The first modernists were pioneers whose elliptical and disjunctive voices seemed to speak more truthfully of modern life than the rhythms and rhetorical strategies of traditional verse. The class tries to identify what is distinctive about each of the major modernist pioneers - Eliot, Pound, Williams, H. D. Moore, and Stevens - and to identify some of the poetic traditions from which their work derives (English romanticism, French symbolism, the Japanese haiku, the words of Emerson). Equal attention is paid to the work of Frost and Jeffers, the two contrarian poets who were dismissed by some as anti-modern but are now thought to be comparable in stature. Some attention may be paid time permitting, to the work of lesser voices such as e.e. cummings and Hart Crane.

The course will introduce students to the African literary experience from a wide selection of short fiction written in the last fifty years by major practitioners of the genre. Works from North, West, Central, East and Southern Africa will be studied in the light of the diverse colonial experiences of the continent. If they were written originally in French, Arabic, or Portuguese, they will be studied in their English translations. Writers to be encountered will include Tayeb Salih (Sudan); Bessie Head (Botswana); Dambudzo Marechera (Zimbabwe); Luis Bernado Honwana (Mozambique); among many others, either in individual-author collections or general anthologies.

This course will introduce students to the world and work of the so-called "founder of all modern poetry," Dante Alighieri. Our close reading of the entire Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) will consider such issues as the phenomenology of poetic inspiration, medieval theories of gender, Dante's relationship with the literary ghosts Virgil and Cavalcanti, the sources and shapes of the human soul, and how the weight of love (pondus amoris) can save this same soul. We will also read selections from Dante's other works, including the story of his poetic apprenticeship (The New Life) and his linguistic treatise (On Eloquence in the Vernacular). Conducted in English, readings in English translation; option of work in Italian, with biweekly discussion session, if student wishes.

Before the 1980's, there were practically no women writers in francophone Africa. However, the last two decades have seen an explosion in the number of these female writers, who are now creating the most innovative and challenging part of the corpus of African literature. Thus, the stereotypical representation of the African woman popularized by men writers as a maternal creature trapped into submission and confined into a child-bearing role has been shattered by what these women say about themselves. In this course we will read novels by different generations of francophone women writers, from the now classic So long a letter of pioneer Mariama Bâ to the present generation represented by Calixthe Beyala and Ken Bugul among others. We will discover that what finally emerges from these women is the great diversity of themes their writings cover, their frankness, and their sometimes unexpected stances. We will also find out not only that these francophone women writers do not offer a single representation of the African woman, but multiple images, often contradictory . The course will be given in English and the novels will be read in translation. However those who want to take the course as part of a French Department requirement will read the books in the French original and have special assignments in French.

The push in American Modernism to "make it new" meant a break with the past, with convention. For many writers, this break was facilitated by the use of an "Other." For instance, critic Michael North argues that in the work of Gertrude Stein and Picasso "the step away from conventional verisimilitude into abstraction is accomplished by a figurative change of race." With Stein this meant the use of the African-American voice and with Picasso his African masks. In this course we will examine how this looking at oneself through a mask impacts modernist narratives and how the mask subverts conventional definitions of race and gender. We will read Stein's Three Lives, William Faulkner's Light in August, Richard Wright's Savage Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston's Seraph on the Swanee and Chester Himes Yesterday Will Make You Cry. We will also read Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, Freud's Totem and Taboo and some literary theory and criticism.

literary criticism, who are familiar with Joyce's biography and his

writings, especially Ulysses. Finnegans Wake is a difficult book so students will be expected to bring a lot of interest in language, attention to detail, energy and stamina. In addition to two papers, each student will be responsible for two oral presentations (explication, reports on the reading, experimental hypotheses, critical theory) that will be the basis for discussion in class meetings. Limited to eight students. Those interested should arrange to meet with the instructor sometime in the week before formal registration.