Titel:
Masculinity and the Nation in Early American Literature

Fakultät:
Geisteswissenschaften

Semester:
Winter 2017

VeranstalterIn:
Alexia Schemien

Termin:
Do., 10:00-12:00 Uhr

Ort:
V15 S04 C63

Studiengang:
Anglistik

Zielgruppe:

Kommentar:
In this course we will concentrate on American literature written in the time frame between the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the end of the Civil War (1865). We will focus on the major modes and themes in American literature from this time period and especially take a look at constructions of gender and national identity within literary texts of various genres. By doing so, we will try to better understand the socio-economic, ideological, and historical developments that had an influence on the writers of the time. Notions of masculinity have had a great impact on U.S. American national identity as well as on its literature. This can for example be seen in Crèvecœur’s Letters from an American Farmer (1782), which is not only a well-known manifesto of early American nationalism but it also gives us an insight into the ambivalence that men felt about this newly developing American nation and their own identities as men. Understanding these dynamics of gender intertwined with national identity will be at the center of our discussions. Texts to be included in this course are: Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple, Royall Tyler’s The Contrast, and James Nelson Barker’s The Indian Princess. By taking a look at drama, poetry, and narrative, we will also examine the development of American literature as a tradition in its own right. Hence, we will study the tension between European traditions on the one hand and a literary emancipation movement in post-revolutionary America on the other. These texts – which oscillate between tradition and innovation, between Europe and America – demonstrate how national identity was formed in America during this era.