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Plotting America: 19th Century U.S. American Fiction
DozentIn: Prof. Dr. phil. Peter Schneck , Priv. Doz. Dr. Michaela Keck
Veranstaltungstyp: Seminar
Ort: 41/E07
Zeiten: Mo. 08:30 - 10:00 (wöchentlich)
Beschreibung: The nineteenth century kept Americans in motion – physically and figuratively. With the transportation, industrial and technological revolutions, the westward expansion, and the escalating sectional conflicts about slavery dividing the country, Americans, indigenous peoples, immigrants, and slaves were required to adapt to considerable social transformations and turmoil. Looking back on its recent history, and its two successful revolutionary wars in particular, the young nation also began to show some political and artistic swagger, not least in its increasing literary activities. The reading materials of this course will trace these dynamics of social change and political as well as economic upheaval, seeking to combine fresh interpretations with literary history in order to acquire a deeper knowledge about nineteenth-century literary periods, genres, and relevant contexts. Alongside Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic novel The Narrative of Gordon Pym, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s sentimental bestseller Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Mark Twain’s realist work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, short fiction and novellas by other writers will broaden the scope of our reading materials. The course provides knowledge of key texts and competencies regarding American literary history, periods, and genres that are also relevant for the lecture “U.S. American Culture and Literature: Romanticism to Modernism” (7.110204).
Course requirements: Regular attendance, active participation in class discussions, preparation of the weekly text materials, and occasional writing assignments. Please purchase and read the following novels: Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838); Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852); and Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
If you have any questions, please contact: mikeck@uni-osnabrueck.de
