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Course Info for ENGL - 863 - 01, Spring 2024
Class number: 2866 Title: Mark Twain&the Making of Amer Department: English
Career: Graduate Component: Lecture Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Graded Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 3 Current enrollment: 0 Available seats: 3
Start date: Monday, January 22, 2024 End date: Friday, May 10, 2024 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: W: 6:30PM-9:00PM, 115V - 103 Instructor(s): Mrozowski, Daniel
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement
Course Description:
Mark Twain’s fiction often acted as a moral seismograph registering the intense shifts in American cultural, political, and economic life in the post-Civil War era. His memoirs became a kind of public narrative describing what it meant to be an American – for both a national and a world audience. This course will consider a large swath of his works, including Huckleberry Finn, Pudd’nhead Wilson, and Life on the Mississippi, against the backdrop of the social transformations of the late 19th century in the United States. We will also explore Twain’s aesthetic innovations and techniques in the context of literary history. The class will make a visit to the Mark Twain House in the second half of the session; assignments will include shorter writing opportunities as well as a self-directed and substantial seminar paper.