English 4550 Syllabus

English 4550 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 check 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*	General Introduction: What is contemporary/postmodern American literature? How many are there? What's Wrong With Literary Studies? Can you Read a Book the Wrong Way? The Way We Read Now - "The Great American Read" People's Century I (PBS), II (YouTube) -- Film Screening Background reading: Postwar America, 1945-1960 Of topical interest: - Neil Simon, legendary Broadway playwright, dead at 91 (8/18) - The Van Kliburn Story: How One Man and His Piano Changed the Cold War (23 Sept. 2016) - A book on film, again: Fahrenheit 451 as a Book for the Age of Social Media (5/18)
*Week 2–5*	*Divided Loyalties in the Postwar Global Village* Film Screening, Making Sense of the Sixties -- In a Dark Time (selections) Recommended Background:About the Vietnam War Poetry and Vietnam, T he Poetry of the Vietnam War (The Poetry Foundation) 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" History of Vietnam War ____________________Vietnam War Poetry ________________________ Of topical interest: - Robert Timberg, Who Chronicled the Scars of Vietnam, Dies at 76 - The Vietnam War Still Has a Hold on the Fiction of Robert Olen Butler Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer Grove Discussion Questions Viet Thanh Nguyen on YouTube Sympathizer I _______________________ Sympathizer II _______________________________ * Notebook 1 due at end of week 4 * Of topical interest: - A Spy's Unhappy Wife Could Have Turned D-Day into a Disaster for the Allies (29 Sept. 2016)
Week 5-8/9	Minority Reports Becoming Major Voices (selections) Film Screening, Making Sense of the Sixties- The Civil Rights Movement Was Glorious (time permitting) alternate: 1965-1950 - Unpinned 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; MLK/MX Encounter Amiri Baraka,on poetry, "Who Will Survive America,""Black Art" "Black Art" (text) Democracy Now: Commemorating Amiri Baraka Gwendolyn Brooks,GB Reflection, "We Real Cool" Tyehimba Jess, poems on this website TBA, "Here he is, the Amazing Blind Tom . . . " Of topical interest: - Who Were the Harlem Hellfighters? - Ron Stallworth, Black Klansman (NPR, 6/18), What to Read about Spike Lee's BlackKklansman (8/2018) - Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali ; poems about Malcolm X - National Memorial for Peace and Justice I, II, III (4/18) - Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon I (2018), II (5/18) - National Museum of African American History and Culture - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: Restoring Black History - African-American GIs of WWII: Fighting for Democracy Abroad and at Home (2/17) - Looking for Lorraine - The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (10/18) Malcolm X _________________________ Black Arts Movement_________________________ Ha Jin, *The Boat Rocker* Ha, Jin, Exiled to English Media Censorship in China (Council on Foreign Relations) China's Censored World Writing Under Totatalitarian Regimes (6/18) Of topical interest: - Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians (8/18), Crazy Rich Asians is changing stereotypes (NPR) - Detention of Uighurs Must End, UN Tells China - YouTube/Al Jazeera: Chinese-Uighur relations Boat Rocker I ________________________ Boat Rocker II_________________________ *** Notebook 2 due at end of week 8 :)
Week 9–12/13	Caught Between Two Worlds . . . Jhumpa Lahiri, The NamesakeThe Namesake - Focus Questions(TBP) Namesake I ______________________Namesake II _____________________________ * Notebook 3 due at end of week 11 * Of Peripheral Interest - JL on Writing in Italian (extracted from In Other Words, The Guardian) - Jagadish Chandra Bose on Google - Domenica Starnone, Ties, trans. Jhumpa Lahiri; Traduttore/Traditore -- Salman Rushdie on translation - Alternate cover designs, The Namesake :) - Mira Nair, Moonsoon Wedding, 2001, NYT Critic's Picks (You Tube) - Gurinder Chadha, Bend it Like Beckham I, II - This just in: Dwarsliggers :) - Viet Thanh Nguyen reviews Wesley Yang's The Souls of Yellow Folk (2018) - Commemorating the Great War, America's Forgotten Conflict - Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun (1938), Metallica, "One"
Week 13–15	Final Essay and Final Exam Review Fiction Rocks: Punk Rock, Time, and the (Future) Form of Narrative Jennifer Egan, *A Visit From the Goon Squad* Goon Squad I ___________________________Goon Squad II ___________________________ Of interest: - see CAL PAL on Jennifer Egan - Choose Your Own Adventure: A Conversation between Jennifer Egan & George Saunders - Viet Thanh Nguyen, "I Love America" (Time Magazine, 11/2018) - WSU/Metaphor Writing Contest, https://goo.gl/forms/nf05qjBlYacTa1lp1
Week 15-16	* Paper Due Date: Wednesday, 28 November 2018 (post-turkey) * Please consult the Editing Checklist for essential pointers regarding your essay.
	Final exam as per course schedule

Additional Information

Select the ToolBox from the navigation menu above for an Editing Checklist, student sample papers, and helpful links.

A concluding note: The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. My door is always open, and if it is not open, please knock; I will answer if I am there. Please don't hesitate to stop by.