FALL SEMESTER, 2013–2014
COURSE CODE: BTAN3023MA1
Course Designation:
SELECTED TOPICS IN 19TH-CENTURY AMERICAN
LITERARY AND CULTURAL HISTORY
TIME & PLACE:
M. 8.00-9.40;
Venue: Mbld. 55;
[1] Gabriella Varró
Office: Room #116/1, Main Bldg, U of D
Phone: (52) 512–900 (ext. 22152)
INSTRUCTOR:
Office hours: M. 10.00–11.00, W. 13.00–14.00,
116/1
E-14.
E-mail: gabriella.varro@gmail.com
DESCRIPTION, COURSE GOALS
This retrospective course of study has been designed to offer students of American Studies in
the Master’s Program an extension of previously acquired knowledge pertaining to the literary
culture of the United States from 1800 to World War Two. Thus the principal objectives of
this lecture course are both the consolidation of earlier exposure to cultural/literary awareness
and the broadening of horizons. The thematic range of the lecture has been designed to
foreground selected literary and cultural historical processes, peaks of development,
theoretical issues, authorial achievements, as well as major shifts and turning-points in the
literary culture of 19th-century America. Representative themes will include: the American
Renaissance, New England Transcendentalism, the American Gothic tradition, yea sayers vs.
nay sayers, representation of gender and race in classic (i.e., 19th century-) U.S. literature and
American expressiveness; paradigm shifts in American culture; etc.
The formal conclusion of the course will be an oral exam during the examination session in
December/January.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:
(1) Sept. 16: The American Renaissance: major cultural currents: Puritanism versus
Transcendentalism; Classification of American authors in the 19th century.
(2) Sept. 23: Transcendentalism and its legacy (I): Emerson – The foundations of
Transcendental philosophy (native and foreign sources, credo), the essays.
(3) Sept. 30. Transcendentalism and Its Legacy (III): Transcendentalism and Utopia, Brook
Farm, Fruitlands, Walden, and other reform experiments/movements: labor, antislavery, education.
(4) Oct. 07: Transcendentalism and Its Legacy (II): Thoreau and his Walden. Notions of
progress, social development and social change.
(5) Oct. 14: The Making of American Myths (I): Benjamin Franklin and the Myth of the SelfMade Man (vertical mobility, the Horatio Alger formula). The Making of American
Myths (II): The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialisation.
(6) Oct. 21: The new literature, major figures of the 19th century (I): Edgar Allan Poe and the
beginnings of Literary Theory: “The Poetic Principle,” “The Philosophy of
Composition.”
(7) Oct. 28: CONSULTATION WEEK—NO CLASSES
(8) Nov. 04: The new literature, major figures of the 19th century: (II) Nathaniel Hawthorne,
allegories of Puritan America in his tales.
(9) Nov. 11: The new literature, major figures of the 19th century (III): Herman Melville’s
unique vision of race and ethnicity. The writing of the great American epic: MobyDick and its relevance.
(10) Nov. 18: The new literature, major figures of the 19th century (IV): Feminist writing in
19th-century America: the Feminist Movement, Margaret Fuller, Kate Chopin.
(11) Nov. 25: From slavery to emancipation: aspects of African American thought (Phyllis
Wheatley, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass,), the genre of the slave narrative.
(12) Dec. 02: Branches of regional humor and Mark Twain.
(13) Dec. 09: The great poets of the 19th century: Walt Whitman vs. Emily Dickinson.
(14) Dec. 16: The American brand of naturalism (Naturalism I): Stephen Crane and his stories
SUGGESTED BACKGROUND READING, SECONDARY SOURCES,
CRITICISM, COMMENTARY
(1) Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History
of American Literature. New York: Viking, 1991.
(2) Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed., The Cambridge History of American Literature. vols. 1–8.
Cambridge/New York: Cambridge UP, 2005.
(3) Stauffer, Donald Barlow. A Short History of American Poetry. New York: Dutton, 1974.
(4) Virágos, Zsolt K. Portraits and Landmarks: The American Literary Culture in the 19th
Century. 7th edition, Debrecen: IEAS, 2010.
(5) Sarbu, Aladár. The Reality of Appearances: Vision and Representation in Emerson,
Hawthorne, and Melville. Budapest: Akadémia, 1996.
(6) Lawrence, D. H. Studies in Classic American Literature. New York: Seltzer, 1923.
(7) Matthiessen, F. O. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and
Whitman London: Oxford UP, 1941.
(8) Chase, Richard. The American Novel and Its Tradition. Amherst, MA: The Johns Hopkins
UP, 1989.
(9) Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel. Stein and Day, 1960.
(10) Slotkin, Richard. The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of
Industrialization, 1800-1890. Oklahoma.: U of Oklahoma P, 1999.
(11) Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction. New
York: Oxford UP, 1986.
