course documents week 8)__

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American Literary Naturalism

11. Apr 21/22 Crane, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets_ (1893)

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12. Apr 28/29 Dreiser, Sister Carrie_ (1900)

13. May 5/6 Dreiser, Sister Carrie_

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Due date short essay # 2 and long essay:  Friday, May 16

Literature 4A: American Literature, 1865-1914: The Age of Realism