Beneath the Canon: Reading Out-of-Print 19th Century American Novels

I am about to begin a course that aims to reclaim out-of-print American novels from the 19th century (I first wrote about this back on December 7, 2010).  We will ask questions related to why these novels are no longer read and what criteria has been or is used by critics to shape the present canon.The intention is to question not only the notion of canon but also why certain texts have been shut out of the traditional canon of the period.  Along the way, we will also talk about whether this new access prompts a change in how we read, though I suspect at this point our discussions of individual texts will not be very different from conversations about more conventionally gotten texts. We will gain access to electronic editions using an Amazon Kindle and the texts available from the Kindle store (many at no additional cost to the students).  We will read (at least) one novel each week during the six-week spring term. We will, I hope, be able to think more broadly about the reading and about the issues that we will address during our discussions (issues of aesthetics, social conscience, popular versus literary fiction

Here is the list of potential readings:

Writers listing – 19^th Century American Writers

Louisa May Alcott [individually available or of part of a collection]

            Hospital Sketches

            An Old Fashioned Girl

            Under the Lilacs

Horatio Alger [Individual or collection]

            Various

Charles Brockton Brown [individual or collection]

            Ormond

            Arthur Mervyn

            Clara Howard

            Jane Talbot

Charles Chesnutt [individual]

            The House Behind the Cedars

            The Colonel’s Dream

Lydia Maria Child [individual]

            A Romance of the Republic

Kate Chopin [individual]

            At Fault

Richard Harding Davis [collection]

            Soldiers of Fortune

Thomas Dixon [collection]

            The Clansman

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman [individual or collection]

            Giles Corey (a play)

Pauline Hopkins [individual]

            One Blood

William Dean Howells [individual]

            The Man of Letters as A Man of Business

            The Quality of Mercy

Frank Norris [individual or collection]

            The Pit

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps [individual]

            The Gate’s Ajar

Elizabeth Payson Prentiss [individual]

            Stepping Heavenward

Elizabeth Oakes Smith [individual]

            The Newsboy

E.D.E.N. Southworth [individual]

            Ishmael; or, In the Depths

Harriet Beecher Stowe [individual or collection]

            Pink and White Tyranny

Albion Tourgee [individual]

            Bricks Without Straw

Mark Twain     

            Is Shakespeare Dead?

Susan B. Warner

            Queechy

This is an experiment. While the past decades have seen a rise in the number of optional texts for classroom use, the current availability of hundreds of out-of-print novels through electronic/digitized files opens a wholly new opportunity for introducing the processes that determine canon or even cultural formation.