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Engl. 772-01 Literary Period:

Contemporary American


Fall Semester 2007

MWF 10:00-10:50, Grubbs 312

Instructor: Dr. K. Nichols



Reading Schedule


Post WWII: Conformity and Dissent

  • WEEK ONE
  • Aug. 20 -- Introduction. REPORT/ORAL PRESENTATION ASSIGNED. (See Paper Assignments.

  • Aug. 22 -- Background: "Contemporary Period: 1945 to the Present" (Heath 1883-86) and "Earlier Generations: Cold War Culture and Its Discontents" (Heath 1887-90). Read Arthur Miller (Heath 2051-52), The Crucible (Heath 2053-2126)--read about 1/2.

  • Aug. 24 -- Arthur Miller, The Crucible (Heath 2053-2126)--finish.


  • WEEK TWO
  • Aug. 27 -- Background: "A Sheaf of Poetry and Prose from the Beat Movement" (Heath 2229). Read Allen Ginsberg (Heath 2229-30), "A Supermarket in California" (Heath 2231) and "Howl" (Heath 2232-40); Jack Kerouac (Heath 2243-44), "The Vanishing American Hobo" (Heath 2245-51); Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Heath 2251), "I Am Waiting" (Heath 2252-56); Joyce Johnson (Heath 2262-63), from Minor Characters (Heath 2265-67). Also read John Clellon Holmes, This Is the Beat Generation (online) and Confessional Poetry (online).

  • Aug. 29 -- Ralph Ellison (Heath 2030-31), "A Party Down at the Square" (Heath 2031-5) and "Flying Home" (Heath 2036-48). Also read "Preface" (hand-out) and Chap. 1 Battle Royal (online) to Invisible Man.

  • Aug. 31 -- Martin Luther King (Heath 2240-41), "I Have a Dream" (Heath 2341-4); Malcolm X (Heath 2273), Chapter 19, from The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Heath 2274-9). Begin reading Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun--read about 1/3.


  • WEEK THREE
  • Sep. 03 -- NO CLASS (Labor Day)

  • Sep. 05 -- Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun--read about 2/3; video selection.

  • Sep. 07 -- Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun--finish; video selection.


  • WEEK FOUR
  • Sep. 10 -- Gwendolyn Brooks (Heath 2142-43),"We Real Cool" and "A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi, Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon" (Heath 2148-52) and The Bean-Eaters and The Second Sermon on the Warpland; Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Dutchman (Heath 2504-24) and Ka'Ba; Larry Neal, Black Arts Movement (online).

  • Sep. 12 -- Flannery O'Connor (Heath 2216-17), "Displaced Person" (hand-out). IN-CLASS VIDEO: Flannery O'Connor, "Displaced Person" (55 min.).

  • Sep. 14 -- "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" (Heath 2217-28) and Everything That Rises Shall Converge (online).


  • WEEK FIVE
  • Sep. 17 -- Edward Albee (Heath 2302-03), The Sandbox (Heath 2303-07); The Theatre of the Absurd: The West and East (online)--read "Part I: The West." Theodore Roethke (Heath 1904-05), Cuttings and Cuttings (Later) and "Root Cellar" (Heath 1906) and from Lost Son (Heath 1908-11).

  • Sep. 19 -- Robert Lowell, Jr., "Memories of West Street and Lepke" (Heath 2155-56) and "Skunk Hour (Heath 2156-7); Sylvia Plath (Heath 2330-31),"Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" and "Stings" and "Fever 103°" (Heath 2332-40), plus The Disquieting Muses and The Applicant; Anne Sexton (Heath 2307-08), Starry Night. See Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' (online). TAKE-HOME EXAM ASSIGNED--due Wed., 9/26.

  • Sep. 21 -- Tillie Olsen (Heath 1971-02), "Tell Me a Riddle" (Heath 1972-1998). Simone de Beauvoir, Woman as Other, from The Second Sex (online).


  • Sep. 26 -- TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE (no class)

Post-Modernisms: Constructed Worlds and Identities

  • Sep. 28 -- Background: "New Generations: Postmodernity and Difference" (Heath 2350-second column on 2354). Robert Coover, "The Phantom of the Movie Palace" in A Night at the Movies (hand-out); Jean Baudrillard, 'Simulacra and Simulations' (online).


  • WEEK SEVEN
  • Oct. 01 -- IN-CLASS VIDEO: Matrix (136 min.). Begin reading Thomas Pynchon (Heath 2566-67), The Crying of Lot 49--read about 50pp.

