The Origins of American Literature Studies

Although American literature is now a standard subject in the American college curriculum, a century ago few people thought it should be taught there. Elizabeth Renker uncovers the complex historical process through which American literature overcame its image of aesthetic and historical inferiority to become an important field for academic study and research. Renker\'s extensive original archival research focuses on four institutions of higher education serving distinct regional, class, race and gender populations. She argues that American literature’s inferior image arose from its affiliation with non-elite schools, teachers and students, and that it had to overcome this social identity in order to achieve status as serious knowledge. Renker’s revisionary analysis is an important contribution to the intellectual history of the United States and will be of interest to anyone studying, teaching or researching American literature.

• An engaging narrative history of how American literature became a field of academic study • New archival research advances what we know about the history of the field • Based on detailed case studies from a range of different types of higher education institutions

Introduction; 1. The birth of the Ph.D.: the Johns Hopkins research model; 2. Seminary wars: female teachers and the seminary model at Mount Holyoke; 3. Higher education for African-Americans: competing models at Wilberforce University; 4. Literary value and the land-grant model: The Ohio State University; Conclusion: The end of the curriculum; Works cited; Archives consulted; Index.