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Root number
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505818 |
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Semester
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HS2025 |
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Type of course
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Seminar |
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Allocation to subject
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English Languages and Literatures |
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Type of exam
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not defined |
| Title |
The Early American Novel (BA FS Seminar: Literature) |
| Description |
Early American literature struggled to find its own idiosyncratic voice. This became particularly palpable in the post-independence period and into the early nineteenth century. While European literary models were still frequently imitated, writers nevertheless sought to address American issues and to imbue their work with specifically American traits.
In this seminar, we will discuss four novels of the early American period engaged in this process with particular focus on their genre and their aesthetic and cultural-historical significance. Hannah Webster Foster’s sentimental novel The Coquette (1797), a seduction story in the tradition of Samuel Richardson, articulates strong criticism of early American society and the repression experienced by women. Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland: Or, The Transformation (1798) is considered the earliest American gothic novel. It addresses sensationalist psychology as well as voice and perception and religious fanaticism. Female Quixote (1801) by Tabitha Gilman Tenney not only challenges the delusions induced by romantic literature but also voices an early feminism. William Gilman Simms’s The Yemassee (1835), finally, is an early historical novel. Following the examples of Walter Scott’s historical romances and James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, it elevates American history to a subject of literature.
The four texts represent popular genres of the novel in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century America and Europe: the epistolary novel (Foster), the gothic novel (Brown), the picaresque novel (Tenney), and the historical novel (Simms).
Required Reading: All novels should have been read prior to the second seminar session; scans of all texts will be made available on ILIAS. |
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ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course)
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Registrations are transmitted from CTS to ILIAS (no admission in ILIAS possible).
ILIAS
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Link to another web site
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| Lecturers |
Prof. Dr.
Axel Stähler, Institute of English Languages and Literatures ✉
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ECTS
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4 |
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Recognition as optional course possible
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No |
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Grading
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passed/failed |
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| Dates |
Monday 10:15-12:00 Weekly
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| Rooms |
Seminarraum F 006, Hörraumgebäude Unitobler
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| Students please consult the detailed view for complete information on dates, rooms and planned podcasts. |
User:
Öffentlicher Bereich
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