
American Classics Module
This module will introduce you to American literature and ask you to consider its wider significance in American culture. As the title would suggest the idea of the literary classic plays a key part but rather than simply accept that some texts are 'classics' and others aren't, the module prompts you to consider what it is that makes a classic. What social and cultural ideas get reinforced when certain texts are named classics?
The first text you'll read is Solomon Northup's 1853 text Twelve Years a Slave. Two tips here: 1) don't think you'll be able to get away with just watching the film! and 2) buy the (cheap) Wordsworth Edition of the text which includes module leader Dr Colin Harrison's introduction to the text. Studying a slave narrative to begin a module on American literature will kick off all of those discussions about classics, how, for example, does American literary history change if considered amongst its most important works are...