undergraduate courses taught

Some of the courses I've offered in recent years appear below. Please consult the department's listings for current course descriptions and offerings.

English 432: American Novel to 1900

Novel American Nations

American fiction came of age in an era of significant social unrest and transformation, almost as if it were asking a crucial question, "What is an American?" While some fictions were pure fantasy, others spoke to the ideology of nationalism fostered by elites who, in a sense, attempted to create a putative nation from the disparate peoples inhabiting English-speaking North America. Focusing on the ways in which fiction enabled different groups to speak to (and about) a range of putatively American publics, this course examines novels published between the 1790s and the 1890s. To assist our thinking about societal pressures and nationalism, we'll employ some theoretical models of national identity and look at the ways that writers of European, Irish, and African American ancestry in America employed novelistic discourse to call their own "nations" into being. Novels we'll likely cover are The Power of Sympathy (W. H. Brown), The Coquette (Hannah Webster Foster), The Prairie (James Fenimore Cooper), The Cross and the Shamrock (Hugh Quigley), The House of the Seven Gables (Nathaniel Hawthorne), Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe), Iola Leroy (Frances Ellen Watkins Harper), The American (Henry James), and Blake: Or, The Huts of Africa (Martin R. Delany). Assignments: Writing assignments include two essays (about 5 pages each, with an option for students to write a third paper) and four in-class quizzes (short answer questions) on issues and themes relevant to the course readings as discussed in class. Other assignments might include impromptu writing assignments developed to stimulate class discussion.

English 404: Mapping Identity, Difference, and Place

Race/Writing/Nation: Imagining Community in Early America, 1750-1870

What were the qualities of good citizens in early America? Where did they come from? What did they believe about themselves as citizens and about the nation they were part of? Who belonged to that nation they embraced? Did they conceive that "their" nation was different? These are some of the questions this course is designed to address. Its working hypothesis, a hypothesis we'll examine as the semester unfolds, revolves around these issues: In eras of nation-formation, social, political, and even literary discourse become more intensified – and more contested – as "the haves" begin to express their worries about differentiating themselves from "the have-nots" around them. We will work from a philosophical and historical assessment about national identity, taking into account a range of primary works related to the study of "race" and "nationhood," community and alienation, literacy and liberty, religion and "enlightenment." Our goal for this course will be to examine literary and cultural tensions in the British colonies and the new United States up to (and including) the era of the American Civil War. Course requirements: class attendance and participation (participation and attendance are recorded); Friday morning in-class writing exercises based on the readings; two papers of five to six pages, and, if this option is chosen, a third paper of five to six pages.

English 403: Literature and Culture

Fictions, Fashions, and National Passions: Figuring National Identity in the Early American Republic

This course on novel-writing, novel-reading, and cultural consumption in the era of the early republic (roughly from the 1780s through the 1830s) will ask that students consider the relative social and political instability of the era against the methods used in the cultural marketplace to stabilize and promote the formation of a putatively national identity. By looking into the novels written and read, by examining attitudes being formulated about the colonial past and the post-Revolutionary War present, by assessing concerns about Native peoples and immigration, and by considering the emergent discourse on the gendering of activities, students will gain better insight into the difficulties faced by those who were attempting to live in, while formulating and defining, a "national" culture. In addition to several popular novels from the era, readings will include fiction in serials (newspapers and magazines) and pamphlets. Classroom format will be part lecture and part discussion. Lectures will occur, of course, as needed, but students will be expected to engage in high-quality participation each class meeting. Course requirements for final grade assessment: classroom (possibly group) presentations, in addition to regular class participation; impromptu writing assignments as necessary; and two papers on a topic of the student's choice or from a list of choices provided.

