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.
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.
Frequency | Weekday | Time | Format / Place | Period |
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Module | Course | Requirements | |
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23-ANG-M-AngGM2 Grundmodul 2: Contact Zones and Intercultural Studies | GM 2.3 Cultural and Literary Contact in the USA | Study requirement
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- | Graded examination | Student information | |
23-IAS-M-IAS4 North American Literature and the Processes of Culture | Cultural and Literary Contact in the U.S.A. I | Study requirement
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Cultural and Literary Contact in the U.S.A. II | Study requirement
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- | Graded examination | Student information | |
23-IAS-M-IAS6 Advanced Studies of Literatures and Cultures of the Americas / Estudios avanzados de literaturas y culturas de las Américas | NorthAmerican Literatures in Context | Study requirement
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- | Graded examination | Student information | |
30-MGS-4 Hauptmodul 3: Arbeit und gesellschaftliche Transformationen | Seminar 1 | Study requirement
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Seminar 2 | Study requirement
Graded examination |
Student information |
The binding module descriptions contain further information, including specifications on the "types of assignments" students need to complete. In cases where a module description mentions more than one kind of assignment, the respective member of the teaching staff will decide which task(s) they assign the students.
A corresponding course offer for this course already exists in the e-learning system. Teaching staff can store materials relating to teaching courses there: