FYS 26 We the I the People: Individualism in American Literature
In "The American Scholar," Ralph Waldo Emerson urged the spirit of a young nation to take control of its literary destiny, so as "to look from under its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical skill." Following Emerson’s invocation, American literature more than fulfilled this charge, establishing itself as a unique and prosperous field through meditations on his notion of individuality. This course will look at the development of American letters as it unfolds in the context of Emerson’s call to arms, reading genre’s of romanticism, realism and regionalism, modernism, and more. Open only to first-year frosh.