In the American Romantic period (1830-1860), American literature achieved unprecedented imaginative glories (the age is sometimes called the "American Renaissance").  The works of Melville, Hawthorne, Poe, Whitman, Cooper, Fuller, and Dickinson are deeply psychological, often mythic or melodramatic, and stunningly adventurous in form and theme.  We will explore each author's unique vision, as well as what the writers hold in common and how many of the issues important to them--the convolutions of power, racial and gender tensions, the value of nature--remain important to us today.   I will give occasional lectures to fill in biographical and historical/cultural context, but the bulk of class time will proceed via discussion.           

The course is designed to increase your ability to see how texts work rhetorically, aesthetically, and culturally.  It is intended for MFA students, MA students, or Secondary Ed. teachers who might profit from a "refresher" survey of classic American literary texts.

Requirements include active participation and a standard analytical essay, approximately 15 pages, informed by secondary research.  According to individual interest and my discretion, alternative scholarly projects may be substituted for the research paper (e.g., high-school lesson plans or WWW essays for my class website).

TEXTS:
 

Short electronic texts or handouts for Emerson, Melville, Irving, Fuller, Dickinson, and Thoreau

Herman Melville, Bartleby and Benito Cereno (Dover Thrift)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
(Norton)

Edgar A. Poe, Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings (Signet)
 

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass and Other Writings), ed. Michael Moon (Norton)

James F. Cooper, Last of the Mohicans (NAL)
 

Herman Melville, Typee (Riverside)

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (Viking Penguin)

For additional information, please contact

   Prof. Bruce Harvey:

   Biscayne Bay Campus AC1 351, (305) 919-5254

   harveyb@fiu.edu

   www.fiu.edu/~harveyb