The English National Genius: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Early Lectures on British Literature

From November 1835 until January 1836, America's most important 19th century essayist and cultural critic, Ralph Waldo Emerson, gave a series of lectures on the history of English literature for the “Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge” at the Masonic Temple in Boston. A little less than two years before he gave his famous lecture on “The American Scholar”, in which he called for a new American literature and a new intellectual life in the United States, a demand that was directed against the dominance of both British and European letters and thought in the New World, Emerson thus reflected his position vis-à-vis the literature of America’s former “mother country”. These early lectures are not very well known and will provide insight into both the development of the author as well as Emerson’s reflection of the usefulness of (some) English literature for his national(ist) American cultural program. Are there some British authors who are more American than others, possibly even proto-Americans? Which authors and works is he choosing, and why? Who receives praise and who does not? This seminar, co-taught from British and American Studies perspectives, will investigate a fascinating transatlantic cultural dialogue under the new paradigm of World Literature. We will read Emerson’s lectures and some of the texts he is focusing on, trying to retrace and understand his argument and evaluate how his selections and judgments have held up over time.

A reader containing all texts will be provided and must be purchased at the Copy Shop.