English 144 - Winter, 2015

Post-Civil War American Literature

Class Information

Instructor: Freeman, Elizabeth
CRN: 93565
Time: MW 10:30-11:50
Location: 1150 Hart

Description

This course will introduce students to American literature written between 1865 and 1915. We will be focusing on the later nineteenth century’s many changes in social identity: the end of slavery, the industrialization of America, the influx of non-Anglo immigrants from Europe and Asia, the emergence of the New Woman, and the relationship between capitalism, urban life, and the consolidation of homosexual communities. We will ask how these changes intersect not only with the content, but also with the form of literary works, engaging primarily with the concepts of literary realism, naturalism, and regionalism or “local color.”

Grading

Exams: Final, 25%
Pop Reading Quizzes: 10% (2% per quiz, 5 quizzes)
Papers: Paper #1, 25% (10 % Part 1, 15% Part 2)
Paper #2, 30% (10% Exercise A and 20% paper)
In-class Participation: 10% via in-class exercises on index cards

Texts

The Heath Anthology of Am Lit Vol C 7th Ed.
Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton