American Literature's Hemispheric Address: 1823-1923 (Fall 2019)

This course is a study of American literature’s address to and engagement with the hemisphere in the long nineteenth century. As such, it is first and foremost an inquiry into the concepts—“America,” “literature,” “address,” “hemisphere,” race and period—that animate our study. Our first task, then, is to turn these concepts into problems. What constitutes American literature in this period? What are the conditions of its production, circulation, and reception? To what, and to whom, is it addressed? Who are its readers, its publics, its characters, its addressees? Who are its legitimators, authorities, and apologists? The course is arranged around major transformations in hemispheric relations, including the invocation and exercise of the Monroe Doctrine (1823), the annexation of Texas, the U.S. Mexican War (1846-1848), the Treaty of Guadeloupe (1848), U.S. expansionism before and after the Spanish American War (1898), the construction and administration of the Panama Canal Zone (1903-1914), and the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). We conclude with a look at the hemispheric contexts of the Harlem Renaissance