ENGL 291: The American Novel Since 1945

In "The American Novel Since 1945" students will study a wide range of works from 1945 to the present. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel's form, fiction's engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones. The course concludes with a contemporary novel chosen by the students in the class.

About Professor Amy Hungerford

Amy Hungerford is Professor of English at Yale. She specializes in 20th- and 21st-century American literature, especially the period since 1945. She is a founder of Post•45, a collective of leading scholars in the field; Post•45 is developing a web journal based at Yale. Professor Hungerford is author of The Holocaust of Texts: Genocide, Literature, and Personification, (Chicago, 2003); her second book, Postmodern Belief: American Literature and Religion Since 1960 is forthcoming in 2009 (20/21 Series, Princeton UP). Her next project is The Cambridge Introduction to the American Novel Since 1945. She serves as an editor at the journal Contemporary Literature.

Sessions:

Lecture 1 Introductions
Lecture 2 Richard Wright, Black Boy
Lecture 3 Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Lecture 4 Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.)
Lecture 5 Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Lecture 6 Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone
Lecture 7 Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
Lecture 8 Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lecture 9 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.)
Lecture 10 J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Lecture 11 John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
Lecture 12 Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Lecture 13 Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Lecture 14 Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Lecture 15 Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Lecture 16 Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.)
Lecture 17 Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
Lecture 18 Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (cont.)
Lecture 19 Philip Roth, The Human Stain
Lecture 20 Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 21 Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 22 Edward P. Jones, The Known World
Lecture 23 Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
Lecture 24 Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Lecture 25 Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (cont.)
Lecture 26 Review for Final Exam