Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The intensive study of selected works of American literature written since 1900. May be organized by author, genre, or critical approach. Students with credit for ENGL 449 may not take this course for further credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

1925 in U.S. Fiction
For American fiction, 1925 was arguably the greatest year ever.  An older generation of writers—Theodore Dreiser, Ellen Glasgow, and Willa Cather, all born in the early 1870s—produced what many consider their masterpieces.  Meanwhile, the so-called Lost Generation of talented Modernists, at the time just a passel of hipster twentysomethings including Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Dos Passos—appeared on the scene; sadly, in several cases their first major works would turn out to be their masterpieces, too.  Even popular literature was better than usual, with Anita Loos’ bestselling Gentleman Prefer Blondes proving a more complicated work than it might appear.  Of course, none of these works would win the coveted Pulitzer Prize—that would go tastefully to Sinclair Lewis for Arrowsmith.   This course, then, will operate as a focused introduction to the crucial transition in American literature from naturalism and realism to Modernism.  Because of the extremely narrow historical scope, we’ll have unusual opportunity to focus not only on literary form but also on historical context (especially in politics, economics, and the other arts) and the weird question of a literary “period.”  Bonus: most of these books are about a very depressing culture of greed!

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Students will write better.
Students will read better.
Students will develop a familiarity with "period" definitions of realism, naturalism, and modernism, as well as the problems with such periodization.
Students will better understand an American world that looks much like our contemporary own, but without a social safety net.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: