106-049 American Liberals and Moderns

Usually 25 points of first-year English, see Prerequisites.

This subject is a comparative study of selected American fiction representing the liberal tradition and the beginnings of modernism, ranging from the early 20th century to the early 1940s. The texts chosen will partly reflect the American literary canon in the first half of this century, excluding poetry and drama. The critical approach will be exegetical and humanist, with a strong interest in the range of modernisms and liberal positions that the works represent. On completion of the subject students should have gained a working notion of the characteristics of liberalism and modernism in American writing of the period, and be familiar with secondary reading in American cultural history and politics and with relevant theoretical and critical discourses.

• be able to apply research skills and critical methods to a field of inquiry;

• develop persuasive arguments on a given topic;

• be able to communicate oral and written arguments and ideas effectively and articulately.

An essay of 2000 words 50% (due mid-semester) and an essay of 2000 words 50% (due at the end of the semester).

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.

• J Dos, Manhattan Transfer. Penguin.
• W Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury. Penguin.
• S Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night. Penguin.
• E Hemmingway, A Farewell to Arms. Penguin.
• C McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Penguin.
• H Miller, Tropic of Capricorn. Grove.