ENG 320 Studies in Literary Modes: American Modernism
This course explores the literature and culture of the United States in
the early part of the twentieth century, with its overlapping milieu of
high modernists, Harlem Renaissance writers, young bohemians, and
political radicals. We will examine the profound redefinitions of the self
catalyzed by the rise of psychology, rapid urbanization and mechanization,
and the Great War, and we'll discuss the public's response to the varied
artistic movements of the period, from Primitivism's allure to the
impersonal promise of Futurism. From painting to film, from Gertrude
Stein's Three Lives to Langston Hughes's poetry and Meridel Le
Sueur's reportage, this course will examine a variety of texts that
contributed to the literary experimentation and extraordinary achievement
of the period. Other readings may include but are not limited to Sherwood
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Zona Gale's Miss Lulu Bett, T.
S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Other Poems, Willa Cather's The
Professor's House, Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time, William
Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Nella Larsen's Passing,
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and poetry by Williams,
Taggard, Stevens, Frost, Cummings, Moore, and Millay. This course is
offered in the fall semester. (Not offered 2005-2006)
Credits: 1
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