English 158B - Fall, 2021

The American Novel 1900 to the present

Class Information

Instructor: Badley, Chip
CRN: 53320
Time: TR 9:00-10:20
Location: 130 Physics
GE Areas: Domestic Diversity Writing Experience

Description

This course explores the American novel from 1900 to the present. We will consider writers who challenged both terms ("American" and "novel") throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by focusing on the novel's role in chronicling and challenging American identity and history. Students can expect to study literary styles (including realism, regionalism, modernism, and postmodernism) as well as literature's engagement with other media (such as journalism, painting, film, music, dance, and digital/social media). Texts will include Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition (1901); Henry James' The Ambassadors (1903); Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome (1911); Jean Toomer's Cane (1923); Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays (1970); and Tommy Orange's There There (2018).

Texts

The Marrow of Tradition, Charles Chesnutt
The Ambassadors , Henry James
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
Cane, Jean Toomer
Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion
There There , Tommy Orange