Winslow Homer, "Cavalry Charge"

Solidity’s a crust--/ The core of fire below; all may go well for many a year,/ But who can think without fear/ Of horrors that happen so." Herman Melville, “The Apparition”

The American Civil War (1861-1865) was cataclysmic: by its end over 600,000 men were dead, large portions of the South were in ruins, and the nation was left to contemplate the reality that its earlier vision of itself as a unified and peaceful "Solidity" was an illusion.  Reflecting upon the war in its aftermath, many Americans joined Herman Melville in asking "who can think without a fear/ Of horrors than happen so?" Although much has changed in the succeeding years, our nation and its writers keep returning to the conflicts of the Civil War as we think about political and regional difference and racial inequality.  This course will study the literary response to the war, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction and political speeches, tracing the literature of the unfolding war and reflections on it in the immediate aftermath and into the present.  This course is designated Writing Intensive, which means that in addition to 4 short essays, we will end the semester with a final assignment that takes earlier work from the term and adds research and revision.