AMST 210(S) American Modernism (Same as English 210)

ENGL 210(S) American Modernism (Same as American Studies 210)
"Modernism" in literature refers to texts from the second half of the nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth century; our course will center on prose in and around the 1920s. The central issue is their self-referentiality and their extra-referentiality: books acutely aware of their own status as language nevertheless aspire to describe, or even save, the world beyond words-modernism posits an aestheticism that can seem redemptive. Thus a concern of the course will be the relation of modernism and modernity: the new world that needs saving. The American version of modernism will in addition have the challenge of producing out of the difficulties of self-conscious fiction a redemption that suits a democracy. Prose writers of the course will include Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Stein, Toomer, and Cather, and perhaps others.
Format: discussion. Requirements: two papers, one 4-6 pages and one 6-8 pages.
Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). Preference to sophomores.
(Post-1900)
Hour: LIMON