English 246K

In this seminar, we will read ten modernist novels. We will consider the strangeness of their modes of narrative and characterization as they respond to challenges such as the destabilizing of traditional social hierarchies and gender roles, the forces of empire and global capitalism, and the demands of the city as a site of consumer capitalism. As part of foregrounding the innovative nature of these texts, we will ask how each of them constructs—or refuses to construct—the boundaries of a person. What textual features establish or undo these boundaries? What makes these characters and, or, unmakes them? What forms of subjectivity result?

 

(The syllabus will include Wyndham Lewis' The Revenge for Love, which is out of print; secondhand copies can be ordered from bookstores and online.)