Modern American Literature

Modern American Literature

Word Count Module InformationThis module covers both canonical and marginal texts of the period, reflecting the variety and complexity of American culture. This module examines texts through the lens of form (e.g., late modernism, realism, postmodernism), genre (e.g., the historical novel, the war novel, detection and science fiction) and identity, be it regional, racial, ethnic, gendered, sexual or classed (e.g., African American, Jewish writing, Native American writing, gay and lesbian). The module also explores the prominence of memory and trauma in late twentieth- and twenty-first-century American fiction, by examining literatures response to war, atrocity and racial violence, as well as literary experimentation with historical narrative more generally. Literatures exploration of American spaces (urban, suburban, rural, natural and frontier), and its engagement with the radical technological transformations of postmodernity also feature in this module. Other themes considered include the rise and dominance of consumer culture and those excluded by capitalism, and the way in which the natural environment has been changed by modernisation. In sum, the module will enable students to understand the development of American fiction over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and its different traditions and trajectories in terms of form and genre, contents and concerns.

Learning outcomes (i.e. knowledge, skills and attributes to be developed through completion of this module)

Students who successfully complete this module will be able to:

Demonstrate a coherent knowledge of and ability to assess critically the various strains and developments in contemporary American fiction

Situate specific texts in their appropriate theoretical, cultural, social and literary-historical contexts

Evaluate critically the key interpretative perspectives on different texts, authorships and movements in contemporary American fiction

Give a detailed evaluation of the contribution of particular American authors to theoretical, political and cultural debates

Assessment Criteria

You will be assessed according to your ability to:

Describe in detail and with a clear sense of the continuities and discontinuities, the development of American fiction in the period studied, in terms of changes in form, genre and theme

Relate American novels in specific cultural, social, historical, and political contexts

Assess and apply relevant literary criticism and theory to novels in order to show the relation between text and context, and form and genre to content and theme

Construct coherent interpretative arguments and substantiate them with primary textual evidence and detailed references to critical and contextualising material

Demonstrate expert command of an adequate and relevant critical language

Essay Question- What do you understand by the term postmodernist fiction and what purpose does it have? Illustrate your answer with reference to two novels.

Texts- 1.Flannery O'Connor,Wise Blood (secondary reading

Flannery O'Connor 'Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Literature' from the Essay collectionMystery and Manner)

2.Second text- Ralph Ellison,Invisible Man (1952) (secondary reading ime article on Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison URLJeff Wall's photograph art of Invisible Man prologue URLContemporary review by Irving Howe, with links to an ongoing debate with Ellison URLReview of Invisible Man by Saul Bellow (1962) URLJames Baldwin debates Buckley (link to full video) URLEllison discusses the nature of fiction (link to full video) URL)

-Third text Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955) (can use this text if required)- secondary reading: 'Covering Lolita'; an online exhibition of 185 covers of the novel URLJames Phelan on unreliable narration in Lolita FileCritical Extracts from Phelan's Article on Lolita File