ENGL 250

Spring 2023 Part of Term 1

Part of Term 1
Jan 17-May 3

Nineteenth-Century American Fiction

SHOW FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

Credit: 3 hours.

Nineteenth-century fiction gave us some of the most iconic images in American culture--the scarlet letter, the white whale--and some of the most captivating works about American life and society. This course will explore how fictional texts articulated the problems of nineteenth-century democracy, including the crises over slavery leading to the Civil War, and the rise of large-scale capitalism and urban modernity later in the century. We will look at such literary movements as sentimentalism, sensationalism, realism, and naturalism, among others. Writers studied might include Herman Melville, Edith Wharton, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Charles Chesnutt, Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, and many others.

Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Cultural Studies - Western

Humanities – Lit & Arts

My Favorites

My Schedule

Section Status updates every 10 minutes.

ENGL 250 class schedule data for spring 2023
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	32064	Lecture-Discussion	M	12:30PM -1:45PM	TR	David Kinley Hall	Jones, J	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/17/23-05/03/23 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts, and Cultural Studies - Western course. Section Info: SP23 ENGL 250 - 19th-Century American Fiction - Jamie Jones: What makes the American novel “American”? How do novels register and shape social relationships, moral authority, and political power? How can novels help us understand our relationship with the environment? How have practices of writing and reading novels changed over time? This course invites you to engage these questions by reading American novels from the 18th through the 20th centuries. Our readings will take us from the late 18th-century New York City to the New Orleans slave market, and from the coast of South America to the Antarctic Ocean. Course readings may include novels by Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Chesnutt, Frances E. W. Harper, Herman Melville, and Susanna Rowson. You will learn and practice a range of critical strategies for reading novels, and you will exit the course with a broad understanding of key terms in American literary and cultural history. Students will write two critical essays and a large volume of informal writing. Students will also be assessed based on periodic quizzes, exams, and on active, engaged participation in class discussion.