In this module, you will explore and analyse selected works of interwar fiction (novel, drama, short fiction, film) by American authors. You will focus on the response of that writing to such prevailing social and national issues as the legacy and imminence of war; communism, socialism, and labour movements in America; capitalism and the ‘American Dream’; technology, modernity, and the individual; New Deal politics; race, history, and modern America; the public performance of gender and sexuality; and the position of the writer within contemporary culture. Equally central to this module is a focus on the aesthetic language through which these responses are articulated, particularly in the context of the many literary and cultural innovations that characterised that moment. Discussions will consider such topics as modernism and modernity; the self-conscious development of an American style and literary canon; Southern Agrarians, regionalism and the city; the relationship between journalism and literature; the relationship between genre fiction and ‘serious’ literature; and the relationship between literature, drama and mainstream cinema.

• analyse works within the context of the culture and history that produced them
• discuss American fiction of the period from a variety of critical perspectives
• synthesise key readings of textual and film media
• engage critically with the texts studied in order to formulate individual argumentative conclusions

The module will be delivered through a mix of large group and small group sessions, including, where relevant, asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings. Full details on the delivery mode of this module will be available on Learning Central at the start of the academic year – and may be, in part, determined by Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance.   

Academic skills: this module will develop and practise skills in close reading, independent scholarly research and critical thinking. It will enable students to build on their ability to formulate analytical arguments. Students will be encouraged to contemplate the connections and tensions between the texts studied, and to formulate original arguments around that relationship. Students will be encouraged particularly to investigate key thematic and aesthetic preoccupations of the literature studied, and to contemplate form, narrative voice and the relationship between style and theme.

Employability skills: these include the ability to synthesise information, participate in group-based discussion, to negotiate different and conflicting standpoints, to communicate ideas and to produce clear, informed arguments in a professional manner. Student-led research will encourage skills of information collation, selection and synthesis.

The methods of summative assessment for this module are detailed in the table below.

Formative work to be submitted before each summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period. 

Indicative syllabus:

• The ‘Lost Generation’: Myth-making and style
  • Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926)
• Race, modernity and cultural historiography
  • Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)
  • Film excerpts: Birth of a Nation (1915)
• Expressionism, social diversity and the modern American theatre
  • Eugene O’Neill, The Emperor Jones (1920)
• The American South and literary modernism
  • William Faulkner, Light in August (1932)
• The Great Depression: American realism and the socialist imperative
  • John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle (1933)
• Genre Fiction I: Hard-boiled and hardened
  • Dashiell Hammett, The Glass Key (1930)
  • Film excerpts: The Public Enemy (1931); Scarface (1932); The Thin Man (1934)
• Genre Fiction II: Modern frontiers and national origins
  • Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
  • Film excerpts: Stagecoach (1939)
• Hollywood Writers, Hays, and the ideology of genre
  • Primary films: The Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933); The Women (1939)
  • Film excerpts: Top Hat (1935)
  • Legacies and Directions

Content warning: please be aware that several of the books/topics discussed in this module deal with difficult themes (including racism, misogyny and graphic depictions of physical and sexual violence), which some students may find distressing. If you have any concerns about this, please contact the module leader for advice.