American Writers, American Workers: Exploring Work and Labor through Literature

Catalog description

This class explores how writers depict, romanticize, critique, and thematize work in American literature. From chattel slavery, domestic labor, to corporate work and creative work we will explore how writers consider work and labor in all of its incarnations. In addition to reading the literature, students will be asked to develop projects that tie the texts we read in class to both past and present trends in working culture. Additionally we will also explore how the language of work and labor suffuses other aspects of American life such as mental health, relationships, and even leisure. Texts will span from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. (ENGL-LOA, ENGL-PST)