ENGL 353 - US Literature 1825-65: “To Write Like an American”

FC ARHU WINT

4 credits
Melville’s phrase captures a major concern of American writers during the antebellum period: the creation of a distinctly American literature. Directly or indirectly, many writers of the era engaged with “writing like an American” – Melville, Emerson, Whitman, Douglass, Jacobs among them – while a few, notably Poe, repudiated the very idea. We’ll read work by the writers I’ve listed and by others as we consider what “writing like an American” entailed during the formative era in American culture and history. American, Diversity, 1700-1900.
Prerequisites & Notes: For complete prerequisites, please refer to the English Program section titled ‘Advanced Courses.’