21L.325 Small Wonders
Fall 2009
Professor: John Picker
Seminar: MW 1-2:30 (BEGINS OCT 26) (2-151)
Information:
This short course focuses on short novels: well-known works that take an uncluttered measure of the individual’s place in modernity. We will examine the ways that these texts articulate the human consequences of urban and rural alienation, domestic and imperial rupture, and gender and racial strife. At the same time we will consider what these texts have to say to one another (and in fact many of their authors knew and corresponded with one another). This is a good opportunity for students not only to familiarize themselves with some classic literary “wonders” in concentrated form but also to see how authors engage in intertextual dialogue across time and national boundaries. Readings will include short novels by Crane, Conrad, James, and Wharton, among others. Requirements include active, engaged reading and participation, discussion leading, reading quizzes, and in-class writing.
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