The Transformation of Desire
In this course we will focus on the ways that novels near the turn of the 20th century imagine epic changes in the experience of desire and longing-for consumer goods, for wealth, for fame, for sex, and for happiness. In the face of urbanization, industrialization, and a burgeoning consumer culture, how was the nature of yearning altered and what can novelists tell us about that change? The course will focus significantly on the novels of Edith Wharton and Willa Cather, but will also include works by Jane Austen (to provide an earlier portrait of desire), Thomas Hardy, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and W. Somerset Maugham. Some particular texts might include Wharton’s, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence; Cather’s, My Antonia and The Professor's House; Hardy’s, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. 3 hr sem.