Drawing on a range of theorists and novelists, this course will explore some of the most compelling energies and problems that drive a century of Western Modernism (from the1840s through the1940s). On the theory side, we begin with Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, to be followed by Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals and some of Freud's major essays. On the fiction side, we read Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground prior to launching a more sustained inquiry into the work of three modernists: Kafka, Proust, and Woolf. The course will conclude by attending to a number of provocative essays in Walter Benjamin's Illuminations. Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: one short paper (5 pp), one longer paper (10-12 pp), a final exam. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). (Criticism or Post-1900)

Hour: WEINSTEIN