123425 SE Literary & Cultural Studies Seminar / BA Paper / MA American/North American Lit./Studies (2019S)

This class explores the early American novel as a literary and cultural form, with a focus on texts written in the early national period, in particular from 1789-1815. We will put a particular focus on the sentimental, the picaresque, and the gothic novel and trace how these texts negotiated the emerging (and often contested) meanings of an “American” national self. We will explore how early American novels engaged such prevalent questions as nation building and democratic procedure, liberal notions of identity and the public sphere, Atlantic world capitalism, the politics of gender and sexuality, racial and ethnic difference, in particular concerning slavery and indigeneity, as well as regionalism and urbanization. We will also trace the relationship of the early American novel to British novels of the period, which were widely read in the United States.

As this is a seminar, much of the course content will depend on the primary texts students eventually want to work with. The first half of the course will be dedicated to general questions concerning literary and cultural theory and method, as well as questions of historical research and the archive. We will also critically read one novel together as a group (Tabitha Gilman Tenney’s Female Quixotism, 1801). The second half of the course will be devoted to students’ individual research projects.

Students should be familiar with the cultural history of the early national period before the first session. For preparation, any American cultural history will do; for an easy read, I recommend Paul S. Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People (multiple editions).