This course will provide a general introduction to twentieth-century British and American literature, with particular emphasis on the literary trends of Modernism and post-modernism, the expansion of mass culture (and weapons of mass destruction), and issues of historical and cultural memory. Possible authors include Joyce, Eliot, Woolf, Hemingway, Faulkner, Kingston, Pynchon, Delillo, and Morrison. Although we will predominantly focus on literary works, we will extend our analyses to parallel developments in painting and cinema, adding an interdisciplinary dimension to our discussions.

Requirements: two short papers, quizzes, midterm, and a final.