Department of English

This course will introduce students to key aspects of modernity and American modernism. As the 20th-century got underway, several converging social forces––intensified consumerism, crowded and diverse cities, high-speed trains and cars, less constrained sexual mores, immigration and racial tensions, the destructiveness of World War and economic depression––made Americans feel that reality had been starkly transformed. We will learn about the intellectual and cultural milieu of this period and examine how writers grappled with these new dimensions of American life, The authors we read may include: Edith Wharton, W.E.B. DuBois, Ernest Hemingway, James Weldon Johnson, Katherine Anne Porter, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Nella Larsen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Nathanael West. Students will be required to write three short papers and other writing exercises.