Fascism and American Literature
ENGL 383
Spring 2021
| Section:
01
|
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
American writers were deeply engaged by the rise of 20th-century European fascism. A number of American writers took part in a generational critique of liberal democracy and thus played a role in establishing the intellectual context for the success of fascist ideology. Some American writers were fascinated by the seeming dynamism and innovation of fascist regimes. Others recognized early on the rising threat of authoritarianism and militant nationalism. In the years after World War II, many American writers surveyed the wreckage of global war and the consequences of genocidal racism and worried about their significance for art and literary expression. Were literary writers meaningfully complicit in the rise of fascism? Had totalitarianism discredited literature and culture? Or could art be a challenge to the forces that drove the rise of fascism? This research seminar will examine a range of ways in which American writers responded to fascism. We will consult the historiography and theory of fascism, as well as scholarship in the sociology of culture, with the aim of understanding how the rise of fascism affected American writers' fundamental beliefs about literature, democracy, and modern society. |
|
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
|
Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL) |
|
Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Norman Cousins, T.S. Eliot, Mike Gold, Zora Neale Hurston, Sinclair Lewis, Paule Marshall, Flannery O'Connor, Ezra Pound, Philip Roth, Dorothy Thompson, Nathanael West, Richard Wright, and others.
|
Examinations and Assignments:
research paper (15 pp.); survey of critical literature (5 pp); annotated bibliography; 3 response papers (3-4 pp).
|
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Fulfills research requirement for Honors candidates.
Class of '21 & '22: This course fulfills the Theory requirement and contributes to the American Lit concentration of the English major.
Class of '23 and beyond: This course fulfills the Theory, American Lit, and Literary History III requirements of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): McCann,Sean Times: .M.W... 01:00PM-02:20PM; Location: FEAS SEM; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 8 | JR major: 8 | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 0 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 2 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 2 |
|
|