DESCRIPTION

The goal of our five-week seminar is to explore the new possibilities for American literary study opened up when "America" is understood not as a synonym for an isolated United States, but as a network of cultural filiations that have extended across the hemisphere from the period of colonization to the present. This is an important and timely subject that responds to recent changes in the field of literary study, in which traditional divisions have given way to other organizational models such as literatures in English, regional, world, and global literatures. These changes have had an especially significant impact on the study of American literature, which has traditionally been centered around questions of U.S. history and culture. The transition from a national to a hemispheric American Studies is both exciting and daunting. On the one hand, it promises to reinvigorate the canon of U.S. literature by creating surprising juxtapositions, emphasizing different models for periodization, and suggesting new avenues of cross-cultural influence. On the other, it poses a serious challenge to received models of intellectual training and research. There is currently scant institutional support or intellectual community for scholars working in new fields of U.S. literary studies. Our seminar is designed to address this vital need by providing a forum for thinking through the implications of this shift for scholars interested in hemispheric approaches to U.S. literary study.

The content of seminar meetings will be determined almost entirely by participants whose work will represent a broad range of historical, linguistic, and cultural approaches to literature of the Americas. We expect that their research will build on themes and problems that extend across regions and historical periods, including indigeneity, conquest and colonization, slavery, migration, border conflicts, federalism, and religious diversity. Over the course of the seminar, each participant (including the seminar directors) will share a piece of original scholarship paired with a short reading assignment for the entire group. We will also be joined by a series of four faculty visitors who will each assign readings and lead a meeting of the seminar. This structure is designed to create a shared body of knowledge while also giving participants the opportunity to introduce their own work in progress. We also hope to have ongoing conversation about the perils and possibilities of doing comparative research and teaching on the Americas, which include the need for multiple linguistic, historical, and cultural competencies and the absence of support networks available in more traditional fields.

Our seminar will meet three times a week for a total of six hours. Since our goal is to help participants revise and expand work already underway, we will schedule individual appointments with each participant above and beyond the seminar meeting times.