1. Students will gain an understanding of how historical fiction has served as a literary response to the various complications of politics, cultural difference, social change, ideology and history itself in American society. They will demonstrate this ability in research papers, response papers, in presentations, and in daily classroom discussions and in-class work.

2. Students will develop the ability to understand the particular literary language of these various historical fictions, while engaging with theoretical approaches specific to understanding how historical fiction develops forms of rhetorical and critical discourse that are in turn significant to issues of literary analysis and interpretation. They will demonstrate this ability in research papers, response papers, in presentations, and in daily classroom discussions and in-class work.

3. Students will demonstrate a comprehension of the scope of historical fiction in American literature, reflecting its development as a genre that incorporates historical moments indicative of cultural zeitgeist of particular eras. They will demonstrate this comprehension in research papers, response papers, in presentations, and in daily classroom discussions and in-class work.

To be continued below.

1. Students will gain an understanding of how historical fiction has served as a literary response to the various complications of politics, cultural difference, social change, idea and history itself in American society. They will demonstrate this ability in research papers, response papers, in presentations, and in daily classroom discussions and in-class work.

2. Students will develop the ability to understand the particular literature language of these various historical fictions, while engaging with theoretical approaches specific to understanding how historical fiction develops forms of rhetorical and critical discussion that are in turn significant to issues of literature analysis and interpretation. They will demonstrate this ability in research papers, response papers, in presentations, and in daily classroom discussions and in-class work.

3. Students will demonstrate a comparison of the scope of historical fiction in American literature, reflecting its development as a genre that incorporates historical moments indicator of cultural zeitgeist of particular eras. They will demonstrate this comparison in research papers, response papers, in presentations, and in daily classroom discussions and in-class work.

To be continued below.

This course will present a selection of literary works that focus on significant historical events and their respective conditions, taken from several periods of American fiction. Historical fiction is as old as the Homeric Epics in the Western tradition, and while Sir Walter Scott is considered the first true historical novelist on either side of the Atlantic, since his time historical fiction has evolved to include works produced during every literary period since Romanticism, in both the British and American traditions, extending to Postmodernism and beyond. This course will examine select novels ranging across these periods in American fiction, including works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles W. Chesnutt, Willa Cather, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, E. L. Doctorow, Susan Daitch and Jerome Charyn. Of particular interest will be the ways in which literature draws on and reconfigures historical personages and their lived experiences as a means of producing specific rhetorical gestures, directed at reinterpreting history via literature.

This course will present a selection of literary works that focus on significant historical events and their respective conditions, taken from several periods of American fiction. Historical fiction is as old as the Homeric Epics in the Western tradition, and while Sir Walter Scott is considered the first true historical novelist on either side of the Atlantic, since his time historical fiction has evolved to include works produced during every literary period since Romanticism, in both the British and American traditions, extending to Postmodernism and beyond. This course will examine select novels ranged across these periods in American fiction, including works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles W. Chesnutt, Willa Cather, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, E. L. Doctorow, Susan Daitch and Jerome Charyn. Of particular Interest will be the ways in which literature draws on and reconfigures historical persons and their lived experiences as a means of producing specific rhetorical courtesys, directed at reinterpreting history via literature.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blythedale Romance (1852); Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901); Willa Cather, A Lost Lady (1923); John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel (1930); Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940); E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime (1975); Susan Daitch, L.C. (2002); Jerome Charyn, Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution (2008)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blythedale Romance (1852); Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901); Willa Cather, A Lost Lady (1923); John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel (1930); Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940); E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime (1975); Susan Daitch, L.C. (2002); Jerome Charyn, Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution (2008)