Location: [Reed College] [Department of English] [Laura Arnold][ Nation and Narration]Introduction
This class examines some of the great works of nineteenth-century American literature and asks how they rather self-consciously define what it is to be "American." Our theoretical approach will combine the practices of post-colonial and cultural studies.
We will be focusing on the texts from the so-called "American Renaissance" (1830-1860) not only because these are some of the most beautiful books ever written, but also because these are texts--and authors--which Americans have consistently seen as essential to the canon of American literature. We will be reading "classics" such as Moby-Dick, Walden, and Summer on the Lakes, but we will also be reading newly reclaimed texts such as William Wells Brown's Clotel and the writings of working class women from New England factories. I am interested in how adding these newly rediscovered texts reflect our changing perception of what it means to be "American" in the year 2000.
The title of this course is taken from the post-colonial reader Nation and Narration (available on reserve). In this text, theorist Homi Bhabha collects a series of essays which explore the way that authors have used narrative strategies to construct an image of their nation(s). Like this volume, our goal this semester is two part: to explore the image of the United States in the texts of the American Renaissance, and to explore the narrative strategies the authors use to present this image. (If "narrative strategy" means mumbo jumbo to you, please click here)
As Homi Bhabha points out the study of literature and the construction of nations are intrinsically connected: he argues, "To study the nation through its narrative address does not merely draw attention to its language and rhetoric; it also attempts to alter the conception of the object itself" (3). In other words, when we study the texts of the American Renaissance, we unavoidably construct a new image of what we feel is "American." To highlight this process, we will read criticism from three eras--the 1830s-60s, the 1940s-50s, and the 1980s-90s and discuss how critics from each era use these "classic American texts" to formulate new images of the nation.
Because in this class I hope you will learn about narrative strategies as well as nineteenth-century American culture, I have ordered the book, Essentials of the Theory of Fiction by Michael Hoffman and Patrick Murphy as one of the required texts. It is in the bookstore and on reserve for the class in the library. Throughout the semester I will summarize arguments from this book for you and make reading recommendations. In addition, you will find a web page on narrative strategies that will help get you started. Similarly, we will read a number of critical articles from the fields of post-colonial and cultural studies: I will provide you with summaries and resources on these fields on the course web page. If these subjects are currently unfamiliar DON'T PANIC--part of the point of this class is to make them familiar and non-threatening.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at x7329 or Email me at Laura.Arnold@Reed.edu.
Laura.Arnold@Reed.edu