ENGLISH 5743 001 British & American Literature: 1950-Present
Fall, 2010 Thursday 5:30-8:15 Steven G. Kellman 1.208 MB
Office 2.454 MB hours: Thursdays 2-5:30 & by appointment Telephone 458-5216
SYLLABUS
No doubt it is important to read the classics;
it is perhaps even more important to first
read the literature of one's own time, which
is enormous in itself.
--Arthur Miller
Fish take water for granted, and it is (too) easy to presume that we understand the contexts and assumptions that shape the literature of the past sixty years. ENGLISH 5743 proceeds on the premise that the novels, short stories, plays, and poems produced in Britain and the United States since 1950 are as worthy of attention as those of any other period and that critical scrutiny of these works is made both easier and more difficult by the fact that they seem to speak our current language. The disintegration of the British Empire, the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation, Vietnam, feminism, multiculturalism, the consolidation of American political, economic, and cultural influence, terrorism, the expansion of mass media and consumer culture--these and much more are registered, sometimes obliquely, in the imaginative writings of this, the contemporary/postmodern era. Through a variety of provocative readings as well as class presentations, a final exam, and two papers, we will attempt to clock in on our own time.
August 26 Introduction
September 2 Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
September 9 Poetry
September 16 Poetry
September 23 Flannery O'Connor, Collected Stories
September 30 Flannery O’Connor
Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962)
October 7 Pale Fire
Paper #1 Due
October 14 Harold Pinter, The Homecoming (1965)
October 21 John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969)
October 28 Octavia Butler, Kindred (1979)
November 4 David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross (1983)
November 11 Philip Roth, American Pastoral (1997)
November 18 Joseph O’Neill, Netherland (2008)
November 25 Thanksgiving holiday
December 2 Poetry
Paper #2 Due
December 6, 7 Study Days
Thursday, December 9FINAL EXAM 5:00-7:30 p.m.
Required Texts:
Octavia Butler. Kindred. Beacon. 0807083690.
Ralph Ellison. Invisible Man. Vintage. 0679732764.
John Fowles. The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Back Bay. 0316291161.
David Mamet. Glengarry Glen Ross. Grove. 0802130917.
Vladimir Nabokov. Pale Fire. Vintage. 0679723420.
Flannery O'Connor. The Complete Stories. Noonday. 0374515360.
Joseph O’Neill. Netherland. Vintage. 0307388778. .
Harold Pinter. The Homecoming. Grove. 0802151051.
Jahan Ramazani & Richard Ellmann, ed. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume Two. Norton. 0393977927.
Philip Roth. American Pastoral. Vintage. 0099771810.
POINT SPREADS:
Paper #1 (30%) + Paper #2 (30%) + Assignments and classwork (10%) + Final Exam (30%) = Final Grade.
ENG 5743 is a graduate-level course in literature offered on the premise that those who sign up for it are able and eager to read some of the most challenging texts of recent decades. Students are expected to have read their assignments carefully by the date specified and to come to class prepared for active engagement in analysis of the texts. Attendance is required, attentiveness assumed. The professor is glad to teach and gladder to learn, from students who arrive equipped for the day's topic and for consistent lambency.
During his office hours or by appointment, Kellman is available for questions, comments, or further discussion. He also welcomes telephonic and electronic communications. To facilitate the exchange of further information and thoughts about our subject and to provide a practical means for conveying occasional announcements about course procedures, this course maintains a Blackboard website; each student is expected to consult it at least once a week.
Because class meetings can accommodate only one speaker at a time, please do not engage in private conversations. As a courtesy to everyone, cell phones, iPods, video games, radios, internet connections, and other electronic distractions must be turned off throughout each session. Once class has begun, please remain seated until its conclusion.
In cooperation with the Office of Disability Services, the class accommodates student disabilities.
Though it should be assumed that anyone who undertakes graduate study is passionately committed to an honest pursuit of the truth, UTSA issues the following official caveat: "The University expects every student to maintain a high standard of individual integrity for work done. Scholastic dishonesty is a serious offense that includes, but is not limited to, cheating on a test or other work, plagiarism (the appropriation of another's work and the incorporation of that work in one's own work), and collusion (the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing work offered for credit)."