Fall 2007

WGS 345 • AMERICAN REALISM-W

Course Description

We will read selected works of American Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism from the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Our methodology will involve, one, detailed attention to the language and form of these works and, two, careful attempts to relate them to their social contexts. Among the (many, I hope) questions that we will consider: What sorts of experiences, activities, even people get represented as somehow "realer" than others? What role do notions of "masculinity" and "femininity play in how these works define and then relate to the really, really "Real? How do these works respond to changing economic and social conditions, including the growth of consumer capitalism, the emergence of the "New Women, and the strengthening of Jim Crow segregation in the South?

CONTAINS A SUBSTANTIAL WRITING COMPONENT AND FULFILLS PART OF THE BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT IN WRITING. DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE 35 OR FEWER STUDENTS. COURSE NUMBER MAY BE REPEATED FOR CREDIT WHEN THE TOPICS VARY. PREREQUISITE: RHE 306 AND E 316K OR THEIR EQUIVALENTS, AND 3 ADDITIONAL SEMESTER HOURS OF LOWER-DIVISION COURSEWORK IN EITHER ENGLISH OR RHETORIC AND WRITING. MEETS WITH E 372M.

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