Fall 2023:
ENG 2310 American Literary Cultures: American Literature and the Environment
American Literary Cultures is a class designed to introduce students to literature created in the United States from the 18th century to today. The readings include a variety of genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, and an autobiography. The class will be studying writers from diverse backgrounds to understand the broad scope of this field. To give the examination a specific focus, we will be discussing the relationship between literature and the environment, with sections on the idea of the “wilderness” in American literature, the relationship between the human and nonhuman, literature about bodies of water. This section of 2310 is cross-listed with the Environmental Humanities minor.
5374 Eudora Welty and Modernism
Best known for her depictions of the South, her wit, her innovations with form, and her vast allusions, the work of Eudora Welty (1909-2001) spans the twentieth century. This course will use Modernism as a lens to read the works of Eudora Welty, and in turn will use the works of Eudora Welty as a way to study Modernism. The course will cover most of Welty’s oeuvre (short story collections, novels, and a memoir) alongside selections from other Modernist writers and theories about Modernism. By studying this body of work, the class will investigate the impact of new technologies, discoveries in science, the two World Wars, and cultural shifts on the content and form of American literature.