American Modernism in a Time of Crisis
ENGL 379
Fall 2025
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01
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The heyday of modernist literature in the United States, the 1920s, was also a time of severe political and cultural conflict. In the wake of global war and a global pandemic, the US experienced multiple sources of social discord: renewed conflict between labor and capital; ascendent nativist politics and, in the Ku Klux Klan, a populist movement for authoritarian ethnic nationalism; and an intense culture war pitting cultural traditionalism against the emerging liberalization of norms about sex, gender, family, and race. All these conflicts were compounded by disruptive new media and technologies (movies, radio, the automobile) and a febrile consumer culture. In this seminar, we will consider the way literary artists responded to these conflicts and the possible comparison between their time and ours. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (English) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
major works of E. E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mike Gold, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Katherine Anne Porter
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Examinations and Assignments:
several short response papers and a term paper or research project (student option) |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course contributes to the fulfillment of the following English major requirements:
American Lit., Lit. History 3, elective. |
| Instructor(s): McCann,Sean Times: .M.W... 08:50AM-10:10AM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 18 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 6 | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 0 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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