230094 Genres, Authors, Periods: US American Novels from the Sentimentalist Beginnings to the Black Lives Matter movement (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

This seminar introduces students to the novel, one of the most significant and rich US American literary genres. Emerging after the Revolutionary War and Independence from England, the US novel represents a break from earlier long narrative forms such as the epic through its emphasis on everyday people and lives in a realistic time frame. It is marked by its narratives of personal psychological, economic, and social struggle and development; and its close attention to the details of everyday life, including the objects purveyed through the rising commodity culture of which the novel itself was a part. In this seminar, we will trace the history of the novel in the US and discuss its characteristics as well as the genre's transformation over time. Students will be introduced to key moments, authors and topics of the novel and read exemplary texts in order to broaden their understanding of the US literary landscape.

Please purchase the following texts:
Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
Thomas: The Hate U Give