This course considers three revolutions in transportation, each of which played a crucial role in redefining time and space in the modern world. We'll begin the course by examining how the possibilities of mechanized movement shape social and individual experience, then examine literary texts preoccupied with these transformations. Central to the course, then, is the intersection of technology, literature, and history, and a significant part of the course will be spent on critical readings on these issues. Topics will include shifts in the perception of time and distance, the relationship between the urban metropolis and the countryside, the structure of cities, and the relationship between human bodies and machines.

Texts will include: Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises; Rex Warner, The Aerodrome; William Faulkner, Pylon; Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train; J. G. Ballard, Crash. We will also study several films, whole or in part, from Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest to Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.