Reading the American Renaissance (ca. 1830-1870) (FS BA Seminar Literature)
Mittwoch, 06.12.2023
In this seminar we will closely examine fifty years in the history of U.S. American literature. As the term “Renaissance” suggests, the five decades spanning the 1830s through the 1870s demarcate a period of unprecedented literary, philosophical, and cultural activity, and a pivotal moment in the constitution of a distinctive American literature and exploration of a new American identity. After framing the American Renaissance within its socio-historical context (Western colonial expansion, slavery, industrialization) and in its cultural roots in Romanticism, we will analyze some of the major works and authors of the period (Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, and Dickinson, among others). Moving across genres, we will investigate their thematic concerns, poetic techniques, and aesthetic and political entanglements. In particular, we will focus on the ways in which these writers and texts both informed and called into question the paradigmatic narratives and ideals that still sustain U.S. national identity today: American exceptionalism, manifest destiny, the self-made man, freedom and equality, economic progress and equal opportunities. Required Reading: The shorter pieces will be made available on ILIAS. Please purchase a copy of the two texts listed below, preferably in the suggested editions: Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780199537808 Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories. New York: Penguin Classics, 2016. ISBN 9780143107606
| Veranstaltungsart: | Vorlesung/Seminar |
|---|---|
| Dozierende(r): | Dr. Viola Marchi |
| 06.12.2023: | 14:15 - 15:45 |
| Ort: |
Unitobler Lerchenweg 36 3012 Bern F006 |
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