Writing America in the Long 18th Century

This seminar will examine how writers, politicians, and everyday people conceived of “America” in the long 18th century. Beginning with the late colonial period, we will look at differing notions of belonging, colonial subjecthood and diverse conceptions of what living and being in the British colonies in North America meant. We will then learn about the beginning of revolutionary dissent and loyalist discourse, leading into the American War of Independence and the founding of the United States as a sovereign democratic state. We will close the course by examining how Americans negotiated their new independent identities in the early national period. In order to cover these diverse historical periods of American history, we will read a variety of different texts, ranging from political texts, to diaries, letters and fictional novels and short fiction to drama and poetry.