Twentieth Century Literature Before 1945

All third-year English courses share the following features:

1. Students are presumed to have had first-year level instruction and experience in writing critical essays on literary subjects.
2. Students are required to read in the course subject area beyond the texts assigned by the instructor.
3. Students are required to incorporate into their oral and written coursework secondary source materials which may include biographical information, literary criticism or theory, unassigned texts by the author under study, relevant cultural or intellectual history, or other aesthetic works such as music or visual art.

Readings and topics vary with each instructor’s presentation of a course, but all course materials are consistent with the objectives and outcomes for this course.

Additionally, in English 3139,

1. students will read a selection of early twentieth century texts, as well as some theoretical/critical material relevant to the particular theme or focus.
2. areas of concentration and course content will vary with the instructor but may include, but not be limited to, explorations of the influence of technology on creative practice; the role of warfare—and artists' experiences of warfare—in artistic production; the effect of shifting genre expectations; the effect of new creative modes such as advertising, cinema, and comics on creative practice; the role of other literary traditions, styles, or perspectives in the development of modernist aesthetics; the development—and deployment—of theoretical and aesthetic perspectives.
3. the texts chosen may have been produced originally in English or studied in translation.
4. the texts chosen will be predominantly literary, but may include other artistic genres such as film, music, and painting.