The class will read and discuss an assortment of novels and short stories written by American authors in the first half of the twentieth century. Students will be expected to read the assignments and come to class ready to write and talk about them. Written work will consist entirely of a series of between five and ten in-class essays written in response to study questions handed out in advance. Participation in class-discussion will count for half the final grade; the essays will count for the other half.

The texts: William Faulkner, GO DOWN, MOSES; Ernest Hemingway, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS; Sherwood Anderson, WINESBURG, OHIO; Eudora Welty, THIRTEEN STORIES BY EUDORA WELTY; Sinclair Lewis, BABBITT; Richard Wright, UNCLE TOM'S CHILDREN; John Steinbeck, THE LONG VALLEY; and Zora Neale Hurston, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD.