Fall 2008 Courses

English 371-01: Nineteenth-century American Literature: Transcendentalism (Cohen)

M/W/F 3:30-4:30pm MAIN 002

Transcendentalism was a philosophical, religious, literary, and social movement that began in the early nineteenth century and lasted until the American Civil War. It emerged from a set of international controversies about miracles, the divine, and the natural world, and eventually became a full-scale effort to reform humanity. The Transcendentalist movement coincided with the flowering of a new literary culture in the U.S. (much of what we now consider to be "classic" American literature - Walden, Leaves of Grass, Moby Dick - came out of this period) and the proliferation of reform movements, including antislavery, utopian socialism, environmentalism, and women's rights. We will study Transcendentalism as a set of interrelated projects: philosophical and religious inquiry, social reform, and literature; and we will read works by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, and Louisa May Alcott.

*First day attendance required.*

Fall 2008 Course Listings