This course is designed to provide students with an entry point into major literary and intellectual concerns of twentieth-century literature. While focusing on the assigned texts, we will pay particular attention to the ways literature intersects with modern/postmodern social, political, and aesthetic phenomena. In addition to reading five novels, students will be required to read poems, short stories, literary criticism, and theoretical essays complied in a course pack. Other assignments include weekly in-class writings, four response papers (2-3 pages), group presentations, and a final research paper (5-7 pages). Primary texts include Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902), E.M. Forster's A Passage to India (1924), Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1959), Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972), and Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters (1990).

Texts:

• Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness. [0393926362]
• E.M. Forster. A Passage to India. [0156711427]
• Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart. [0385474547]
• Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities. [0156453800]
• Jessica Hagedorn. Dogeaters. [014014904X]