ENGL 119(F,S) Literary Currencies: Money and Wealth in American Culture+
This course will examine the often vexed relationship of literature in the United States to that quintessential American institution-the commercial marketplace. While writers such as Thoreau and Melville assailed the shallowness of consumer culture, others, such as Franklin and Whitman, have seemed to celebrate the unfettered individualism promised by American capitalism. We will look closely at how literary texts represent wealth, but we will also examine the possible effects money, as a competing form of representation, makes on the character of literary expression. Emphasis will be placed on the period Mark Twain dubbed the "Gilded Age" and the realist and naturalist literary movements of that era which gave increasing attention to the nature and status of wealth. We will take into consideration how specific historical events have influenced conceptions of money and property in America (market speculation, the debate over the gold standard, mass-production and mass-consumership, trusts and corporations, etc.) as well as the role identity has played in the perception and representation of wealth, especially by women and African-American subjects whose rights to hold and use money and property have been tenuous and unevenly experienced. In addition to the work of the writers mentioned above, readings will include several novels (Norris' McTeague, Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby), short stories by Poe, James, Cather, and Hurston, and poetry by Stein and Stevens. Requirements: five 2- to 6-page essays and active participation in class discussion. No prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 19.