Final Blog Post

I'll admit that I was apprehensive about taking a class on 19th century literature. I wasn't sure how interesting literature written in 1800s could be. To my surprise I found that the themes found in many of the works we read our relevant to current culture and even my own life. I have thoroughly enjoyed the class...well with the exception of the poetry unit, largely because the structure was completely different than other classes I've taken at CMU. I tend to be pretty quiet in class, but in this course I fell compelled to participate in the discussion and it was a new experience to voice my interpretations of texts and bounce ideas off others.

Exposure to the Transcendental Movement was probably what I benefited most from this course. I knew very little about transcendentalists before reading Thoreau, but I learned was striking. It was incredible how such a small, interconnected group of people relentlessly advocated for change, particularly with the way man treats nature. The transcendentalists seemed to be so far ahead of their time and so in sync with the environmental argument today.

I'll definitely take a great deal away from this course. On a personal level I feel much more comfortable joining class discussions because of this class. I've also learned to examine texts in relation to the socio-cultural context of the time and how the time period and culture effects the text.