English Literature in Paris

“You are all a lost generation.” – Gertrude Stein

Interwar Paris played host to an exceptional cohort of Anglophone authors, drawn to the city’s thriving cultural scene, lenient censorship laws, and affordable prices. As a result, some of the foundational works of twentieth-century English literature were written and published in Paris. Forged in the deeply traumatic and intensely creative atmosphere between two world wars, these works staged a profound reimagining of literature. Their innovations were stylistic, exploring confessional and autobiographical forms of expression, but also thematic, questioning and dissecting fundamental concepts such as the individual, society, and gender.

In this course, we will focus on four celebrated and notorious works: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926), The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (1933), Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934), and Henry and June by Anaïs Nin (1931-32; published 1986). We will embed the authors and works in their historical context through biographical sketches, assess each work’s style and themes through a close reading of excerpts, analyze the connections that unite the works into a literary trend, and explore their relationship to the city of Paris. Finally, as talk of a “Lost Generation” has come back in fashion, we will discuss the relevance of these works to our pandemic days.

The course will conclude with a tour of memorable Parisian sites important to the books.

Reading

• Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926)
• Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933)
• Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer (1934)
• Anaïs Nin, Henry and June (1931-32; published 1986)

About the instructor

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  David Selim Sayers

  David Selim Sayers is a scholar of Ottoman and Turkish Studies with a focus on history and literature. He is a co-founder and core faculty member of PICT.