In this course we will study the distinctive writing produced in the last two decades before the Civil War, a concentrated moment of expression that has often been taken as the "birth" of an American literature. But while some of the authors we will be reading have been valued by critics since the mid-nineteenth century (Emerson, Poe, Hawthorne, Whitman), some were only rediscovered in the early twentieth century (Melville, Dickinson), and some only entered the classroom in the last twenty-five years (Stowe, Douglass). We will attend closely to the period's pervasive self-consciousness about language; the contested influence of transcendentalism on literature; debates over citizenship and American identity; and the challenge of slavery to American values. Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: class participation, email responses to readings, two short papers and a longer (10-12 page) final paper. Prerequisites: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). (1700-1900)