Fall 2007

E 372M • American Realism

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?

Grading Policy

Focused responses, quizzes, and class participation 25%
Two 2-page papers 30%
3-4 page paper 20%
5-7 page paper 25%

Texts

(tentative)
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Hamlin Garland, Main-Travelled Roads
Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition
Henry James, The Bostonians
Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth
Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

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