English 445: American Modernism, 1910 – 1935

Van Noy, Spring 2022,

[ Schedule ]

This course will aim to examine various forms of American modernism from 1910 to1935, but mostly in the twenties. American Modernism developed in conversation with several phenomena of modernity: new forms of social and economic integration; new modes of perspective and experience emerging from psychology, philosophy, and the visual arts; changes in urban cultural institutions; an ambivalence towards a technologically and economically innovative mass culture; and new sexual and political discourses that altered understandings of sex, race and gender. We will pursue an interdisciplinary study of this moment by looking at art, film, popular literature, as well as literary texts. The course will also considers satiric views of modernity including Edith Wharton’s Twilight Sleep, Anita Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Dashiell Hammett’s The Red Harvest, works that will allow us to discuss the role of middlebrow culture as modernism’s despised but popular Other.

TEXTS

Anderson, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio
Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury.
Hammett, Dashiell, The Red Harvest
Hemingway, Ernest. In Our Time
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God
Larsen, Nella, Passing
Lewis, Frederick Allen. Only Yesterday (online)
Loos, Anita. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Wharton, Edith. Twilight Sleep
Short stories by Fitzgerald (handouts).

Policies/participation – Come to class and do the reading (doesn’t that say it all?). Your Presence, Preparation, and Participation grade will reward strong reading skills, consideration for others' viewpoints, and consistent contributions to the flow of discussion.  Each day you are present and give the class your full attention, you will earn a point. Also, although computers have proven to be a marvelous invention, because they can also be a great distraction, please remove them from your desk. And, because they will also distract you from your full attention, please remove phones from your desk unless an emergency necessitates keeping one close (in which case you should notify me). One more thing—please take care of business before class so you don’t have to get up to leave in the middle of class. Anyone with perfect attendance will receive 2.5 points added to their final grade (an 88% = 90.5%)

Office hours are generally for “hashing out” course issues. If you feel confused, bored, unchallenged, or otherwise distressed, please come see me.  If my office hours don't fit your schedule, talk to me about setting up another time. Note: though I appreciate your letting me know the excellent reason for your absence (and so we can make sure you are caught up), I can’t distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. Enthusiastic, informed, and collegial participation will be rewarded. 25 pts

Electronics – Please place your cell phone face down on your desk or stow in your backpack. They are a distraction to you, to me, and to your neighbors. And please read from a book, not a phone screen.

ASSIGNMENTS

Short Papers – Over the course of the semester, you will write a total of three 3-4 page papers. Each response paper will deal with a single text, and each response paper will ask you to engage the text in a different way. You will write on three of the texts but you choose the text. We will go over in more detail but you must submit one of each of the following:

1. Close Reading: In this paper, you will bring your skills of reading and interpretation to the text in a close reading. Consider how a single page or paragraph contains some of the conflicts, tensions, of the short story or work as a whole. No outside sources should be used in this paper. 20pts

2. Critical Context – Directly engage one of the literary critics we have read in common. You may take issue with the critic’s argument, offer extensions of his or her claims, or wholly reject her argument and offer your own. This will definitely require quotation from both the critic and the primary text. 20pts

3. Cultural Context -- In this response paper, you will investigate a reference in the text or suggest an important historical or cultural context for interpreting the text. This context might be explicitly stated in the text or might be implied by the narrative. This response paper will require some outside research, and you should use your research to make an argument for how the knowledge of this context enhances our reading of the text. Of course, some traditional close reading skills may be helpful as well. 20pts

Discussants – As an individual or in pairs, serve as a discussant for the critical texts assigned. For that week. You are also free to find other sources that may relevant and that may be of interest to the class. Try to take about 10 – 15 minutes of class time on the article and any background material you find helpful. Try to get us talking about it and the point of view of it takes on the text. 10 pts