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CS92PROD
Culture Performs: The American Revolution to the Civil War
ENGL 309
Spring 2013
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: AMST 300

What were the intersections among literature, performance, and culture that explained, shaped, and defined the first century of the American nation? We will consider this question through the lenses of dramatic and non-dramatic literature as well as through performance history. Topics include how dramatic literature helped define the early nation as distinct from its British heritage (through playwrights such as Royall Tyler and Mercy Otis Warren, and events such as the Astor Place Riots). We will analyze the relationship between the dramatization of Native Americans and national policies of Indian Removal (reading playwrights John Augustus Stone and James Nelson Barker). Reading works by such authors as William Henry Smith and Edgar Allan Poe, we will think about the wider cultural potential of melodrama. Finally, we will examine the intersections between literature and performance that illuminated issues of the Civil War and its aftermath, including works by William Wells Brown, Bronson Howard, William Gillette, Herman Melville, and Julia Ward Howe.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (AMST)
Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available

Last Updated on MAR-29-2024
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