Nationalizing Narratives: Studies in the Twentieth-Century U.S. Novel

In this seminar, we will examine a number of important 20th-century U.S. novels for the ways in which they conjure the nation both as "imagined community" and "fictive ethnicity." Particular focus will be given to how the category of national identity becomes intertwined issues of race, gender, sexuality, and region as well as with ideologies of the aesthetic. Enrollment limited to 15.