BC3180y: American literature 1800-1870

Professor Lisa Gordis
BC 3180y Spring 2020
MW 11:40-12:55 pm Barnard 409

Office: Barnard Hall 408D
Office phone: 854-2114
Mailbox: Barnard Hall 417
[email protected]
Office hours
: Tuesdays 2:30-4 by appointment.
To sign up for an appointment, click here.

In 1941, F. O. Matthiessen published American Renaissance, using the term to refer to the years between 1850 and 1855 and to texts by Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman. In subsequent years, scholars have used the term more broadly to describe a particularly fruitful period in American literary history. They’ve debated what kind of renaissance, if any, occurred, and which writers defined it. This semester, we’ll consider both the American Renaissance described by Matthiessen and more inclusive views of nineteenth-century American literature. We’ll begin with Irving and the questions he raises about the possibilities of a specifically American literature. As we move through the term, we’ll consider ways in which other writers have answered those questions, and the new questions raised by their answers. Issues that we’ll consider include the literary implications of political independence, the problem of history, the status and representation of Native Americans, the nature of the self, slavery and abolition, gender and woman’s sphere, the Civil War, and the viability of American literature and of America as a nation.

This spring, most materials for this course will be housed on a course blog. To join the blog, go to https://edblogs.columbia.edu/20201engl3180x001/ and log in using your uni.

A pdf of the course syllabus is available here.

Charlotte Temple repaired

Charlotte Temple, the Overbury Collection, Barnard College Library