Fall 2009 HL90 Offerings – NEW!
These seminars exploring the interdisciplinary study of History and Literature are restricted to undergraduates and have enrollments limited to 15. There are no prerequisites, and non-concentrators are welcome. Preference is given to History and Literature concentrators if space is limited.
History and Literature 90ac. The British & American Revolutions
Joanne van der Woude
M., 1-3
This course compares the British Civil War (1642-1651) and the American Revolution (1775-1783) in an Atlantic context. Looking at patterns of flight, resistance, revolt, and sentiment, we will place these two moments in larger structures of class and cultural conflict by reading diaries, songs, pamphlets, and pictures. Authors include Winthrop, Milton, Marvell, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Fieldtrips to the Boston State House and the MFA will also foster discussions of revolutionary music and visual culture.
History and Literature 90e. Imperial Intimacies: Bodies and Cultures, 1800-present
Judith Surkis
W., 2-4
Explores the place of "intimate matters" -- families, bodies, and sexualities -- in the history and literature of empires. How were these zones implicated in colonial encounters and government, domination and resistance, travel and consumption, the development of feminism, nationalism, and decolonization? How do they inform understandings of the colonial and postcolonial today? Focus will be on comparative European empires.
History and Literature 90i. American Road Narratives
Amy L. Spellacy
Th. 3-5
Explores the significance of the road narrative in twentieth-century American literature and film, focusing on how stories of travel have functioned as a forum for examining larger social and cultural issues. Course will consider the possibilities and promises represented by travel in these stories, and will also interrogate how race, class, and gender affect the experience of being on the road. Authors include Zora Neale Hurston, John Steinbeck, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, and Cormac McCarthy.
History and Literature 90l. Stories of Slavery and Freedom in the Modern Atlantic World
Timothy P. McCarthy
M., 2-4
In the last generation, scholars have revolutionized our understanding of slavery and freedom in the modern Atlantic world. This sea-change has been the result of a major methodological shift: to view this history through the eyes of slaves rather than the eyes of masters. This course will examine the history of the "black Atlantic" through a diverse range of cultural texts--poetry, pamphlets, court cases, petitions, autobiographies, novels, speeches, and sermons--produced by slaves, free blacks, and abolitionists from the Age of Revolution to emancipation.
History and Literature 90q. Performing America
Robin M. Bernstein
W. 3-5
An investigation of the role of theatre and other forms of performance in the United States from the Revolution through the early twentieth century. Topics include plays staged by eighteenth-century Harvard students, melodrama, blackface minstrelsy, abolitionist lectures, P.T. Barnum, freak shows, world fairs, museum displays, "leg shows," and New Negro theatre. This hands-on course teaches deep skills in archival research. In a typical week, we will meet once in the classroom to discuss course readings and once in an archive (the Harvard Theatre Collection, Schlesinger Library, or Peabody Museum) to work directly with primary materials.
History and Literature 90s. Cloak and Swagger: Fashioning the Body in Early Modern Europe and the New World
Nenita Ponce de Leon Elphick
Tu., 2-4
Using visual, historical, and literary sources, this course explores how clothing functioned in the construction of social status, gender, and race in early modern Europe and the New World. It will examine Judeo-Christian beliefs about clothing; how the elite manipulated clothing to increase their power and prestige; the importance of textiles, dyestuffs, and fur in New World exploration and trade; and how the cloth industry became a crucial site of revolt during eighteenth-century Independence movements.
History and Literature 90u. Culture in Depression-Era America
Jeanne Follansbee Quinn
W., 1-3
Examines the history and literature of the Depression-era United States. The course will examine a wide-range of cultural forms--documentary books, photography, fiction, film, radio, history, drama, anthropology, criticism--in order to explore how writers and critics represented the socio-economic crisis and envisioned social change.
History and Literature 90v. Ancients and Moderns
Tamara Griggs
Tu., 1-3
Between 1400 and 1800, Europeans discovered, imitated, and challenged the cultural and intellectual legacy of Greco-Roman antiquity. In this course, we will examine the complex and ever-changing relationship between "ancients" and "moderns" in early modern European history. Readings will include Tacitus, Petrarch, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Francis Bacon, Descartes, and Jonathan Swift. Course work includes three short writings assignments and a final research paper.
History and Literature 90y. London - Paris - Berlin - St. Petersburg: Capital Cities in Europe's Long Nineteenth Century
John D. Ondrovcik
W., 3-5
Moving chronologically from Paris in 1789 to St. Petersburg in 1917, this course examines the urban experience during Europe’s long nineteenth century. Students will address the problems of nationalism, industrialization, sexuality, crime, and war through novels, poetry, memoirs, travel writing, political tracts, contemporary scholarly texts, and excellent secondary works. Class discussion will explore--and question--representations of these cities as emblems of particular periods of European history, primarily through direct comparison with other cities in other periods.
History and Literature 90z. Theory of History and Literature
Andrew John Romig
M., 1-3
What are the key theoretical underpinnings of historical and literary studies today? How should we see literary and historical interpretations as parallel endeavors? What role does interdisciplinary humanistic study play in the modern world? This class explores these questions through the lens of key texts by major critics and thinkers of the past century. Readings will include Spingarn, Bloch, Said, Barthes, Braudel, Derrida, Foucault, Greenblatt, Bhabha, and more. No previous coursework required. Open to non-concentrators.