Contemporary American Literature
Syllabus
This reading schedule (as well as the section titles) is meant to be suggestive and playful only. In the event we find that we need to spend more time on a text/section than originally allocated -- or allow more time for oral reports -- we can adjust our syllabus accordingly. You should also know that one of the signs of a good class discussion is that we will not have time to address all the reading that has been assigned for a certain day. Formally, the class will proceed through discussion, group workshops, and occasional lecturing. Commonly, I will announce at the end of each class the assignment for the next session.
Again, please explore CAL PAL regularly for useful links to contemporary American literature sites, as you prepare for class and research your interests. Many of these sites contain numerous other links. You might also find the (rather skeletal) Theory PAL useful on occasion. — As you find additional sites we should all know about, please let us know!
Take a plunge when you sign up for your oral reports/seminar facilitation, and please clarify the specific focus of your presentation with me in advance (such as, for example, "Neuroscience & Fiction" or "Narrative as Trauma Management After Vietnam"). I have left them purposefully open at this point. I will then also direct you (after you have done your own search) to additional specific sources, if necessary.
| Week 1-2 |
Setting the Stage - What is contemporary/postmodern American literature?
How many are there?
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| Week 2–5 |
Divided Loyalties in the Postwar Global Village: The Red Scare II and McCarthyism
Fiction Rocks: Punk Rock, Time, and the (Future) Form of Narrative
Vietnam - a Nation and Nation Building
- VW Overview, V-A Brief History (YouTube)
- Recommended Background: About the Vietnam War, Poetry and Vietnam
- The Poetry of the Vietnam War (The Poetry Foundation)
- Handout, Siria Snounou & Raquelle, Vietnam War Poetry
- Bruce Weigl, "Song of Napalm," "Her Life Runs Like Red Silk Flag," and others
Yusef Komunyakaa, "Facing It," "Camouflaging the Chimera"
Ocean Vuong, "Kissing in Vietnamese," "Aubade with Burning City"
Vietnam War Poetry _____________________________________ Vietnam War Novels ____________________________________
- Of topical interest
*** Notebook 1 due at end of week 4 ***
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| Week 6–10 |
Minority Reports Becoming Major Voices (selections)
- Film Screenings, (select, time permitting)
- Freedom Summer I, Freedom Summer II
- Making Sense of the Sixties -- The Early 60s, A Time of "Innocence"
- Making Sense of the Sixties- The Civil Rights Movement Was Glorious (time permitting)
- Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream"
- Malcolm X, "on Black Nationalism," "Who Taught You to Hate Yourself," "The Ballot or the Bullet" (excerpt)
- Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Debate
- Amiri Baraka, on poetry, "Who Will Survive America, "Black Art" "Black Art" (text), "Somebody Blew Up America"
Democracy Now: Commemorating Amiri Baraka
- Gwendolyn Brooks, GB Reflection, "We Real Cool"
- Tyehimba Jess (on Poetry Foundation); Olio - "Blind Tom" Page Meets Stage: Tyehimba Jess/"Mark Twain vs. Blind Tom"
- Malcolm X ___________________________________ Black Arts Movement _________________________________
*** Notebook 2 due at end of week 8 ***
- Of topical interest
American Literature/Global Literature, or, of Storms and Tigers in the Sundarbans
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| Week 11-13 |
Utah on the Map: Chicks, Crotch Rockets, and Performance Art
- Rachel Kushner, The Flame Throwers (2013)
- Flame Throwers I ____________________________________ Flame Throwers II ________________________________________
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- Flame Throwers -- Discussion Questions
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- Of topical interest
- Spiral Jetty explained
- Futurism I, II, F-Manifestoes, F-III, F-IV, images, F- Sound I: Zang Tumb Tumb, F-Sound II, The Sound of Noise (2010, film)
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| Week 13–15 |
Arboreal Protagonists, or, The Terrain of Trees
- Richard Powers, The Overstory (2018)
Overstory I _______________________________ Overstory II ___________________________________
- CAL PAL on Richard Powers
- Of topical interest
- This just in: PBS/News Hour, DQ for Richard Powers' The Overstory
- Tired of the Social Media Void? - Americans read twice as much poetry in 2017 as in 2012
- Literary Hub, 20 Nov 2019
- GARN, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
- Rate of Amazon deforestation
- Tons of Acorns. It must be mast year
- Literary Hub -- Richard Powers / Peter Wohlleben
- Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (4 min summary :)
- What's in a Title: Being a "Dr." and Gender Bias
- Not so long ago, cities were starved for trees (1/19)
- What is Original? TED Radio Hour (Thank you, Christina!)
- Eadweard Muybridge, the zoopraxiscope
- RP, By the Book (NYT, 3/2019)
- Suzanne Simard, "How trees talk to each other" - TED talk (June 2016)
- Last Tree-Sitters leave Redwoods, (NBC, Sept. 2008)
- Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Cary Fowler, One Seed at at Time, TED talk. July 2009)
- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (1859) - the famous last sentence
- Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (2007), 4-minute summary :)
- Rosalind Franklin, the forgotten woman and the modeling of the DNA
- The Strangling Trees of Angkor Wat
- Bartolomaus Traubneck: What do Tree Rings Sound like on a Record Player? <=> Rainer Maria Rilke, Primal Sound (1919)
- "a religious conversion": How writing The Overstory changed R Powers' Life, The Atlantic, 16 April 2019
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| Week 15–16 |
Final Essay and Final Exam Review
Please consult the Editing Checklist for essential pointers regarding your essay.
*** Paper Due Date: Monday, 2 December 2019, 11:30, in class and CANVAS ***
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Additional Information
- For an Editing Checklist, student sample papers, and helpful links visit the Toolbox webpal.
