2020-2021 Academic Catalog

Nov 23, 2024

2020-2021 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ENG 225 - American Print Culture 1700-1900

The years from 1700 to 1900 witnessed a transformation of print culture from the handpress period to an age of mechanical reproduction. The rapidly increasing availability of inexpensive print technologies had a tremendous impact on habits of publishing, of writing, and of reading itself. In this course, students will examine how the material contexts of print culture in early America affected and were affected by notions of authorship, readership, gender, genre, and popular and elite taste. Some sessions will be conducted at the American Antiquarian Society where students will be able to examine archival material in hands-on workshops. For the final research paper, students will be encouraged to use resources from the AAS, from Goddard Library Special Collections, and/or from the many new digital humanities archives now available online. For undergraduate English majors this course satisfies the Period (D-2) requirement.

Special Topic Fall ‘20: Print Culture at the Margins.
Print culture has always had the capacity to re-inscribe existing cultural, political, aesthetic, and social power structures. In this class, however, we will focus on the capacity of marginalized individuals and communities to challenge those hierarchies through strategic acts of writing and publication. In addition to thinking figuratively about agency “at the margin,” we will also consider the literal physical space of the margin, exploring the ways that these open spaces simultaneously dictate authority and meaning but also invite confirmation, intervention, critique, and reinterpretation.

Course Designation/Attribute: POP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically