This class will consider “American literature” in the middle and latter half of the 19th century, not as a stable and agreed upon category, but as a concept whose cultural function shifted in relation to the transforming social, economic, and political faces of the United States across this period. In part, we will consider specific literatures, and the way they were positioned in relation to the nation-state, as dynamically engaged in the production, or contestation, of models of national identity. At the same time, we will be particularly attentive to the way literary production engaged, enabled, or worked to destabilize the logics of American exceptionalism, “manifest” logics that facilitated U.S. colonial and imperial expansion. Consequently, the class will be historically “book-ended” by two American imperial wars: the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and the Spanish-American War of 1898, which catalyzed the Philippine-American War. While we consider such “cultures of U.S. imperialism,” we will also focus on the post-Civil War function of (and debates around) the “democratizing” work of “realist” fiction, disseminated via periodicals like the Atlantic Monthly, and the turn at century’s end toward a “romantic revival,” a mode of writing closely linked to America’s expansion into the Pacific.

Writers may include, but are not limited to: John Rollin Ridge, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry David Thoreau, William Dean Howells, Zitkala-Sa, Frederick Douglas, Sarah Winnemuca, Charles Chesnutt, Mark Twain, Jack London.

Secondary sources may include, but are not limited to: Amy Kaplan, Gerald Vizenor, Nancy Glazener, Shelley Streeby, Benedict Anderson, Philip Deloria, Terry Eagleton, Shari Hundorf, Edward Said.

This class will be organized as a seminar. As such, we should be prepared for a committed, compassionate and respectful engagement with our readings and each other. Assignments will likely include several short essays, a group project, and a final project.

Much of the reading will be short stories or selections from novels, which will be available, along with our secondary sources, in a course-pack. Any novels selected will be available at the University Bookstore.