Historically the most pervasive, widely read literature of the 19th century, the dime-novel has only recently received serious attention from literary scholars interested in the relationship between literature, nation-building and social hierarchy. While the “classic canon” of American literature has ignored such novels, this quarter we will take seriously the cultural work of the dime-novel across the 19th century. In particular we will consider the novels as dynamically engaged with the era’s defining political crises and questions, including slavery, urban class exploitation, immigration, and imperial expansion. While primarily interested in the dime-novels themselves, we will briefly consider how now canonized writers, less read in the 19th century but celebrated in the 20th, strategically borrowed from this body of literature, even as they targeted a more “genteel” readership.


General method of instruction
Active class discussions of readings.

Class assignments and grading
Daily reading and writing assignments, a mid-term exam, and a final research project.