Edith Wharton

Catalog description

A study of the major literary works by the American realist and cultural critic Edith Wharton (1862-1937). Discussions will address the social constructions of gender, cultures of consumption, models of marriage and divorce, women’s rights, lives of the privileged and unprivileged, cross-generational and cross-class relations, aesthetic representations, and recent film and TV adaptations of Wharton’s fiction. Readings will include well-known novels such as The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Age of Innocence, short stories especially gothic tales, poetry, memoir, and writings on architecture, design, travel, and literary criticism.