Courses of Study 2013-2014 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
Courses of Study 2013-2014 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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AMST 2004 - Introductory Seminar in Historical Fiction


(CA-AS)
Fall. 4 credits.

Co-meets with ILRLR 2070  Lec 003.

K. Howe.

Historical fiction as a genre contains an essential paradox. To learn about a particular historical moment with accuracy, we turn to primary sources. To consider transcendent themes of human experience within literature, there is no need, beyond stylistic window dressing, to place a story in the past. So why have historical fiction at all? This interdisciplinary course will investigate the extent to which historical fiction participates in, or pushes against, the tendency to fetishize particular moments in American history. Moving chronologically, we will look at examples of both classic and recent historical fiction in dialogue with primary and secondary historical sources to discover what historical fiction can offer students of American culture that might not be revealed through the study of history or literature alone. Authors will include David Blight, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nancy Horan, Arthur Miller, Margaret Mitchell, Anne Moody, Kathryn Stockett, and Edith Wharton. (LT)



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