Time Schedule:
Caroline Chung Simpson
csimpson@u.washington.edu
ENGL 354
Seattle Campus
Literary responses to the disillusionment after World War I, experiments in form and in new ideas of a new period. Works by such writers as Anderson, Toomer, Cather, O'Neill, Frost, Pound, Eliot, Cummings, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Stein, Hart Crane, Stevens, and Porter.
Class Description
For SUMMER 2003: Reconstruction, Immigration and World War I will organize our considerations in this course. Issues that will, no doubt, emerge from these themes might include: the implications of the failed integration of African Americans into modern mainstream US society; the role of art and the artist in realizing social change; the effects of urbanization and technological innovations on concepts of culture and language; the impact of waves of unprecedented immigration on the definition of modern American identity; the emergence of an era of US imperialism, and the onset and aftermath of US entry into World War I. We will begin each of the three sections of the course by reading and discussing a number of shorter works, which will allow us to establish a cultural context for our discussions of the three main texts.: Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, My Antonia, and 1919. These texts will be supplemented by a course packet as well. Students are expected to attend every class, to participate in daily discussion and occasional writing exercises, and to complete three short papers.
Recommended preparation
Class Assignments and Grading
