Introduction

Here you will find the content of my personal reading lists for the qualifying examinations in my English PhD program. I studied for the 19th- and 20th-century American fields, and thus I have divided up this page into two centuries, organized alphabetically by author within each century, then chronologically by published date of each text. (Note: the 20th-century list only goes up to 1990.) Quite a few of the older works here are available online as e-texts in their entirety, so I've linked to those for your convenience.

Also, I should note that "literature" should be in scare quotes. These may have been the texts that I studied for exams in an English PhD program, but I can assure you that when many of these works were first published, they would have been considered "popular fiction" or something decidedly less high-falutin' than "literature." What was interesting to learn during my studies was how intensely some writers and critics struggled to define what was "literature," and how often an author's politics and social networks played a role in the publication and dissemination of the texts we today read from a distance as high culture. In many ways, the study of literature is as much about these politics and the history surrounding them as it is about anything else you might imagine coming from an English department. And I believe that the same dynamics are at work in today's book and publishing culture.

That said, I'm glad I was able to take the time to read many of these texts. Enjoy!

Last updated 2006.12.20