This course is a survey of modern and contemporary fiction, primarily considering several works in the context of major social and political upheavals of the twentieth century. We will trace the fate of modernity across the century, considering formal innovations in the novel and short story against the background of migration, colonialism, industrialization, fascism, the World Wars, racism, class conflict, and shifts in the meaning of gender and sexuality. The course focuses in particular on the relationship between violence and subjectivity and on questions of memory, trauma, and history: we will read these novels as responses to a set of disorienting and disturbing historical events. Our tentative reading schedule will include works by Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Tayeb Saleh, Gayl Jones, Toni Morrison, and Mohsin Hamid.

This class will focus on the practice of close reading, and the subsequent translation of our analytical success into well-crafted essays that make clear arguments based on evidence found in the text and other sources. Class time will be dedicated to comprehension, examination, close reading, and application of the texts we have read. Daily attendance, active participation, and a clear engagement with class materials are vital for your success in this course.

This course fulfills the University of Washington’s W-requirement and VLPA requirement. It will include 10-15 pages of graded, out-of-class writing, most likely in the form of two, 5-7 page term papers. The course will also most likely include a presentation component, with the additional possibility of in-class quizzes, short writing assignments, etc.