Posting a Sussex Library reading list is a lengthy process that involves my curriculum development, the Library staff, and some clunky software. This means that my reading lists can’t be made available through the library for quite a while after the syllabus is set. I’m therefore posting reading lists for my Autumn 2015 classes here (Am Lit now, Mod&Ch to come). These lists are UNOFFICIAL AND PROVISIONAL. I may change them without warning.
American Literature Since 1890: Part I (Q3171)
Books to buy or acquire from the library:
- Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood
- Frank Norris, McTeague (This novel is long. I strongly recommend getting your hands on a paper copy of this book, preferably the Penguin. Try not to pay money for one of those garbage reprint editions.)
- Willa Cather, O, Pioneers!
- William Carlos Williams, Spring and All
- Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro
- Nella Larsen, Passing
- William Faulkner, Absalom! Absalom!
| Week 1 | Lights and shadows in the Gilded Age Stephen Crane, “An Experiment in Misery,” “An Experiment in Luxury,” Black Riders and Other Lines Jacob Riis, “Flashes from the Slums” Thorstein Veblen, from Theory of the Leisure Class Charlotte Perkins Gilman, from Women and Economics |
| Week 2 | Post-bellum, pre-Harlem Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood Dudley Randall, “Booker T. and W. E. B.” Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask” Booker T. Washington, from Up from Slavery W. E. B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk Charles W. Chesnutt, “A Visit to Tuskegee” Chesnutt, “The Goophered Grapevine,” from The Conjure Woman |
| Week 3 | Naturalism Frank Norris, McTeague Walter Benn Michaels, from The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism |
| Week 4 | The Harlem Renaissance I The Crisis 1.1 (read all of it) Countee Cullen, “Incident,” “Heritage” Langston Hughes, selected poems Claude McKay, selected poems |
| Week 5 | Regionalism Willa Cather, O, Pioneers! Donna Campbell, from Resisting Regionalism: Gender and Naturalism in American Fiction, 1885-1915 |
| Week 6 | Modernism and the Little Magazine Poetry 2.1 (April 1913) Others 5.6 (July 1919): pay special attention to William Carlos Williams, “Gloria!” (pp. 3-4); Marianne Moore, “Poetry” (p. 5); Mitchell Dawson, “To Diverse Contemporaries” (p. 13); Wallace Stevens, “Earthy Anecdote” and “Life Is Motion” (p. 14); Emanuel Carnevali, “Serenade” (p. 19); William Carlos Williams, “Belly Music” (pp. 25-32) Little Review 1.2 (April 1914): special attention to Arthur Davison Ficke, “Lines for Two Futurists” (p. 8); Sara Teasdale, “To E” (p. 17); Eunice Tietjens, “To S” (p. 18) Mike Chasar, from Everyday Reading: Poetry and Popular Culture in Modern America |
| Week 7 | Reading week; class will not meet. |
| Week 8 | Modernists at home William Carlos Williams. Spring and All. 1923; New York: New Directions, 2011. Ezra Pound, “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste.” Poetry: A Magazine of Verse 1.6 (March 1913): 200–206. Wallace Stevens, “Sunday Morning,” “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” “The Idea of Order at Key West” James Clifford, from The Predicament of Culture Marjorie Perloff, “Pound/Stevens: Whose Era?” |
| Week 9 | The Harlem Renaissance II Alain Locke, The New Negro Nella Larsen, Passing Judith Butler, from Bodies That Matter |
| Week 10 | Modernity’s pasts William Faulkner, Absalom! Absalom! |
| Week 11 | Faulkner continued |
| Week 12 | Synthesis and exam review. |
