The American Novel to 1900
Class Information
Instructor: Ziser, Michael
CRN: 44592
Time: MWF 12:10-1:00pm
Location: Olson 167
GE Areas: American Cultures, Governance, and History Writing Experience
Description
This small-format, discussion-based edition of ENL158A (enrollment capped at 30 students) will explore a range of oddball American novels from across the 19th century. There will be Haitian debutantes, an Allegheny sleepwalker, metempsychosis, hermaphrodism, wife enslavement, a very energetic orphan newsgirl, an exquisitely lowkey Maine village, a dimwitted and doomed dentist, and a black-nationalist conspiracy deep in the heart of Texas--and that is just scratching the surface! Setting aside top-down narratives from literary history textbooks, we will approach these novels individually through guided discussions and targeted research and writing assignments rather than lecture. Our goal will be to build up our own set of questions about what we are reading before strategizing concrete ways to answer them through further research, analysis, and creative repurposing. Students who are interested in an immersive, exploratory reading experience and are tolerant of literary quirkiness and critical uncertainty are especially encouraged to enroll.
NOTE ON TEXTS:
All the novels on our reading list have recent paperback editions, which you are encouraged to purchase well before the quarter begins to save money and avoid hassles. Because the university bookstore is a very unreliable provider of physical editions, I encourage you use whatever online sellers are most convenient instead. (The ISBNs provided below should help steer you to reliable and widely available editions, but any paper edition is OK in a pinch. Beware of crappy print-on-demand versions, which are rife on Amazon.) The research is clear that hard copies reduce eye strain, improve retention, and enhance the overall reading experience--and since our class will be based on intensive collective interrogation of our texts, having a physical copy on hand is extremely convenient. Please note that if you use Equitable Access, your books will likely be provided in digital format. I will also post etexts for everything as a backup but be forewarned that reading long novels in sometimes janky digital formats is often very unpleasant. If you must go the digital route, consider investing a small amount of money in an e-reader (like the Kindle), which offers a better reading experience than pdfs on a laptop. Better to buy, beg, borrow, or steal a paper version, though!
Grading
Discussion Attendance and Participation: 12.5%
Weekly Mini-Papers: 27%
Paper 1: 30%
Paper 2: 30%
Existential Bonus: .5%
Texts
Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo (1808) 978-1551113463, Leonora Sansay
Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker (1799) 978-0872208537, Charles Brockden Brown
Sheppard Lee (1836) 978-1590172292, Robert Montgomery Bird
The Hermaphrodite (c1846) 978-0803218871, Julia Ward Howe
The Garies and Their Friends (1857) 978-1554811519, Frank J. Webb
The Hidden Hand (1859/1883) 978-0813512969, E.D.E.N. Southworth
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) 978-0451531445, Sarah Orne Jewett
McTeague (1899) 978-0140187694, Frank Norris
Imperium in Imperio (1899) 978-0812971606, Sutton Griggs