Fall 2009
Fully Enrolled

HUMS 635
American Literature and Culture in the 1930s

McCann,Sean

09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
Thursday 06:30 PM - 09:00 PM

285 Court Street

This course will look at the literature and culture of the United States during the Great Depression. The emphasis will be on literature and film placed in the broader context of intellectual history, with some attention to music and politics, as well. The course will be designed as a research seminar that encourages students to pursue independent projects looking at any aspect of the profound cultural transformation of the era.

For the first class meeting, students should have ready Willa Cather's The Professor's House.

Course tuition: $2022.


Sean McCann (B.A. Georgetown University; Ph.D. City University of New York) is professor of English and American studies. He is author of A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government, (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism (Duke University Press, 2000). He was awarded Wesleyan's 2004 Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Click here for more information about Sean McCann.

ENROLLMENT INFORMATION

Consent of Instructor Required: No

Format: Seminar

Level: GLSP Credits: 3 Enrollment Limit: 18

Texts to purchase for this course:
James Agee, LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN (Mariner Books), Paperback

James Cain, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (Random House), Paperback

Raymond Chandler, THE BIG SLEEP (Random House), Paperback

William Faulkner, AS I LAY DYING (Modern Library), Paperback

Michael Gold, JEWS WITHOUT MONEY (Public Affairs), Paperback

Zora Neale Hurston, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD (Harper), Paperback

John Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH (Penguin Classics), Paperback

Nathaniel West, MISS LONELYHEARTS & THE DAYOF THE LOCUSTS (New Dimensions), Paperback

Richard Wright, UNCLE TOM'S CHILDREN (Harper), Paperback

READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online

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