| Course Title: Early American Narratives and Counternarratives |
| Start Date: 01/27/2026 End Date: 05/12/2026 |
| Term: Spring Semester 2026 |
| Description: This course frames early American literary and cultural history as a series of hegemonic narratives and counternarratives. Starting with the violence of settler colonialism and Indigenous resistance, this course considers how US literary and national traditions have always been contested by oppressed and dispossessed peoples, who have offered alternatives to predominant American mythologies such as individualism and freedom. We will also track how African American antislavery writers established rhetorical and literary forms in opposition to slavery that influenced the protest and reform ethos of the first half of the nineteenth century. By focusing on the development of various literary forms such as the essay, oratory, the slave narrative, and poetry, this course will consider how Black writers, Indigenous figures, women, and social reform movements reconsidered questions surrounding race, gender, and class from sixteenth-century contact and colonization up until the end of the Civil War. |
| Distribution(s): I - Humanities , MP - Multicultural Perspectives |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Alex Moskowitz | 413-538-2457 | amoskowitz@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 01/27/2026 - 05/12/2026 | Seminar | Monday and Wednesday | 11:30AM - 12:45PM | TBA | TBA | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| None |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Meets the department's legacy 1700-1900 requirement. |
| Course Tags | ||
| ENGL0001 | ENGL-HP: Literary History and Period | This course has been approved to count towards the English major's Literary History and Period Disciplinary Perspectives requirement. |
| ENGL0002 | ENGL-RP: Race, Power, and Difference | This course has been approved to count towards the English major's Race, Power, and Difference Disciplinary Perspectives requirement. |
| CRPE0001 | CRPE-1: CRPE - Major Pathway/Minor | This course has been approved to count towards the CRPE major pathway and the CRPE minor. |
| CRPE0007 | CRPE-RE: Representation Courses | This course has been approved to count towards the CRPE Representation requirement. |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Waitlisted | Capacity: 18 | Enrollment: 18 | Available: 0 | Waitlist: 10 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| To be determined. |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is NOT the complete book list for this class. |