Introductory description

American fiction since the early twentieth century has encompassed a diverse range of styles and genres, and has maintained a dynamic, often fractious relationship to the turmoil of American politics and society. This module offers one particular route through this vibrant and divergent literary field.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Indicative syllabus, subject to change
Term 1:
Week 1 – Introduction
Week 2 – Cather, My Antonia
Week 3 – Readings on modernism
Week 4 – Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Week 5 – Larsen, Passing
Week 6 – Reading week
Week 7 – McKay, Home to Harlem
Week 8 – Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Week 9 – Chester Himes, TBC
Week 10 – Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
Term 2:
Week 1 – Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
Week 2 – Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Week 3 – Silko, Ceremony
Week 4 – Cisneros, House on Mango Street
Week 5 – Gibson, Neuromancer
Week 6 – Reading week
Week 7 – Kushner, Angels in America
Week 8 – McCarthy, The Road
Week 9 – Ward, Salvage the Bones
Week 10 – Student choice

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Acquired knowledge of selected texts and genres in American fiction
• Developed analytical and critical skills through close reading of the set texts
• Acquired knowledge of relevant cultural and critical contexts within which to situate the set texts
• Developed strategies for reading texts within the context of American culture
• Gained an understanding of key critical and literary concepts in their American context, including but not limited to: race, class and gender, cultural geography, individualism and democracy, late capitalism and postmodernism, war and violence, transnationalism, and empire
• Developed research skills

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Research element

Critical anthology and essay require engagement with personally-developed research topics. This is supported by a dedicated session in week 5 in the library looking at digital archives.

International

The module is about US culture

Subject specific skills

-Understand and deploy theoretical and methodological positions with regards to 20th-century US literature
-Place the study of 20th-century US literature within wider contexts of recent scholarship and understand professional and disciplinary boundaries

Transferable skills

-Engage with archival work and subject-specific scholarly bibliographic skills
-Demonstrate advanced critical thinking skills to enable the development and sustaining of an independently-determined argument.
-Understand and challenge the intellectual validity and institutional necessity of ‘canons’ and ‘survey courses’
-Confidently present an argument using a combination of different media and primary sources.