Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature straniere e Culture moderne

The primary goals of this course are as follows:

1) to become familiar with the historical, cultural, and ideological circumstances surrounding a given piece of literature, and to also explore the development and expression of some fundamental ideas, assumptions, myths, and beliefs that still influence the ways Americans think about themselvesand their society.

2) to develop our ability to read these texts both carefully and critically, and to use textual evidence to support interpretations or opinions.

1.demonstrate knowledge of how the novel developed in the U.S. from 1790-1850 in relation to cosmopolitan ideals.

2.use critical reading methods practiced in the discipline of literature to analyze novels  in their historical and cultural contexts.

3.communicate via oral and written expression scholarly information and insight about the early American novel.

Lecture format and seminar meetings

Written exams during the course of the semester

Oral exam

COSMOPOLITAN AMERICA

This course will look at the ways in which the Atlantic revolutions and the cosmopolitan ideals influenced 19th century American culture. During the course of the semester we will read works of the early Republican period and the 19th century. The purpose of this course is to examine American culture from its beginnings to mid-nineteenth century, and to understand its various historical, cultural and discursive contexts.  In addition to studying the Atlantic context and the circulation of revolutionary ideas, and cosmopolitan concepts, we will consider how the emergence of economic liberalism in the early republic is tied to developments in print culture and authorship. Literary movements and styles such as sentimentalism, Romanticism, and the gothic will be considered in relation to the circulation of revolutionary ideas and ensuing paranoia or conservative backlash.