ENG 334LEC

This seminar asks why the signature American literary movements of realism, naturalism, and modernism emerged between two cataclysmic violences: The Civil War (1861-1865) and The First World War (1914-1918). Readings will include touchstone works by authors like Twain, Chesnutt, James (Henry and William), DuBois, Wharton, Chopin, Stein, London, and Dreiser, in addition to political speeches, slave narratives, and soldiers' letters. Discussion and lecture will show how literary writing anticipates conflicts before they turn into war, and commemorates, rewrites, and explores meanings of war afterwards. Major topics will include the meaning of freedom, slavery, honor, manhood, and duty--for men and women, black and white.

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