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Poetry in America: Whitman

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2014
HarvardX

A module in a course that surveys 300+ years of poetry in America, from the Puritans to the avant-garde poets of this new century, the course covers individual figures (Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Williams, Hughes), major poetic movements (Firesides, Modernist, New York, Confessional, L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E) and probes uses of poetry across changing times. Who, and what, are poems for? For poets? Readers? To give vent to the soul? To paint or sculpt with words? Alter consciousness? Raise cultural tone? Students will read, write about and also recite American poems.

Poetry in America: The Poetry of Early New England

Semester: 

N/A

Offered: 

2013
HarvardX

The Poetry of Early New England introduces students to the most important poets of the 17th century, including Anne Bradstreet, Michael Wigglesworth and Edward Taylor. Texts range from theological verse dramas to intimate love poems,  from meditations on nature, family and death to reflections on the civic and communal hopes of the New England migrants. Students will be exposed to relevant poetic forms and traditions,  to rare manuscript and printed materials, and they will have opportunities to practice and refine the way they read, and write about, poems. Course...

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Moby Dick and Uncle Tom's Cabin

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2013
Course link
Reads Uncle Tom's Cabin rapidly-situating it within wide range of pertinent cultural and literary contexts-and then Moby Dick slowly, relying on inspection of artifacts (nineteenth-century bibles, scrimshaw, maritime portraits, rope, coins, oil lamps, whale calls), its own interpretive resources, and student-led discussion to penetrate its thickness. Investigates what can be learned from studying these works in each other's perspective and what these readings reveal about nineteenth-century American...
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English 60: Migrations: Fictions of America

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2013
Course Link

This course will treat America as it was imagined and re-imagined between the 16th-21st centuries by successive waves of Europeans, Africans and their descendants. The course explores how evolving fictions of America's purpose, changing notions of America's geography and conflicting ideas of American character inform an emerging literary tradition. Readings list likely to include non-fiction by Harriot, Rowlandson, Mather, Franklin, Jacobs; shorter fiction by Irving, Hawthorne, Melville and Stein; novels by Cather, Norris and Morrison.

Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 12. Poetry in America

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2013
Course Link

Surveying 300+ years of poetry in America, from the Puritans to the avant-garde poets of this new century, the course covers individual figures (Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Williams, Hughes), major poetic movements (Firesides, Modernist, New York, Confessional, L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E) and probes uses of poetry across changing times. Who, and what, are poems for? For poets? Readers? To give vent to the soul? To paint or sculpt with words? Alter consciousness? Raise cultural tone? Students will read, write about and also recite American poems.

Note: This course fulfills the requirement...

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