ENGL 254 - Nineteenth-Century New York: Writing the Modern City

FC ARHU WINT

4 credits
When and more importantly where did we become what we might call “modern”? This seminar takes New York City as its focal point, exploring how authors wrote about profound changes taking place in the nineteenth century. Global immigration, industrialization, changes in domestic ideology, urbanization, the rise of consumer culture, and re-definitions of political subjecthood had a critical impact on how people inhabited their various subject positions as well as their city. Authors may include: Washington Irving, Edith Wharton, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Harriet Jacobs, Israel Zangwill, Fanny Fern, William Apess, and Abraham Cahan. American, 1700-1900.
Prerequisites & Notes: For complete prerequisites, please refer to the English Program section, “200-Level Courses.”