All the King’s Men
English 490: Senior Seminar
Course Outline
Professor Bryant Mangum

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INTRODUCTION AND CLOSE READING OF THE NOVEL
(Weeks 1-6)

We will begin our class with a close reading of All the King’s Men using something close to a “new critical” or “formalist” approach, the background for which (and Warren’s role in the development of this New Critical approach) we will study as we go. During this reading you will annotate sections of the novel, and we will use these annotations as we proceed through our close reading.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND
(Weeks 7 and 8)

This section of the course will involve uncovering biographical details from Warren’s life that are directly related to the composition, setting, and story line of the novel. We will also be working to establish bibliographical information about the contemporary (to the novel) reception of All the King’s Men and to survey Warren’s literary accomplishments that go far beyond this single novel.

POLITICAL/HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

(Weeks 9-11)

In this part of the course we will go into the life of Huey Long, the world of Louisiana politics in the 1930’s, and realm of southern history—social and literary—with the idea of establishing historical context for the novel.

SECOND READING: THE RESTORED TEXT

(Week 12)

As it turns out, the text we have is not the text that Warren first wrote. Warren scholar Noel Polk has restored Warren’s “original” text, and we will look at sections of that version of the novel against the novel we will have already carefully studied.

POPULAR CULTURE

(Weeks 13 and 14)

All the King’s Men has thoroughly worked its way into American popular culture since its publication in 1946. There are, for example, two film adaptations of the novel (one of which won numerous Academy Awards in 1949) and a more recent one (in which James Gandolfini plays Willie Stark); there have also been three stage versions. In this section of the course we will examine the influence of All the King’s Men on American print and media culture—and the influence of popular culture on the reading of the novel as well.

THE CRITICAL REPUTATION OF THE NOVEL

(Weeks 15 and 16)
Finally we will attempt to determine how All the King’s Men has fared with literary critics during the more-than-half century since its original publication.