This course will examine the ruptures and continuities of Euro-American literature over the course if the twentieth century. We will pay particular attention to how the literary and cultural legacy of the past century continues to inform (and to influence) twenty-first century life. Does the advent of postmodernism close the chapter on the modernist? Is the postmodern similarly wrapped up with . . . whatever came after it? Or do these movements, though perhaps no longer center stage, continue to shout obscenities from the wings?



We’ll begin this inquiry with George Saunders’s 2005 novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil in order to establish a twenty-first century context (yes, an admittedly problematic one). We’ll then circle around and read the twentieth century as it evolves. Texts will likely include:

Joyce’s “The Dead” (1914)
Faulkner’s The Sound & the Fury (1929)
Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1936)
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953)
O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (1955)
Vonegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
DeLillo’s White Noise (1986)
Everett’s Erasure (2001)

This course will involve a lot of reading, a lot of discussion, and not a few persistent questions. Grades will be based on frequent in-class freewrites, two 3-4 page papers, and a final written exam. Regular attendance and active participation in class discussions will give you all the tools you need to succeed at the writing component of this course.