Making It: Invention, Creation, and Destruction in English Language Literature Since 1800

Catalog description

Modern American literature demonstrates a remarkable fascination with creation, destruction, and invention. This course examines dual meanings of making it: first, the idea that people must make it in a competitive industrial world. And second, that making it usually means making innovative things regardless of consequences. We will read and discuss American narratives of invention and destruction since 1865, and also read broadly on making, including creation myths, manifestos, philosophical texts, and literary theory. Authors include William Dean Howells, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Atwood, and Michael Chabon. Assignments include critical essays, hands-on experiments in making things, and a culminating research paper.