CSP 18 19th Century American Literature

In “The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson urged the spirit of a young nation to take control of its literary destiny, so as “to look from under its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical skill.” In the half century following Emerson’s invocation, American literature more than fulfilled this charge, establishing itself as a unique and prosperous field. This course will look at this first great explosion of American letters, from the Romantic movement that Emerson founded, through realism and regionalism, to the birth of modernism, while considering such crucial themes as individualism, the education of women, the problem of slavery, and the growing modernization of the nation.