Courses

(Seminar). "It is not expected of critics as it is of poets that they should help us to make sense of our lives; they are bound only to attempt the lesser feat of making sense of the ways we try to make sense of our lives." - Frank Kermode This seminar will focus on American literature during the rise of U.S. corporate power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The legal and economic entity of the corporation established new social hierarchies and systems of power, changed the roles of government and families, and wrought new forms of relationships between individuals. American culture demonstrated both an enchantment with the possibilities of a growing economy and a looming anxiety about the systematization of personal relationships. Authors and critics grappled with an American society that seemed to offer unprecedented opportunity for social rise but only within a deeply threatening and impersonal structure. We'll examine the ways that literary and popular culture depicted corporations and the ways that corporate structure influenced literary aesthetics and form. Application instructions: E-mail Professor Aaron Ritzenberg ([email protected]) with the subject heading "American Literature and Corporate Culture seminar". In your message, include basic information: name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course. Admitted students should register for the course; they'll automatically be placed on a wait list, from which the instructor will in due course admit them as spaces become available.