Hellen Lee
English Department

American Realism

The post-Reconstruction period up through the early years of the twentieth century saw the rise of Realism as the terrain of experimenting, exploring, and contesting understandings of new social formations in relation to sectional divisions, rapid industrialization, the rise of the new middle class, expanding roles of women in civic life, and immigration from various places in the world. This class will explore a variety of representations of the social legacy of the past, the expansion of the dominant social order, and the emergence of alternate cultural expressions.