English: Popular Literature, 1900-1939

Subjects vary by semester. Representative topic: Jane Austen, Page and Film. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years.

Open to Degree and PACE students

Our academic account of the literature of the early twentieth century is mostly focused on deliberately difficult texts by avant-garde writers who in various ways challenged their relatively small audience to rethink the rules of fiction, drama, and poetry. Similar revolutions were happening in the other arts around the same time, and from the vantage of the present, the period of "Modernism" seems focused on these disruptions that remade literary taste. But this emphasis means we overlook many of the lively, entertaining, and interesting literary works that were actually popular during the "Modernist" period -- the books by Rudyard Kipling, Agatha Christie, and others that were on home bookshelves or bedside tables for generations after they were published. This course aims to examine some of these popular works, both in their context and as engaging pleasures for present readers.

Reading will be relatively heavy: sometimes we will tackle a whole novel in a single week. You'll need to approach these books with enough available time that you're not rushing or skimming (they aren't textbooks). Classroom conversation will also be important: despite the size of the class, our classroom mode will generally be more like a seminar than a lecture.

Written work will include a few reading responses (roughly every other week) and a final paper. Regular reading quizzes (on Brightspace) can be expected. Class participation is also a factor in the final grade.