This course examines both the idea of modernity and the aesthetic practice of modernism as they appear in border spaces. In 1890, the U.S. census declares the disappearance of the American frontier, one of the U.S.’s most conflicted border spaces, despite continued U.S. imperialist efforts to redraw border lines and inhabit border lands. Moreover, the U.S. enters the 20th century precisely through such ambivalent engagement with borders. The aesthetic practice known as modernism coincides, and also engages with, this historical moment of border conflict. In fact, modernism in this class provides a mode for reading beyond limited North-South conceptions of the border, as will be clear in our selected texts.

As a way to trace the relationships among borders, modernity, and modernism, students of this course read across genres, including selections from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Américo Paredes’s George Washington Gómez, John Dos Passos’s The Big Money, and Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood. Students in the class write two 5-7 page papers, participate in class discussions, as well as regularly submit writing-intensive homework assignments. The consistent focus on reading and writing in this course satisfies the University of Washington’s writing requirement (W).

Text information: Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. ISBN: 0393974960. Paredes, Américo. George Washington Gómez. ISBN: 9781558850125. Dos Passos, John. The Big Money. ISBN: 9780618056835. Barnes, Djuna. Nightwood. ISBN: 9780811216715 0811216713.