This general survey of 20th-century British and American writing will focus on drives and costs behind that century's restless demand for social and aesthetic innovation. We will therefore begin with the radical manifestos of the early years--and end on the highly disputed terrain of the "postmodern." The class will include readings from Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Samuel Beckett, Basil Bunting, John McGrath, Kathy Acker, Toni Morrison and Susan Howe.

A mix of lectures, class discussion, "innovative" writing assignments--and one final exam--will complement our focus on novels, poems, plays, non-fiction prose, music and movies.