Together, we are about to explore novels that have been written since the early twentieth century. The selected texts are aware of the sophistication of human nature and reflect varying social concerns. We’ll take a look at a “love story” that happens in India under British colonialism in Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World; discover the reality of New York high society, which is shown by Edith Wharton in The Age of Innocence; examine the social “discourse” that has shaped colonial/postcolonial literature, represented by E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India; investigate social abandonment and alienation through both Toni Morrison’s sorrow in Beloved, and finally, Richard Wright’s rage in his short story collection, Uncle Tom’s Children.

Relevant interpretive, critical articles on the aforementioned novels and certain cultural theory will constitute secondary materials, which are available in the photocopied course packet. Movie clips are going to be incorporated into class discussion.

Being a composition class, this course will devote effort to writing about literature. The writing assignments will be partly formed by journal entries. In addition, you will be required to accomplish a 5~7-page, double-spaced, mid-term paper, and a final paper, which reaches 10~12 pages. Peer reviews and revisions are compulsory.

Book list
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Uncle Tom’s Children by Richard Wright