ENGL 4720 - American Realism and Naturalism

(3) Credit Hours
Prerequisite: Successful completion of ENGL 1102 and (ENGL 2110, ENGL 2111, ENGL 2112, ENGL 2120, ENGL 2121, ENGL 2122, ENGL 2130, ENGL 2131 or ENGL 2132) with a grade of “C” or better or by permission of instructor
Popularly, aesthetically and philosophically considered, realism and naturalism dominated American literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet these hugely influential literary modes were notable as much for their popularity and indebtedness to American consumer culture as for their ambivalence towards American popular culture, consumerism and the very act of literary representation itself. This course traces these aesthetic and social ambivalences in works from authors such as Stowe, Howells, Twain, Henry James, Wharton, Jewett, Chesnutt, Dreiser and Norris.