ENG 380 Modern European Fiction

Offers a comprehensive and comprehensible introduction to Conrad's most popular texts, also addressing the most recent academic debates as well as the conversations about narrative and genre in Conrad's canon.

Thomas Mann's 1912 novella Death in Venice is one of the most famous and widely read texts in all of modern literature, raising such issues as beauty and decadence, eros and irony, and aesthetics and morality. Shookman surveys the reception of Death in Venice, analyzing several hundred books, articles, and other reactions to the novella

Thiher addresses the development of Kafka's work by analyzing it in terms of its chronological unfolding, emphasizing the various phases in Kafka's life that can be discerned in his constant quest to find a meaning for his writing.

Enigmatic, vivid, and terse, James Joyce's Dubliners continues both to puzzle and to compel its readers. This collection of essays is not an authoritative interpretation of Joyce's collection of stories but an animated set of dialogues about Dubliners designed to draw the reader into its lively discussions.

Marcus examines a wide range of Woolf's novels, short stories, essays and autobiographical writings in the context of themes and topics of central contemporary relevance and interest: time, history and narrative; modernism and the city; gender, sexuality and identity; art and life-writings.

Reflecting the profound influence he continues to exert on popular consciousness, Camus examines the complete body of works, providing a comprehensive analysis of Camus' most important works within the framework of his basic ethical orientation.

Discusses Sebald's oeuvre in the order in which his works were published in German in order to offer a deeper understanding of the original development of his literary writings. In addition to concise but incisive interpretations of the main publications, Schütte demonstrates how Sebald's critical writings (most of which still await translation) fed into his literary texts and concludes his study with a perceptive assessment of Sebald as a cult author.