English 45C

Book List

Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness; Joyce, James: Dubliners; Le, Thuy: The Gangster We Are All Looking For; Morrison, Toni: Beloved; Nabokov, Vladimir: Pnin; Pynchon, Thomas: The Crying of Lot 49; Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray; Woolf, Virginia: To the Lighthouse

Description

Note that the instructor, book list, and course description of this section of English 45C have changed (as of Nov. 9, 2015).

This course will provide an overview of the aesthetic shifts captured by such terms as realism, modernism, and postmoderinism, with an emphasis on the relation between literary form and historical context. We will explore how literature responds to the pressures of industrialization, war, and empire, as well as to an ever-growing awareness of a diverse, interconnected world. Attention will also be paid to the relation between literature and other forms of cultural expression, e.g., painting, music, and film.