2023-2024 Academic Catalog

May 09, 2024

2023-2024 Academic Catalog

ENG 232 - Modernist Literature

Virginia Woolf famously wrote that, “on or about December 1910 human character changed.” In this class, we will test that claim, thinking about what it means to “be modern,” what it means to “be modernist,” and what the two have to do with each other. We will also consider the many meanings of “modernism,” understood variously as a literary movement that flourished within coteries like Bloomsbury, the salons of 1920’s Paris, and the Harlem Renaissance; a literary style governed by the imperative to “make it new” and an embrace of aesthetic difficulty; and the literature of the period between the two World Wars. Taking a transnational approach to the field, we will juxtapose texts from the margins of modernism with more canonical work in order to investigate modernism’s relationship with mass culture, politics, and everyday life.

For English majors, this course satisfies the D-3 requirement. For English minors, this course counts as a 200-level English seminar.

Prerequisites: Prerequisites: One 100-level English literature course (ENG 100-199) or permission of instructor

Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically