ENGL 21
Repeating the Past: [The Great Gatsby] and [Lolita] Winter 2023

This is not the current course catalog

[The Great Gatsby] and [Lolita], not often compared, should be read alongside each other: the shared qustion is whether the past can be repeated. Pertinent shared sub-questions are: What happens to history (World War I or II) in our desire to repeat the personal past? How can we figure the accidental (in the form, for example, of car accidents) into our sense of a future responsive to our past? How does a work of art–symmetrical, closed, meaningful)–beautify the insane desire to restore what has been lost? Students will spend about 15 hours per week reading these two novels (and critical essays), and about 6 hours per week discussing them in detail. The final paper can take the form of fiction, essay, or memoir.