Fictions of the New World

Catalog description

This course centers on the English-language fictions created about the so-called New World in the period just prior to the first English settlements, and on the discourses that followed in their wake: the poetry, narratives, and oral traditions that were produced by or circulated among settlers, indentured and enslaved laborers, and indigenous Americans for the hundred years or so after the first English settlements. We'll consider how these fictions shaped, legitimated, and sometimes critiqued the political and social realities of colonization and settlement. And we'll also explore creative and archival efforts that have sought to redress the fictions of the new world. This course will provide students with an introduction to archival research in rare and manuscripts collections.