  • Oct. 03 -- IN-CLASS VIDEO: Matrix; View Remedios Varo triptych (online): Embroidering the Earth's Mantle (center picture); Toward the Tower (picture on left side); The Escape (picture on right side). Continue reading Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49--read about 50pp.

  • Oct. 05 -- IN-CLASS VIDEO: Matrix. Continue reading Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49--read about 50pp.


  • WEEK EIGHT
  • Oct. 08 -- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49--finish; browse some of the post-modernism resources on our Research Links web page. PAPER ASSIGNED--due Mon., 10/15. (See Paper Assignments.)

  • Oct. 10 -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Henry Bergeron (online); Donald Barthelme (Heath 2432), "At the End of the Mechanical Age" (Heath 2433-37) and The Sentence and The Balloon (online).

  • Oct. 12 -- FALL BREAK (no class)


  • WEEK NINE
  • Oct. 15 -- PAPER DUE: Pynchon. Read Ursula LeGuin, "Schrödinger's Cat" (hand-out).

  • Oct. 17 -- John Barth (Heath 2365-66), "Lost in the Funhouse" (Heath 2366-81) and "The Literature of Exhaustion" (hand-out); Metafiction (online).

  • Oct. 19 -- Gerald Vizenor, 'Almost Browne' and 'Trickster Photography' (click on the link "Required Assignment #8") and "Feral Lasers" (hand-out). Begin reading David Hwang, M. Butterfly--read about 1/3.


  • WEEK TEN
  • Oct. 22 -- David Hwang, M. Butterfly--read about 2/3.

  • Oct. 24 -- David Hwang, M. Butterfly--finish. TAKE-HOME EXAM ASSIGNED--due Wed., 10/31.

  • Oct. 26 -- Paula Vogel (Heath 2896-97), How I Learned to Drive (Heath 2897-36).


  • WEEK ELEVEN
  • Oct. 29 -- Kathy Acker, "Dead Doll Humility" (online)

  • Oct. 31 -- TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE (no class)

Multi-Culturalism/Border Crossings

  • Nov. 02 -- Background: "New Generations: Postmodernity and Difference" (Heath 2345-50). Tomás Rivera (Heath 2533-34), "And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (Heath 2534-40); Rudolpho Anaya (Heath 2556-57), Message from the Inca (online). Begin reading Toni Morrison (Heath 2437-38), Song of Solomon--read about 51pp.


  • WEEK TWELVE
  • Nov. 05 -- Gloria Anzaldúa, "Entering into the Serpent" and To live in the Borderlands means you, from Borderlands/La Frontera (Heath 2740-52). Continue reading Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon--read about 51pp.

  • Nov. 07 -- Helena María Viramontes (Heath 3015-16), "The Cariboo Cafe" (Heath 3017-26). Continue reading Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon--read about 51pp..

  • Nov. 09 -- Pedro Pietri (Heath 2806), "Puerto Rican Obituary" (Heath 2807-14). Continue reading Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon--read about 51pp..


  • WEEK THIRTEEN
  • Nov. 12 -- Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon--read about 51pp.

  • Nov. 14 -- Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon--read about 51pp.

  • Nov. 16 -- Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon--finish; browse a couple scholarly articles on Song of Solomon on our Research Links web page. PAPER ASSIGNED: Due Mon., 11/26. (See Paper Assignments.)


  • WEEK FOURTEEN
  • Nov. 19 -- Maxine Hong Kingston (Heath 2703-04), "No Name Woman" (Heath 2704-11). Li Young Lee (Heath 3063-64), Persimmons, plus poems (Heath 3064-68).

  • Nov. 21 -- THANKSGIVING BREAK (no class)

  • Nov. 23 -- THANKSGIVING BREAK (no class)


  • WEEK FIFTEEN
  • Nov. 26 -- PAPER DUE: Morrison. Janice Mirikitani (Heath 2763-64), poems (Heath 2764-68).

  • Nov. 28 -- Chang-rae Lee (Heath 3071-72), "Coming Home Again" (Heath 3072-79); Begin reading Leslie Marmon Silko (Heath 2829-30), Ceremony--read about 54pp.

  • Nov. 30 -- Bharati Mukherjee (Heath 2693-94), "A Wife's Story" (Heath 2694-2703). Continue reading Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony--read about 54pp.


  • WEEK SIXTEEN
  • Dec. 03 -- Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony--read about 54pp.

  • Dec. 05 -- Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony--read about 54pp.

  • Dec. 07 -- Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony--finish.


  • FINAL: TAKE-HOME EXAM--due Fri., 12/14 (or earlier).


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