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Apr 19, 2024
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ENGL 192Z - American Killers, American SaintsSemester Hours: 3
Much like a common language or heritage, violence is essential to social order. Governments enforce laws by threatening punishment; nations impose their will by preparing for war. Yet violence, anthropologists tell us, can also serve sacred ends, promote faith, or draw believers closer to God. Americans have long understood this paradox. Our culture has used violence to unify and inspire, even as violent acts have scarred and harmed. This course will explore the social uses of violence—its beauty and terror, its senselessness and serious purpose—by examining great American texts. We will range widely from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Beginning with an Indian captivity narrative by Mary Rowlandson, we will consider the turbulent period ending in civil war, reflected in the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the poetry of Walt Whitman, and Stephen Crane’s great novel, “The Red Badge of Courage.” Texts in the twentieth century include Ernest Hemingway’s “In Our Time” and Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” We will also view two films, Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” and Terrence Malick’s “Badlands.” Throughout the course we will explore the mysterious process that renders even the greatest villains reflections of our collective hopes and fears. Written requirements include two response papers and one longer essay.
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