Fall 2006

HUMS 638
The Great American Novel

McCann,Sean

09/11/2006 - 12/16/2006
Thursday 06:30 PM - 09:00 PM

Fisk Hall 412

In this survey of classic works of American fiction, we will focus on texts celebrated not just for their literary achievement but also for their aspiration to define the nature of American life and the aesthetic forms suitable to it. This course will make an effort to trace both some of the lasting continuities in those assumptions and the ways they have changed over two centuries.

Major readings will include: Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter; Melville, Moby Dick; Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin; James, Portrait of a Lady; Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Wharton, House of Mirth; Cather, My Antonia; Wright, Native Son; Ellison, Invisible Man; Cooper, Pioneers.

A syllabus for this course is available at:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/masters/courses/Fall_2006/Course%20Syllabi/syb_hums638.html


Sean McCann (B.A. Georgetown University; Ph.D. City University of New York) is professor of English and American studies. He is author of A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government, (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism (Duke University Press, 2000). He was awarded Wesleyan's 2004 Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Click here for more information about Sean McCann.

ENROLLMENT INFORMATION

Consent of Instructor Required: No

Format: Seminar

Level: GLSP Credits: 3 Enrollment Limit: 18

Texts to purchase for this course:
Willa Cather, MY ANTONIA, Paperback

James Fenimore Cooper, THE PIONEERS, Paperback

Theodore Dreiser, SISTER CARRIE, Paperback

Ralph Ellison, INVISIBLE MAN, Paperback

Nathanael Hawthorne, SCARLET LETTER, Paperback

Herman Melville, MOBY DICK, Paperback

Harriet Beecher Stowe, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, Paperback

Mark Twain, ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Paperback

Edith Wharton, HOUSE OF MIRTH, Paperback

Richard Wright, NATIVE SON, Paperback

READING MATERIALS AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323

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