Department of English

Authority: American Literature from 1900 to 1945
 
This course addresses the varied responses to authority in American
literature of the early twentieth century.  With the increase in formal
experimentation in this period came attendant concerns
about the authority of the literary canon and its conventions.  Two world
wars abroad and increasing racial divisions in the U.S. made political
and social authority central thematic concerns.  The course also explores
the authority of the writer and of the reader in the work of literary
interpretation.  Works on the syllabus include novels by Faulkner and
Hurston, poetry and essays by Eliot and Pound, short stories by Wright
and James, and several works of literary theory.