Course details

Name: ENGL - 560

Title: MODERN AMERICAN FICTION

Section: 01

Semester: Spring - 2020

Credits: 3

Description:
N.B. This course will be offered at Clifton High School.

In the early 20th century, both American literature and the broader culture of which it is a part changed dramatically. The era that we now refer to as “modernism” brought changes in both the form and the content of literary fiction. American fiction, often under the influence of groundbreaking European writers, experimented with language, character, and plot. At the same time, it addressed a many facets of a rapidly changing society: new understandings of gender and sexuality; the ongoing racial struggles of American society; the rise (and threat) of fascism, communism, and other alternatives to liberal democracy; new media technologies such as film and radio; and of course two world wars.

Maybe forty years ago, critical opinion held that modern American fiction centered on a few key, canonical writers—men (and they were usually men) like Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Since then, our understanding of the era has developed enormously, and scholars now give attention to writers of the Harlem Renaissance, women writers, queer writers, and others whose contributions have been undervalued.

This course will seek to understand important trends from this formative period in American fiction through a syllabus that includes both some highly canonical names and some perhaps less-studied texts and authors. Novels we will read may include: Stein, Three Lives; Cather, My Antonia, Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury; Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Schuyler, Black No More; Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Ellison, Invisible Man.

Last updated on 2019-10-10 By Greenberg Jonathan (greenbergj)

Schedule: Monday From 4:00 pm To 6:30 pm

Graduation requirements:

  • ()
  • Any Literature (1e)
  • Genre Study (Fiction)
  • Other American (TE 1d)
  • Post-1900 (1d)
  • Graduate (BA/MA)

Teaching Faculty: Greenberg Jonathan (greenbergj)

Is course canceled: No