English 354 - Poe, Faulkner

Spring
2013
01
4.00
Geoffrey Sanborn

TTH 11:30AM-12:50PM

Amherst College
ENGL-354-01-1213S
CHAP 101
gsanborn@amherst.edu

In this course, we will be reading the works of two American writers who are associated not only with the South, but with haunted fictional worlds, worlds whose tense inwardness is uncannily bound to historical traumas.  The aim of the course is to become more sensitive to the implications of each of these writers’ works, more broadly conversant with the history of the South and of the nation more generally, and more aware of how questions about form and style can help us formulate more sharply focused questions about culture and subjectivity.  Readings will include Poe’s only book-length fiction, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; a healthy (or unhealthy) sampling of his tales and poems; three Faulkner novels–Sanctuary, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom!–and several of his stories.

Limited to 25 students.  Spring semester.  Professor Sanborn.

Permission is required for interchange registration during all registration periods.