All writing demands labor, and indeed labor of various kinds. This course will explore a number of literary texts spanning the twentieth century in the context of the rapidly shifting landscape of work that characterized this period of modernity and its patterns of life and politics, and which has sent lasting reverberations through our own contemporary world. We will attend to different types of labour—physical, intellectual, emotional—as depicted in, generated by, and informing these texts. Through our readings of both primary sources and secondary works of theory and analysis, we will consider how questions about language, work, community, and citizenship form networks of discourse and experience that are integral to how we understand our recent cultural and political history. In writing practice and assignments, we will reflect on and grapple with our own work as writers and critics within the academy. Students are not expected to have any prior familiarity with these topics to be successful in this course. Our class will be a supportive and constructive environment, and we will learn together.