Post-Civil War American culture and literature is designated as the Age of Realism and Naturalism or the Gilded Age. Many scholars argue that it is during this period that the United States turned into a modern nation due, primarily, to its unprecedented industrial and economic growth. What are the implications of these huge transformations and how are they conceptualized in the exemplary literary and non-literary texts of the period? The four sections we shall be examining in greater detail are the echoes of the Civil War; the perils and pitfalls of post-war Reconstruction effort, and the question of race; economic relations and the way these affect social relations; and, finally, the emergence of new identities, both in the public and the private sphere. Authors considered include: H. Melville, W. Whitman, R. Harding Davis, M. Twain, L. M. Alcott, Ch. Chesnutt, E. Stuart Phelps, F. Norris, A. Cahan, and T.S. Eliot.
- Izvođač: Jelena Šesnić