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: 2 short papers, a longer (6-8 pp.) final paper, and a final exam.
Prerequisite: 100-level English course (except 150). Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). Preference to sophomores.
(Post-1900)
Hour: LIMON