McClung, James
TR 2 :20 PM
Park Hall 0250
Readings for thsi course will include:
(1913) O Pioneers!, Willa Cather [ISBN: 978-0140187755]
(1923) Cane, Jean Toomer [ISBN: 978-0871402103]
(1936) Nightwood, Djuna Barnes [ISBN: 978-0811216715]
(1937) Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston [ISBN: 978-0061120060]
(1949) The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles [ISBN: 978-0062351487]
(1962) Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov [ISBN: 978-0679723424]
(1971) The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. LeGuin [ISBN: 978-1416556961]
(1985) Blood Meridian: or the Evening Redness in the West, Cormac McCarthy [ISBN: 978-0679728757]
(1987) Beloved, Toni Morrison [ISBN: 978-1400033416]
At the most basic of levels, the purpose of this course is to examine a variety of American novels written by a variety of authors and to consider their variations in form, narrative method, and characterization. We will investigate how and why is it that these and other novelists have chosen unique methods for communicating American experience and/or their individual experience as Americans. At the end of the course, students, having read a substantial body of literature, will be able to discuss the assigned works (orally and in writing) with a considerable degree of critical sophistication, to read them with pleasure, to read and enjoy other works from the period, and to converse with fellow students about texts and issues related to the subject matter of the course. Such course objectives might well be considered a cornerstone of any upper division Literature course.
The course will be asessed as follows:
25% = Daily Interaction and Participation/Weekly assignments
15% = ELC required writings
15% = Short Essay
15% = Midterm Exam
30% = Final Essay