ENGL 365-A_001: Modernist Literature
TTh 1:00-4:00p
The Haunted Landscapes of Gothic Modernism
“in the middle of my party, here’s death, she thought” – Mrs. Dalloway
Modernism was born out of seismic, revolutionary shifts in society and culture. World wars, political revolutions in Europe and beyond, murderous civil and colonial/imperial wars, economic depression, and successive waves of technological modernization offering mixed psychological and social benefits and injuries laid siege to assumptions that the world was in any way well-ordered or reliably understood. Its literature both reflects conscious innovation and experiment and sometimes opposes these passions for change. Its obsessions respond in complex ways to those seismic shifts in its representations of gender and sexuality, social structures, race and culture, in all cases often in terms of transgression. And yet, in its drive to make things new, Modernist literature is often a haunted place: spectres of ancestry, of war, of places escaped from collide with the present moment, creating a dark, Gothic modernity. This troubled place will be our focus.
Assignments will include a midterm essay and a term paper (both requiring secondary academic research), as well as a final reflection essay to be written during the exam period.
Course texts will include Henry James, The Turn of the Screw; Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison; D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; James Joyce, “The Dead”; Katherine Mansfield, “Prelude” and “At the Bay”. I strongly recommend getting ahead with the reading, especially of longer texts such as Women in Love, and keep checking this page for updates.