Modern American Satire

What is the course about?

This in-college course examines how three pioneering American satirists made their fame between the wars. We’ll explore how Dorothy Parker and Nathanael West depict life in New York, and then shift our focus to Sinclair Lewis’ representation of life in the mid-West. How do status anxiety, snobbery, social aspiration, loss of love, and post-war disillusionment feature in their writings? In what ways are wit, mockery, and irony foils for depression and anxiety? Do readers come away delighted and enlightened, or unsettled and troubled by these satires? In what ways do these critiques endure, forming dialogues of dissent with contemporary readers?

In studying these writers, we will pay close attention to language and its effects, and consider how historical, political and aesthetic contexts can inform our appreciation of these satires.

What will we cover?

Beginning with the short stories, vignettes and poetry of Dorothy Parker, the course looks at how her pieces for The New Yorker evoked life in the city, satirising the social customs, expectations and relations in fashionable society. Sharp, acerbic, and at times mordant, we’ll consider the quirky idiosyncrasies of Parker’s heroines, her shrewd dissection of New York society alongside extracts from her contemporary ‘flapper’, the night-clubbing gossip columnist ‘Lipstick’ Lois Long.

We’ll then analyse how Nathanael West uses the form of the advice column to parody the conventions of ‘Agony Aunt’ writing in his novella Miss Lonelyhearts. We’ll explore how West invents a male character who adopts the pseudonymic persona of Miss Lonelyhearts, opening a space for a dark satire of ‘détournement’. Are the nation’s problems too much for Miss Lonelyhearts?

Three weeks will be spent on Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt, a novel which sold 141,000 copies in only four months following its release in 1922. We’ll consider Babbitt’s desire for conformity in the competitive middle-class world in the mid-West. We’ll consider the novel’s enduring impact, discussing its ground-breaking critique of the American Dream, business ethics, community customs and the evolution of Babbitt's character spiralling into rebellion, alienation, and disillusionment with social mores. Eight years later, Sinclair Lewis would become the first writer from the American continent to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In studying these three texts we will cover some important concepts of literary fiction, including intertextuality, parody, types of irony, hybridity, self-reflexivity, and narrative form.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• Appreciate the challenges and rewards of three satirical styles
• Understand how three writers have used the form to depict individual and collective experiences at a particular time in the twentieth century
• Identify a range of narrative devices used to represent society and social customs
• Discuss satirical forms in relation to community, place, and the American Dream.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

Some experience of the study of literary fiction would be useful, but all those interested in reading and discussing literature are welcome.

Learners will need to have an enthusiasm for the novel, an open-mindedness towards different approaches to interpretation, and a willingness to listen to the views of others.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

There will be a mixture of tutor presentation and small-group and whole-class discussion. We will study key passages from each text in class and you will need to read the novels in their entirety and selections from Dorothy Parker outside of class time.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

Please buy or borrow:
Dorothy Parker, The Collected Dorothy Parker, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-018292-6
Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, Oxford World’s Classics, ISBN 978-0-19-956769-0
Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts, Daunt Books, ISBN 978-1907-970467
Further extracts will be provided by the tutor from a range of contextual sources.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

Look for other literature courses on our website at www.citylit.ac.uk under History, Culture and Writing/Literature.