This course will explore a series of movements and theories that shaped much of European thought, culture, and literature from 1890 until 1945. Given the tremendous political, social, and geographic upheaval of this period, which included the Bolshevik Revolution and two devastating world wars, we will examine the varied responses that such chaos occasioned in the writing of that time. Change can be both prohibitive and liberating, and we will consider how it dissolved and reshaped individual notions of identity, tradition, morality, the creative process, spirituality, physical life, gender, and, perhaps most importantly, how it forced writers to ponder what it means to be human. Readings will include Wilde, Kafka, Proust, Freud, Mann, Mandelstam, Bulgakov, Woolf, Babel, Akhmatova, and Orwell. We will also consider works from the other arts so as to broaden our understanding of aesthetic practice during this period. All readings in English. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: active class participation, two short papers, one class presentation, and one final paper. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit 19 (expected: 19). This course is writing intensive. (Literary Movements)

Hour: VAN DE STADT