Cultural Change and the Novel

The Twentieth Century was a period of extraordinary cultural change and innovation.  Within it, writers confronted the legacies of colonial expansion and subjugation; they pioneered new styles of seeing, feeling, and thinking; they witnessed the rise of totalitarianism and fascism, and cautioned us by imagining dark futures for humankind; they sought to break free from, or else to extend still more radically, the artistic innovations and insights of earlier decades, prompting critics to develop theories of ‘postmodernity’ and ‘postcoloniality.’  Finally, the ‘long’ twentieth century might include our current moment, in which writers of increasingly diverse backgrounds grapple with the still heightened complexities of language, consciousness, and social interaction in our global cities.  

This course will explore cultural change throughout the twentieth century through an analysis of several exceedingly prominent and celebrated novels.  We will gain a deeper appreciation for these novels by locating them within their social and political contexts, but we will also attend very closely to their particularities of style and form.  We will think and write rigorously as literary critics in this class; but we will also attempt, in one assignment, to compose ‘creatively,’ and through the practice of writing achieve heightened sensitivity to style and narrative form.

Conrad, Joseph.  Heart of Darkness.  Fifth Norton Critical Edition, 2016.
ISBN: 978-0-393-26486-9

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