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    Contemporary American Literature

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    Dash Face
    This course provides an overview of contemporary American literature after the 1960s, a decade that saw the rise of postmodernism. It will examine key authors and concepts like identity, gender, and imperialism through a postmodern and cultural studies lens. Students will analyze iconic primary works by authors such as Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, and Sylvia Plath. Assessment is based on class participation, presentations, and a final written exam. The course aims to give students necessary theoretical background to understand influential trends in contemporary American literature.

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    Contemporary American Literature

    Uploaded by

    Dash Face
    42 views4 pages
    This course provides an overview of contemporary American literature after the 1960s, a decade that saw the rise of postmodernism. It will examine key authors and concepts like identity, gender, and imperialism through a postmodern and cultural studies lens. Students will analyze iconic primary works by authors such as Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, and Sylvia Plath. Assessment is based on class participation, presentations, and a final written exam. The course aims to give students necessary theoretical background to understand influential trends in contemporary American literature.

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    CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE(3)

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    This course provides an overview of contemporary American literature after the 1960s, a decade that saw the rise of postmodernism. It will examine key authors and concepts like identity, gender, and imperialism through a postmodern and cultural studies lens. Students will analyze iconic primary works by authors such as Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, and Sylvia Plath. Assessment is based on class participation, presentations, and a final written exam. The course aims to give students necessary theoretical background to understand influential trends in contemporary American literature.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    42 views4 pages

    Contemporary American Literature

    Uploaded by

    Dash Face
    This course provides an overview of contemporary American literature after the 1960s, a decade that saw the rise of postmodernism. It will examine key authors and concepts like identity, gender, and imperialism through a postmodern and cultural studies lens. Students will analyze iconic primary works by authors such as Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, and Sylvia Plath. Assessment is based on class participation, presentations, and a final written exam. The course aims to give students necessary theoretical background to understand influential trends in contemporary American literature.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE

    2023

    Ileana Botescu-Sireteanu

    Lecturer, Ph.D

    American Studies Program, Transilvania University of Brasov

    [email protected]

    Course description:

    This course attempts at providing an insight into the most important features of contemporary
    literature produced in The United States of America after the 1960s, a decade that coincides
    with the emergence of postmodernism as a new cultural phenomenon. To this purpose, this
    course draws the necessary theoretical background which could provide the premises for such
    an analysis. In this respect, postmodernism, cultural studies, gender studies and narratological
    theories are considered as the contextual and conceptual foundations. Also, the concepts of
    dystopia, identity, gender and imperialism are investigated as paramount to the fictional
    constructions of contemporary American authors.
    The choice of authors has been primarily dictated by the specific time frame in which
    this workshop is focused on and during which these authors have published some of their
    works. Also, their preference for certain thematic areas, fictional concerns and theoretical
    affiliations as well as to how illustrative their creations are for the contemporary American
    cultural scene has been taken into account. The course gathers a selection of primary sources
    that are now considered iconic for contemporary American literature.
    Also, a selection of the most prominent literary and cultural theories of the 20th and
    21st centuries has been used in the analysis of the selected texts.

    Course Requirements and Bibliography:

    - Course attendance is mandatory


    - Class contributions: every student will have to make one presentation/be responsible for
    one of the articles in the course package, and also make enough contributions to class
    discussions. Any student who does not participate in class discussions will be unable to take
    the exam.
    - Any form of plagiarism (=presenting somebody else’s ideas as your own) is severely
    sanctioned. Students who plagiarize will be unable to take the exam.
    - Your Grade:
    1. class contribution/oral presentation/written assignment (50% of your final grade)

    2. written examination (50%)

    Course Outline:

    1. Contemporary American Literature: An Introduction


    2. The 1960s in American Literature: from Truman Capote to Harper Lee
    3. American Dystopias: Sylvia Plath, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Donald Barthelme
    4. Voicing minorities: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou
    5. The American Dream: Philip Roth, John Updike
    6. New Voices: Hania Yanagihara, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    7. Conclusions

    Bibliography :

    PRIMARY SOURCES:
    Angelou, Maya. I Know why the Caged Bird Sings.
    Adichie, Chimamamnda. Americanah
    Barthelme, Donald. Snow White. Touchstone, 1966
    Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. Random House, 1965
    Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mocking Bird. Grand Central Publishing, 1988.
    Morrison, Toni. Beloved.
    Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? Selected Early Stories.
    Ontario Review Press, 1993
    Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. Harper Classics, 2005
    Roth, Philip. American Pastoral.
    Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse V. Vintage Classics, 2002
    Walker, Alice. The Color Purple
    SECONDARY SOURCES:
    BAL, Mieke: Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, second edition,
    University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2002
    CĂLINESCU, Matei: Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence,
    Kitsch, Postmodernism, Duke University Press, 1987
    COLEBROOKE, Claire: Irony, Routledge, London, 2004
    CONNOR, Steven: Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the
    Contemporary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Blackwell, 1997
    CURRIE, Mark: Difference, Routledge, New York, 2004
    ------ Transitions: Postmodern Narrative Theory, Macmillan, London, 1998
    Ed. DOCHERTY, Thomas: Postmodernism. A Reader, Harvester Wheatsheaf,
    Hertfordshire, 1993
    ------ After Theory, Edinburgh University Press, 1996
    EAGLETON, Terry: Literary Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.
    ------ After Theory, 2003
    FERNS, Christopher: Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature,
    Liverpool University Press, 1999
    Ed. FOSTER, Hal: Postmodern Culture, London & Sydney: Pluto, 1985

    Ed. DU GAY, Paul, EVANS Jessica, REDMAN Peter: Identity: A Reader, Sage
    Publication Ltd. London, 2000
    HARVEY, David: The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of
    Cultural Change, Blackwell, Cambridge, 1990
    HASSAN, Ihab: The Postmodern Turn,the Ohio State University Press, 1987
    HUTCHEON, Linda: The Poetics of Postmodernism, Routledge, London, 1989
    ------ The Politics of Postmodernism, Routledge, London, 2002
    ------ A Theory of Parody, Routledge, New York, 1985
    ------ Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony, London, Routledge, 1995
    JAMESON, Fredric: Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Duke
    University Press Durham, 1991
    MALPAS, Simon: The Postmodern, London and New York, Routledge, 2005
    EdS. ONEGA, Susana & GARCIA LANDA, Jose Angel: Narratology: An Introduction,
    Longman, London, 1996
    VARSAVA, Jerry A.: Postmodern Fiction, Mimesis, and the Reader, Florida State UP,
    Tallahassee, 1990

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