Major Authors

Global exploration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries radically changed Western science, orienting philosophies of natural history to more focused fields like comparative anatomy, botany, and geology. In the United States, European scientific advances and home-grown ventures like the Wilkes Exploring Expedition to Antarctica and the Pacific inspired new endeavors in cartography, ethnography, zoology, and evolutionary theory, replacing rigid models of thought and classification with more fluid and active systems. They inspired literary authors as well. This class will examine some of the most remarkable of these authors—Herman Melville (_Moby-Dick_ and "The Encantadas"), Henry David Thoreau (_Walden_), Sarah Orne Jewett (_Country of the Pointed Firs_), Edith Wharton (_House of Mirth_), Toni Morrison (_A Mercy_), among others—in terms of the subjects and methods they adopted, imaginatively and often critically, from the natural sciences.

What does the Genesis story of creation and temptation tell us about gender, about heterosexuality, and about the origins of evil? What is the nature of God, and how can we account for that nature in a cosmos where evil exists? When is rebellion justified, and when is authority legitimate? These are some of the key questions that engaged the poet John Milton, and that continue to engage readers of his work.

In 1667, John Milton published what he intended both as the crowning achievement of a poetic career and a justification of God's ways to man: an epic poem which retold and reimagined the Biblical story of creation, temptation, and original sin. Even in a hostile political climate, _Paradise Lost_ was almost immediately recognized as a classic, and one fate of a classic is to be rewritten, both by admirers and by antagonists. In this seminar, we will read _Paradise Lost_ alongside works of 20th century fantasy and science fiction which rethink both Milton's text and its source. Students should come to the seminar having read _Paradise Lost_ straight through at least once; this can be accomplished by taking the IAP subject, _Reading_ _Paradise Lost_ (21L.995), or independently. Twentieth century authors will include C. S. Lewis (_Perelandra_, _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_) and Philip Pullman (_His Dark Materials_), as well as assorted criticism. Each week, one class meeting will focus on Milton, and the other on one of the modern novels.

This seminar provides intensive study of exciting texts by four influential American authors. In studying paired works, we can enrich our sense of each author's distinctive methods, get a deeper sense of the development of their careers, and shake up our preconceptions about what makes an author or a work "great." Students will get an opportunity to research an author in depth, as well as making broader comparisons across the syllabus.

For some reason, American literature (like French, Irish, and Russian, among others) has been especially productive in major works in fictional forms shorter than the novel. Our task in this course will be to survey that field, by looking at particular moments of high accomplishment. We will, in addition, consider some of the ways in which literary formulae can be used and varied, and some of the impacts of elements of narrative construction.