231010 Un-Making and Self-Making of Men and Masculinities in 19th Century US-American Literature (S) (SoSe 2021)

In this course we will analyze selected texts to explore the relation between American literature, men, masculinities and self-making in the 19th century. During this period American men were confronted with different (masculinity) ideals and opportunities for self-making. While Emerson and others attempted to remake themselves spiritually and attempted to produce what they believed to be a genuine American form of intellectual or artistic self-expression, other ambitious men moved to urban centers, attempting to remake themselves by rising from “rags to riches,” while still others went to the frontier to reassert their masculinity. Some men were ‘unmade’ by the Civil War and some by the downsides of what Mark Twain called the “Gilded Age.” Some men benefited from and resorted to opportunities of self-making that were the result of medical and technological progress. Some attempted to improve health and fitness in order to survive figuratively and literally in a highly competitive marketplace. The texts we will discuss allow us to reflect on these and other issues such as the relation between men, masculinities and national identity or between self-making and literary production.

Bibliography

Texts (amongst others):

Cramer, Jeffrey S., ed. The Portable Emerson. New York: Penguin: 2014. (e.g., „Self-Reliance“, “American Scholar”)

Moon, Michael, ed. Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass and Other Writings. New York, London: Norton, 2002. (e.g., "Song of Myself")

Thompson, G.R. ed. The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Norton, 2004. („The Man That Was Used Up“, 1839).

Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade [1857]. New York: Norton: 2006.

W. D. Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham [1884/1885]. New York: Norton: 2018.

Other material will be made accessible or provided in class. Participants are expected to read the texts in advance.