English 45C

Book List

Coetzee, John: Disgrace; James , Henry: What Maisie Knew; Ramazani , Jahan, et al.: Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry; Wilde, Oscar: Picture of Dorian Gray; Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway

Other Readings and Media

There will probably be postings on bcourses. 

Description

This course will involve close readings of texts by those whom I consider indispensable authors who define significant parameters for literature in England and in the US from about 1870-1950, with a final novel by the South African writer John Coetzee, who in many ways questions the value of this exercise in coming to know a dominant culture.  I will emphasize learning to read texts closely and to discuss them in terms of how close reading makes demands on our getting our minds around the material.  There will two lectures on Modernism in art and there will be frequent references to modern philosophy.  You get all this for the price of a mere two papers, a mid-term and final exam, and mandatory regular attendance.