Module Information

This specialist option module is designed to introduce students to a representative sample of twentieth-century American fictions (both novels and short stories). The essential texts will be considered in light of their various historical, social, and political contexts, touching on issues of class, gender, race, and community. At the same time, students will be encouraged to undertake detailed close readings of key passages and to consider matters of style, form, and narrative technique. In this way, they will learn to combine contextual and formalist modes of reading and interpretations, resulting in more sophisticated forms of critical understanding.

The main objective of this module is to provide a stimulating introduction to the range and diversity of American fiction in the twentieth century. Particular attention will be paid to the way in which literary texts record and respond to the social, political, and economic crises of the two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and the post-war growth of consumer capitalism. Students will be encouraged to explore the different thematic preoccupations and formal strategies which develop from the various social and cultural experiences of Americans during the century, relating texts persuasively to their informing contexts. Questions of gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality will be examined critically and contextually. However, students will also be encouraged to explore the language and forms of the texts studied in detail, developing modes of attention and interpretation that are alert to the subtleties of style, rhetoric, and figurative expression.