Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0144 - Post-1945 U.S. Literatures

This course explores literatures of the United States from the post-World War II period to the end of the century. We will traverse a range of literary genres (fiction, poetry, essay, drama, comics, spoken word), movements (e.g., Beat Generation, Black Arts, the Asian-American Movement), and periods (e.g., the Cold War, the Vietnam era, the birth of Neoliberalism). The goals of the course are to familiarize students with both canonical and counter-canonical U.S. literary figures, trends, genres, and texts from 1945-present; to question what is the "American" in "American Literature" and consider questions of U.S. as nation, empire, and settler colony; to practice skills of close reading and contextualized analysis; to create a reading community that focuses on collaborative critical discussion; and to extend what we read in class through a research project and final presentation. We will read a new piece or pieces in every class in order to expose ourselves to a broad range of literary texts and contexts. All students are welcome: this course is an introductory survey that requires no previous studies in literature. Keywords:literature, american, twentieth century, postwar

In/Justice The content of this course deals with issues of race and power Students should expect to spend 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time