(12) Sundquist, Eric J. To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature.
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1993.
(13) Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. New
York: Knopf, 1993.
REQUIRED READING for the end-of-the-semester ORAL EXAM1
I. POETRY:
(1) Edgar Allan POE, "The Raven," "Ulalume," "Annabel Lee," “To Helen," "The
Conqueror Worm"
(2) Emily DICKINSON, poems numbered 49, 67, 214, 258, 303, 328, 341, 441, 449, 453,
478, 511, 585, 712, 829, 986, 1072, and 1175
(3) Walt WHITMAN, "Song of Myself" (paragraphs 1-21, 24, 33, 40, 41, 51, 52), "Out of
the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
II. SHORT PROSE NARRATIVES:
TALES & SHORT STORIES:
(1) Edgar Allan POE, "The Purloined Letter," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "A Descent
into the Maelström," "The Cask of Amontillado"
(2) Nathaniel HAWTHORNE, "Young Goodman Brown," "Rappaccini's Daughter," "My
Kinsman, Major Molineaux"
(3) Herman MELVILLE, "Benito Cereno," "Bartleby, the Scrivener"
1
This is the list of the texts that you are supposed to have read by the time of the oral examination. Most of these
should be familiar to you from previously completed BA-level U.S. literature seminars. Those which are not or
which you think need refreshing, you should read or re-read.
(4) Stephen CRANE, "The Open Boat," "The Blue Hotel," "The Bride Comes to Yellow
Sky"
III. NOVELS: FICTION and AUTOBIOGRAPHY
(1) Henry David THOREAU: Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854) (Chapters I, II and
“Conclusion”)
(2) Nathaniel HAWTHORNE: The Scarlet Letter (1850)
(3) Mark TWAIN: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
(4) Stephen CRANE: The Red Badge of Courage (1895)
(5) Frederick DOUGLASS: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, A Slave (1845)
(6) Kate CHOPIN: The Awakening (1899)
IV. MISCELLANEOUS PROSE (essay, review, address, etc.)
(1) Edgar Allan POE: “Poetic Principle,” "The Philosophy of Composition," Review of
Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales
(2) Ralph Waldo EMERSON: “Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” “The American Scholar,”
“Divinity School Address,” “The Poet”
(3) Henry David THORAU: “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.”
(4) Walt WHITMAN: Preface to Leaves of Grass
!!IMPORTANT NOTICE!!:
Students are kindly requested to download and print the syllabi, and turn up at the first
lecture class with the hard copy of this syllabus. 2
Attached please also find the list of topics in 19th-century American literature and culture
for the semester end oral exam.
1. The American Renaissance: theory, conceptuality; major representatives
2. Puritanism versus Transcendentalism; comparison of tenets, concepts
3. Groups of 19th-century American authors in the ante-bellum period
4. Transcendentalism and Its Legacy (I): Ralph Waldo Emerson, his significance
5. Emerson’s major essays
6. The native and foreign sources of Transcendentalism
7. Transcendentalism and Its Legacy (II): Henry David Thoreau and his Walden.
8. Thoreau’s “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”
2
To download, please click on the hyperlinks.
9. Transcendentalism and Its Legacy (III): Transcendentalism and Utopia, Brook
Farm, Fruitland, Walden, and other reform experiments/movements: labor,
anti-slavery, education.
10. The Making of American Myths (I): Benjamin Franklin and the Myth of the SelfMade Man (vertical mobility, the Horatio Alger formula)
11. The Making of American Myths (II): The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of
Industrialisation.
12. The new literature: major figures of the 19th century (I) – The Knickerbocker
group: George Washington Irving and his tales.
13. James Fenimore Cooper and his Leatherstocking Tales
14. The new literature: major figures of the 19th century (II): Edgar Allan Poe and the
beginnings of Literary Theory: “The Poetic Principle,” “Philosophy of
Composition”
15. The classification of Poe’s tales.
16. The new literature: major figures of the 19th century (III): Nathaniel Hawthorne,
allegories of Puritan America in his tales.
17. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
18. The new literature, major figures of the 19th century (IV): Herman Melville’s
unique vision of race and ethnicity. The writing of the great American epic:
Moby-Dick and its relevance
19. Melville’s short stories: “Benito Cereno” and “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
20. The new literature, major figures of the 19th century (V): Feminist writing in 19thcentury America: the Feminist Movement, Margaret Fuller and “The Great
Lawsuit”
21. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
22. From Slavery to Emancipation: Aspects of African American Thought: Frederick
Douglass,’s Narrative;
23. Some theoretical problems and dilemmas of American naturalism: Stephen Crane,
his stories
24. Crane’s short fiction
25. Branches of regional humor and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
26. The representation of race and racism in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
27. Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself” and “Out of the Cradle
Endlessly Rocking”
28. Emily Dickinson’s poetic universe.
Vg.