Cultural Crossings: Studies in Literary Influence

Centered on a range of provocative works conceived at different historical moments, this course will explore some of the persistent imaginative preoccupations and far-reaching literary ambitions that serve to link authors working in a wide variety of genres and traditions. Authors to be considered this semester will include Jonathan Swift, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Petronius, Voltaire, Nathanael West, Flaubert, Willa Cather, Turgenev, Nabokov, Kafka, and Thomas Pynchon. Designed to meet the College Writing requirement, this course will offer regular opportunities for close analysis, sustained reflection, and independent research. 3 hr./lect.