English 402: Literature and Society

Race/Writing/Nation: Eighteenth-Century English America and the Formation of an "American" National Identity

Taking into account a range of primary works related to issues in "race" and "nationhood," community and alienation, literacy and liberty, religion and "enlightenment," our goal will be to examine literary and cultural tensions in the English colonies and the new United States. We'll read writings that formally and informally address several related concepts having to do with nation-formation and national identity. Writings by European settlers, by Africans and African-descended people, and by Native Americans are among those covered in readings. We'll look into two concurrent issues relevant to such study: 1) the strong interest in theories of race, gender, and sensibility, evoked as sentimentalism in the writings, and 2) the ways in which developing capital enabled a flourishing print culture to formulate "enlightened" roles for "good" subject-citizens. And we'll consider, finally, whether "enlightenment" led to a discourse of "nation" that by intent and purpose worked to exclude most people in the U.S. cultural fabric. Classroom format will be part lecture and part discussion. Lectures will occur, of course, as needed, but students will be expected to engage in high-quality participation each class meeting. Assignments: Course requirements include: a classroom (possibly group) presentation about some issue central to the materials we're discussing, in addition to regular class participation; impromptu in-class or homework assignments as deemed necessary for continued high-quality work in class; and two out-of-class essays of five to seven pages in length, based in questions about the readings and issues covered in class. Attendance is taken each class, and regular attendance is a requirement.

English 231: American Literature to 1865

A Literature Survey Course

Students will examine the many voices that inform American writings roughly to the era of the Civil War, from the era of colonial contact in the Americas to Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." While investigating the cultural issues relevant to the production of key literary texts, students will consider the extent to which there are many American literatures from which America's story of a "national literature" has emerged. One of the goals of the course will be to enable students to understand the traditions that have dominated English American letters even as they also come to terms with the extent to which the writings of what we now call the United States were, in effect, from many cultures, from the very beginning. Writing assignments include one semester research paper (up to ten pages total), an interim report on that paper, plus three shorter tests of reading taken during the course of the semester.

American Studies 402W: American Themes and Eras

Exiled in the Land of the Free: Native Nations and U.S. Indian Policy, 1790-1990

This course will examine, in the context of discussion about U.S. imperialist culture, nineteenth-century and twentieth-century materials related to the era of nation-formation, writings taking up issues from the perspective of both Native peoples and white settlers. By examining the historical circumstances of people in the United States during the time of greatest settlements by non-Indians in the West, we'll consider the complicated ways in which federal imperialism was formulated and implemented and the resilient ways in which Native peoples' adaptation and/or resistance to "American" imperialism was expressed. Given the emphasis of the course on both literary and cultural history and legal debates, students of American literature and American studies, comparative literature, history, political science, international politics and diplomacy, and education will likely find material of relevance to their fields and interests. Course requirements for final grade assessment include two classroom (possibly group) presentations, in addition to regular class participation; impromptu writing assignments as necessary; and one semester-long research project on a topic related to the student's interest in materials under discussion (this is a paper of 12-15 pages).

History 440: Colonial History to 1753

Colonial History Survey Course

Students in this course will examine the European contest for empire in North America, paying particular attention to the multiple sets of frontiers--political, cultural, military, and ethnic--that resulted from encounters between Native peoples and peoples of differing European backgrounds. Although the key European powers under scrutiny will be those of Spain, France, and England, students will be encouraged to explore materials related to settlements by Germans, Dutch, Swedes, and other ethnic populations. Students will also be asked to consider Native influences upon colonial processes. The semester will conclude with an examination of a few late 1980s and early 1990s films (general media films, not documentaries) about European colonial contact with indigenous peoples. Written work, in addition to common class readings, will center largely around the student's independently selected course project related to one particular text or issue in colonialism. Written assignments include: a summary of a book chapter or article; a brief annotated bibliography on materials related to the course project; and two papers. The first paper will be one of definition. The second paper, a paper of critical cultural or textual analysis, will be evaluated in two parts (first as a draft and then as a final project). Quizzes on readings will occur as necessary. Course prerequisites for undergraduates: History 20 and one other History course.