This module will look at a mixture of canonical and less well-known US writers from c.1850 to the present. Students will study a varied set of US fiction and poetry, looking at issues such as the relationship between American writing and history, American "difference" and differences within American society, nationalism and regionalism, and intersecting aspects of identity. While not a ‘survey course’ as such, the range of texts will enable us to consider a number of ways in which issues of identity have been key to both the United States’ formation and projection of itself, and of its writers’ interrogation of these matters, from the period leading to the Civil War that first threatened and then confirmed the United States as a nation state, to the civil conflicts that developed over the continuing denial of civil rights to the descendants of the slaves, the original inhabitants of North America, and others. Among other topics, we will discuss: literary regionalism and literary nationalism; the complex, shifting relationship between literary forms and content; the emergence of more politically motivated, socially concerned forms of writing; the impact of concerns with race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, disability, and mental health on American writing; the varying status of the United States in both internal and transnational terms; all as reflected and contributed to by its literature.
Among other topics, we will discuss:
· literary regionalism and literary nationalism
· the development of realism, modernism and postmodernism
· the conflicts between the innovators who wanted to make it new, to respond to changing times with changing techniques and those who opted for a return to more traditional methods and values
· the emergence of more politically motivated, socially concerned forms of writing
· the impact of a growing concerns with race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class on American writing
· the varying status of the United States in both internal and transnational terms, as reflected and contributed to by its literature
- Module Supervisor: Jak Peake
- Module Supervisor: Owen Robinson