CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE -- SUMMER 2009 -- "Individual Lives"

MONDAY & WEDNESDAY 5:30-9:15 

SYLLABUS

Course Overview:

In this class we will use a variety of genres -- autobiography, poetry, fiction, etc. -- to explore the aesthetical, cultural, and political importance of "the life story." I have selected a wide range of life stories in order to reflect on certain aspects of the "life story" that resonate particularly with American exceptionalism: the notion of celebrity, self-invention, multiculturalism, and the humanist notion of the individual as the ideal lens to read history and politics. Due to the compressed summer schedule, the reading is fast-paced, but I have chosen texts that are fairly easy to read. The best way to get all the reading done is to start early. I have also chosen texts that are very easy to find in local public libraries, so you do not have to spend a fortune at the campus bookstore.

Requirements:

Your grade will be based on the following assignments:

One 10-minute presentation (20%)

Participation (10%)

One 7-page paper (40%) mixing biography and literary criticism

A final exam (30%)

Reading Schedule:

An asterisk (*) indicates that only certain chapters will be excerpted, due to the compressed timeframe of this course.

Mw 5:30-9:15

W 7-8 -- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Film by Howard Hawks

The Bell Jar, Ariel, Colossus -- all by Sylvia Plath

M 7-13 -- Night, Elie Wiesel

W 7-15 -- Autobiography of Malcolm X*

M 7-20 -- Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.*

W 7-22 -- Nixon Agonistes, by Garry Wills*

M 7-27 -- Inside the Third Reich, by Albert Speer*

W 7-29 -- No-No Boy, by John Okada

M 8-3 -- Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

W 8-5 -- Faggots, by Larry Kramer*

M 8-10 – J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime, by Athan Theoharis

W 8-12 -- Before Night Falls, by Reinaldo Arenas

M 8-17 -- Blinded by the Right, by David Brock