English 177-2 - Spring, 2013

Study of an Individual Author

Topic: Thomas Pynchon, The Earlier Work

Class Information

Instructor: Clover, Joshua
CRN: 42469
Time: TR 4:40-6:00
Location: 101 Olson

Description

This is a seminar-style course. We will read two earlier novels by Thomas Pynchon, as well as several of his short stories and essays, and various related critical work. Among the topics considered will be the fiction's relation to other contemporary historical discourses, from entropy and thermodynamics to contemporary politics, from the measuring of the world to its digitalization, and many matters besides. This will be an occasion to engage closely with the greatest of American postwar novelists, as well as with major problematics of the era. PS: mind-blowing.

Grading

Grading will be based on extensive contribution to ongoing discussion, regular blog entries on specific topics present in the text, and one extended final paper.
Participation: 30 points
Blog entries: 30 points
Final paper: 40 points

Texts

Slow Learner, Thomas Pynchon
Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Gravity\'s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
A "Gravity\'s Rainbow" Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon\'s Novel