English 45C

Book List

Tentative Book List (please attend the first lecture before purchasing) : ;

Recommended: Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness; Faulkner, William: The Sound and the Fury; James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw; Larsen, Nella: Passing; McEwan, Ian: Saturday; Pynchon, Thomas: The Crying of Lot 49; Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway

Other Readings and Media

A substantial (required) photocopied reader containing short stories, poetry, and critical essays.

Description

This course examines a broad range of British and American texts spanning well over a century, with a primary focus on the emergence and development of early twentieth-century modernism. Topics for discussion will include the role of high art and artists in an era of mass communications and mass culture; the interplay between formal innovation and ideological stance; the rejection of and/or engagement with tradition and history; the implications of expatriatism and multiculturalism for identity; and the politics of canon formation: which authors and literary texts are regularly read, how they are read, and by whom.

Written work for the course will consist of three 5-7 page essays; a midterm and/or quizzes given in lecture; and a final exam. Regular attendance at lecture and vigorous participation in section are also required. Individual sections may also require short assignments.