How did writers of the first half of the twentieth century respond to the emergence of what we now call the mass media? By reading the novels, poems, and criticism of modernist authors, including Ford, Huxley, T. S. Eliot, Pound, Stein, and Sayers, students will have a broader window into the social and cultural exigencies felt by writers of the time. Broader tenets of modernist ideology, such as impersonality and the use of myth, will be considered in light of mass cultural developments, including the invention of the tabloid and the phonograph. Recent ideas about class allegiances among the modernists will be explored, particularly as they relate to modernism's fascination with popular culture and advertising. Students will read literary criticism in conjunction with the primary texts. Requirements: class participation, one 5- to 7-page paper, and one 8- to 10-page paper. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: about 20). (Post-1900 or Criticism)

Hour: NOHRNBERG