ENG 345 - Late Nineteenth Century American Literature (1)

Can books change the world? During America’s “Age of Reform,” many authors believed texts could be agents of reform. The late-nineteenth century was also the age in which many authors turned away from Romance and toward Realism, because the “real” world needed to be represented before it could be seen and altered. This course focuses on the relationship between social reform and literary genre. We will interrogate authors’ theories about the functions of literature in relation to civic reform as well as the specific reform movements they wrote about and within. We will read critiques of social ills as well as critiques of reformists themselves. Class discussions will focus on authors’ models of reform, including the sometimes-problematic relationships between the reformers and those people ostensibly being helped. Many of the texts we will read are among the most well-known - and best-selling - in their own time; we will research the effects these works had both on their societies and on literary history. This course also counts toward the “Efforts to Address Societal Issues” requirement for the Civic Engagement minor. One of our course goals, then, is to apply the study of literature to our engagement with our own world, and we will be exploring the ways nineteenth-century questions are addressed in social justice endeavors of our own time through field trips as well as meetings with contemporary writers, activists, and/or descendants of our writers. Prerequisite: writing-designated course (W), or ENG 201, ENG 202, or ENG 215. Alternate years.
(Humanities) (Intercultural Literacy Intensive)