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 American
Writers
and Technology |
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American
Writers
and Technology |
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| "Lo, soul, seest thou not God's purpose from the first?
The earth to be spann'd, connected by network . . . ."--Whitman, "Passage to India." |
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Ever since the iron horse roared
within earshot of Walden Pond, and the first rail and telegraph lines began
weaving their way over a once pristine landscape, American poets, painters,
journalists, and fiction writers--from the skeptical and critical to the
proud and adulatory--have documented our nation's turbulent, bittersweet,
often obsessive love affair with technology. 
This course reviews the tremendous cultural changes
that have been introduced into American society over the past two centuries,
specifically highlighting those shifts in attitude or outlook (both positive
and negative) that have occurred as a result of new inventions and technical
developments. Writers surveyed in the course include Emerson, Thoreau,
Bryant, Whitman,
Twain,
Adams, and Vonnegut--with particular emphasis on the visionary elements
in their writings and on their relationship to the apocalyptic tradition
in American literature generally.
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| Questions: David
L. Simpson (dsimpson@condor.depaul.edu)
The School for New Learning, DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60604 © David L. Simpson, 1998 |
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