Studies in Fiction: Stowe, Twain, and the Transformation of 19th-Century America
This MIT OpenCourseWare seminar pairs Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin with Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to examine how two bestselling novels brought the subject of slavery into mainstream nineteenth-century American reading rooms. Students trace how each book was received in its own time, then track its later life as both canonized classroom text and banned book, contested by readers across the political spectrum. The course includes a syllabus, weekly reading assignments, and discussion questions focused on narrative technique, characterization, and the authors' differing strategies for representing race and slavery to white audiences. Materials are available free through MIT OpenCourseWare, with no certificate offered. The emphasis stays on literary craft and reception history rather than on activism, making this a close-reading course in American fiction with slavery as its historical subject matter.