Penn Arts & Sciences Logo
 

American Literature 1870-1900

ENGL 083.401
instructor(s):
TR 9-10:30

In the decades following the Civil War, America faced profound economic, social and political changes, unprecedented in their scope, bewildering in their speed.  These changes profoundly affected the work of American writers, sparking, for instance, Bellamy's utopianism and Jewett's nostalgia.  In this course we will examine the works of several writers with an eye to how they try to comprehend and affect the direction and pace of change in the world around them.  Reading List:  Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward; Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs; William Dean Howells, A Hazard Of New Fortunes; Mary Wilkins Freeman, selected stories; Charles W. Chesnutt, selected stories; Stephen Crane, selected stories; Paul Laurence Dunbar, selected stories and poems; Henry James, Washington Square; Kate Chopin, The Awakening and selected stories.  Requirements include 3 essays, 5 pages each, and a final examination.        

fulfills requirements