The Modernist Writers

In preparing an essay on Slaughterhouse Five, I struggled to explain the transition from modernist novels to postmodern novels. To facilitate this, I made a list of all the modernist novels I've studied, defining "studied" to mean books I've read with a guide, either in a book club or in a class. Among the people who taught me modernist novels were Dorothy Kitchings, Austin Wilson, and Steve Anspach. The plays I studied with Brent Lefavor and Lance Goss often intentionally contrasted their opinions on the same piece.

I don't suppose the list means anything other than as a memory. All this happened, more or less.

Ulysses

The Sound and the Fury

Waiting for Godot

As I Lay Dying

Lolita

The Sun Also Rises

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Heart of Darkness

The Great Gatsby

Absalom, Absalom!

The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas

A Farewell to Arms

Sons and Lovers

Light In August

Howard's End

Go Down Moses

Rhinoceros

Orlando

It's not a bad list for a boy with dyslexia. I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but it wasn’t an intentional oversight. If it looks like I should read more women writers, that’s probably fair.

The only Modernist poet I was ever taught was Frost. I don't know why that is. Most of my poetry education came from Paul Hardin and Greg Miller. Neither of them mentioned the modernist era that much.