Course Description
Various aspects of American fiction, poetry, drama, or non-fiction prose since 1960. The emphasis will vary from semester to semester following new developments in literature.
Athena Title
Contemporary American Lit
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, students, having read a substantial body of literature, will be able to discuss the assigned works (orally and in writing) with a considerable degree of critical sophistication, to read them with pleasure, to read and enjoy other works from the period, and to converse with fellow students about texts and issues related to the subject matter of the course.
Topical Outline
The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester. The topics will consist of selected works by various authors to be read outside of class and discussed in class and to be examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and the circumstances of their composition. Periodically during the semester, students will perform a number of graded tasks, including some combination of tests and out-of-class papers. A possible series of topics and assignments might resemble this: John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror Sylvia Plath, Ariel Art Spiegelman, Maus Raymond Carver, Cathedral Toni Morrison, Beloved Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time Fredric Jameson, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" Postmodernism: A Reader, ed. Thomas Docherty
Syllabus