INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY AND LITERATURE

An exploration of the interconnections and intersections between history and literature, both as categories of cultural production and as scholarly disciplines.  In the past thirty years the boundaries between history and literature have become usefully blurred, as literary scholars pursued the historical aspects of their texts and historians recognized the literary aspects of their narratives.  The result is a propitious intellectual moment, which enables scholars to address new methodological horizons that combine close reading of texts with expansive attention to historical context.

The course treats the subject in terms of both theory and practice. Theoretical readings address the relations between history and literature, with a focus on texts relevant to scholars working in the field today.  Exemplary recent works of English-language scholarship highlight the kind of creative blending of literary and historical approaches that the students might pursue in their M.A. essays.