ENGL 078B. Modernist Narrative

This course will focus on narrative developments in the modernist era. Literary modernism is often characterized as a shift from 19th-century realism toward interiority, abstraction, and fragmentation. The era’s aesthetic experimentation was shaped in part by the world wars and the influence of new technologies (e.g. radio, film, the airplane). We will consider how modernist narratives form ideas about character, the experience of time, community, race, gender and sexuality, labor, empire, and nation. We will read primarily novels and shorter fiction written in English, but will also take into account Freud’s case studies, narrative film, and philosophical writing. Authors may include James Joyce, Nella Larsen, Jean Rhys, Jean Toomer, and Virginia Woolf, among others.
20th/21st c.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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