19th Century American Literature Seminar - English Major, Fall 2016

SUGGESTED ESSAY & PRESENTATION TOPICS

WEEK 2

Image(s) of the artist. The prophet-poet is one in the series of masks adopted by Transcendentalism.
Discuss with reference to Emerson.
The symbolic function of nature. Nature speaks a language of interpretable signs. Discuss with
reference to Emerson.
The Transcendentalist view of the divine universe. The world is a temple whose walls are covered with
emblems (Emerson). Discuss with reference to Emerson.
WEEK 3

The poetic self. Hunger, renunciation, distance but also desire. This is the basic language of
Dickinson. Discuss with reference to three poems.
Alternative worlds. Dickinson is a magician of the ordinary, her (feminine?) ecriture imagines new
spaces of freedom. Comment with reference to three poems.
An ars poetica? Dickinsons poems are made of rich silence (Thackerey). Discuss with reference to
three poems.
Image(s) of the artist. The prophet-poet is one in the series of masks adopted by Transcendentalism.
Discuss Transcendentalist influences on Whitman.
America a new poetic subject? America in poetry, America as poem. Discuss with reference to
Whitman.
WEEK 4

Uncertain significance(s). Hawthornes symbols are richly ambiguous - the greatest red herrings in his
writing. Discuss.
Manipulations of identity. Masks, deception, embroidery Hawthornes characters are subtle artists.
Discuss.
The language of symbols. The Puritan heritage of emblems dominates Hawthornes fictions. Discuss.
Narrative strategies. Poes stories are a mise-en-abyme of reading. Discuss.
Images of an underworld. The grotesque, the disfigured, the uncanny: Poe is a (Romantic) architect of
the abyss. Discuss.
Reflections of the self. Spaces, objects, bodies form a symbolic texture that duplicates an unconsoled
mind. Discuss with reference to Poes work.
WEEK 5
Allegorical readings. Quest patterns, thresholds and (false?) initiation punctuate Melvilles narratives.
Discuss.
The metaphor of the white whale. The white whale is a page written over with significances and
ambiguities, leading and especially misleading.
Exploration and introspection. Inner dimensions and psychic landscapes are the real stuff of Melvilles
writing. Discuss.
Narrating the self. Introspection, description are not so much realist techniques as narrative devices
turning life into a coherent exemplary narrative. Discuss with reference to Douglass.

Towards dystopia. The presence of slavery increasingly becomes the haunting other on the surface of the
American dream. Discuss with reference to Douglass.
The American other. Otherness is colonized by the American mind to speak of its New World project.
Discuss with reference to Douglass.
WEEK 6

The American vernacular. Twain writes the American idiom as poetic language in the Whitmanesque
tradition-breaking tradition. Discuss with reference to Twains work.
Carnavalesque structures. Clothes, language and color are effective disguises which reveal and mask the
carnivalized self. Discuss the techniques and functions of disguise in Twains work.
Uncertain boundaries. Imposture and identity, fiction and reality are the real dilemmas of Twains
America. Discuss.
Shifting identities. Dislocations and exile shape identity in James work. Discuss.
Shaping the American self. Sophistication, temptation, deception: the crises of Europe map American
journeys of initiation. Discuss with reference to James.
Transatlantic settings. The international theme speaks a dialogue of difference between Europe and
America. Discuss with reference to James.
WEEK 7

American disharmonies. "Failures, moral ambiguity, corruption, misery - naturalism strikes a note
of opposition in the utopian representation of America." Discuss with reference to Crane.
Spaces of oppression. The utopia of America reveals its authoritarian bend in turn-of-the-century
writing. Discuss with reference to Crane.
The cultural models of realism/naturalism. Picturing life just as it is' - American realism owes
as much to European models as to the specific American realities it is supposed to represent.
Discuss with reference to Crane.
Thresholds and patterns of initiation. Chopins writing is an allegory of initiation, dominated by
scenarios of crossing and renewal. Discuss.
Rewriting cultural models. Chopin writes a (new?) myth of femininity, a second coming of
Aphrodite. Discuss.