ENGLISH 554
American Literature: 1820-1865
Dennis H. Barbour, Associate Professor of English
Called the American Renascence, this period represents in many scholars’ opinion, the flowering of
American literature, its arrival on the international scene. During this time, American authors achieved
world recognition and produced some of the great classics of both American and World Literature.
An outgrowth of English Romanticism, the Renascence focused on the themes of Nature, the Noble
Savage, the Supernatural and Exotic, philosophical explorations of good vs. evil, the individual, rebellion
against the status quo, basing all these themes on American subject matter.
The authors and works we will discuss in this class include:
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Washington Irving—from the Sketchbook
James Fenimore Cooper—The Pioneers
Edgar Allan Poe—“The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” assorted poems and tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne—The Blithedale Romance, assorted tales
Herman Melville—Billy Budd, Pierre, assorted writings
Frederick Douglass—Autobiography of Frederick Douglass
Margaret Fuller and other early Feminist writers
Ralph Waldo Emerson—Essays
Henry David Thoreau—from Walden
This work remains exciting to this day and continues to be perhaps America’s highest achievement in the
world of literature.
This is the good stuff!