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Academic Year 2003/2004
Early American Writing and the Myths of Equality
ENGL 344 SP
In what sense is it true--or, has it EVER been true--that America is a classless society, that one American is just as good as any other? This course poses questions about the surprisingly resilient American
identification
with a myth of social equality, its origins and evolutions, its relationship with others values such as individualism and liberty, and its impacts on the development of a literary or aesthetic nationalism. We will study
what happens when yearnings of equality collide with impulses toward order, expansion, and freedom in the discourse of the early national period, and we will take note of the ways in which those collisions continue to
affect
us in the present.
MAJOR READINGS
Readings may include cultural criticism by Susan Faludi, Lewis Lapham, and bell hooks, as well as excerpts from and responses to the controversial study, THE BELL CURVE. Major readings include authors such as Joel
Barlow, Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur, Venture Smith, Charles Brockden Brown, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Lydia Maria Child, Jarena Lee, Maria Stewart, Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Weekly response papers, in class essay mid-term, and final paper project.
COURSE FORMAT:
Discussion
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
SECTION 01
- Instructor(s): Emerson,Amanda M.
- Times: ..T.R.. 01:10PM-02:30PM; Location: FISK210
- Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 25)
- SR. major: 7 Jr. major: 6
- SR. non-major: 0 Jr. non-major: 4 SO: 5 FR: 3
Special Attributes:
- Curricular Renewal: Writing
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459