American Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century

American Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies course taught by Rachel Rubinstein.

This course satisfies Division I requirements.

Course Description
The period between the Civil War and the first World War saw profound ethno-racial, political, economic and social transformations in American society. Industrialization and urbanization, the increase in immigration and internal migrations, the development of consumer culture, America?s new self-consciousness as an imperial power, a developing discourse about race, class and gender, all contributed to the literary innovations of the turn of the century. We will explore realism, literary naturalism, ?local color? writing, literature of social reform, and literature by immigrants and writers of color, up against such cultural phenomena as world?s fairs and expositions; vaudeville, wild west shows and other popular performance; advertising, middle-class affluence and its discontents.

Learning Goals

 * Multi-Cultural
 * Project-based
 * Reading
 * Writing