US Literatures of the Revolution and New Republic

Catalog description

The eighteenth century saw profound changes in America; there were revolutions not only in politics but in the ways people lived their everyday lives, in travel, in industry and in literature. While the American Revolution ended the colonial domination of European settlers and the founding of the United States, those citizens in turn were colonizing Native American lands and African labor. Women clamored to be included in the democratic conversation, and the ideology of “Republican Mortherhood” simultaneously stimulated and constrained those desires. Students look at the ways a diverse group of writers responded to these sea changes by employing a comparative transatlantic or transpacific approach or by focusing more closely on issues specific to the North American continent; issues studied may include the rise of the novel and the changes in print culture surrounding the Revolution, or may focus on the literature of women or narratives of captivity and slavery.