Early American Studies

Working against nationalist models that have traditionally defined the field, early Americanists at Iowa draw on insights from critical theory and the new bibliography to explore colonial and post-colonial literary culture.

Acknowledging the transatlantic and cross-cultural dimensions of early American expression, we offer courses studying the conflicts and negotiations that constitute colonial and early national societies. With particular interest in ethics, epistemology, labor, multiculturalism, and book history, we examine the materiality, rhetoric, and aesthetics of an expansive and diverse pre-1800 canon. Students benefit as well from a strong core of early Americanists in Religious Studies, History, and American Studies.

Recent Early American Literature Classes

Graduate Readings in Early American Literature
Using a hemispheric perspective on the Americas, this course examines the literary culture of "New World" texts by analyzing discourses of colonization, mercantilism, globalization, and the Black Atlantic.

Literature and Culture of America Before 1800
A course concerned with the material culture and literary sociology of early America, examining its civic, spiritual, and transnational contexts.

Literature and Culture of America Before 1800: Cultures of the Word in Early America
A topical study and historical survey of early American literature, with special attention to the mediation of the word in speech, print, and manuscript.