A sampling of significant nineteenth-century American fiction, featuring a comprehensive look at the ranges of theme and technique that have traditionally engaged American authors. Students should come prepared to read texts closely and to deliberate on the reciprocity between fiction and the socio-political context it both reflects and helps to shape.

Texts: Packet of readings (purchase specifically for this course at University Book Store; includes "Bartleby" and "The Yellow Wallpaper"); also, Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories; Hawthorne, The Portable Hawthorne; Melville, Moby-Dick; Davis, Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories; Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Crane, The Portable Stephen Crane.