This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students work closely with their peers and the instructor to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of different genres, with a primary focus on literary texts.

We will enter the realm of college writing by looking at the complex issues that concerned modernist writers around the world, including America, England, Austria, Czech Republic, and New Zealand. We will look at these texts from a variety of angles, picking up the topics of war, empire, familial relations, consumer culture, torture, trauma, etc. The formal, political, and psychological aspects of the texts we read will be framed such that the students will be able to glean some idea about writing from every author. Our time period is what I am calling the long interwar period, which for the purposes of the course will stretch from the beginning of WWI (1914) to the end of WWII (1945). There will be readings every week, as well as at least one short in class writing assignment. The students will write both analytic, argumentative essays and imitations of the texts at hand, the former to hone the skills necessary for college writing, the latter to obtain a better understanding of style and tone.