The ‘Long’ Nineteenth Century in US Literature and Culture - Detailseite

Looking back at the nineteenth century, US modernist writer Gertrude Stein claimed that this century “was completely lacking in logic, it had cosmic terms and hopes, and aspirations, and discoveries, and ideals but it had no logic” (Wars I Have Seen 91). This is because the nineteenth century was shaped by divisions along the lines of class, gender, and race, yet also by transformations and social upheaval. Rich in literary production, in philosophical thought and emancipatory movements, the nineteenth century might seem illogical, but it is a time in which the future of ‘America’ was determined and negotiated by a variety of writers and through different socio-political movements. In this course, particularly in part I, we will read literature from the nineteenth century, ranging from transcendentalist and romanticist writing to naturalism, from the activism of abolitionists to labor reform. In part II, we will also, but not exclusively, turn to representations of the nineteenth century in US literature and other media from the twentieth and twenty-first century. Among other texts that will be made available on Moodle, we will read the following novels: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1845) and The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899).