As with any literary work, we must look not only at themes and issues within The Country of the Pointed Firs itself, but also at how the novel fits into the larger context of its time period and region.  What choices of subject matter, stylistic characteristics, or thematic patterns unite American authors writing in the latter half of the 19th century?  What does Jewett have in common with other New England writers?  This teaching tools section will focus on ways to successfully place Jewett's work into this larger context in the classroom.

Sample Syllabi

The following university courses use The Country of the Pointed Firs as a required text.  Each uses a slightly different angle or theme to tie the readings together.
 
• University of Colorado Denver Readings, Realism and Naturalism

A survey of American fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing on the schools of "Realism" and "Naturalism".
 
• The New School-The Heart of American Fiction, 1860-1920

American fiction produced between the Civil War and World War One can lay a just claim to be at the heart of American literary history. It chronicles the growing self-confidence and cultural sophistication of the United States, even as it lays bare divisions in terms of region, ethnicity, race, and gender.
 
• Middlebury College New England Literature

Chronological survey of New England Literature from William Bradford to Chute's Beans of Egypt.
 
• University of Texas Austin - American Realism

The course covers selected works of American Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism from the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.  Specific topics explored include the roles race, gender, sexuality, region, and social class play in how works become represented as "real."
 
• University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana - Literature, Identity, Commodity in 19th-Century American Fiction

This seminar course focuses on regional writing as a lens to make visible pressing social issues which exist in tension with contemporary cultural productions.  Specifically, issues of literary "otherness," colonialism, and gender will be discussed.

As seen in the examples above, many different options and foci exist for building a class using many of the same texts.  Below are some suggestions for focus areas for courses including The Country of the Pointed Firs.  (These suggestions may provide helpful ideas for livening up an American literature survey course.)

Chronological

Journeys in American Fiction

Narrative Styles in 19th American Literature

Writers of New England

Realism vs. Naturalism

Technology and Industrialization in American Literature