Seminar in Literary Studies
Topic: What is the Contemporary?
Class Information
Instructor: Ronda, Margaret
CRN: 84084
Time: MW 11:00-12:20
Location: 248 Voorhies
Description
This course will examine the question of the "contemporary" in current American literature and culture. We'll do so in two main ways. First, we will read widely in writing of our immediate present, considering dominant and emergent forms, themes, and genres that might define literary work now. We'll approach this work in relation to other contemporary cultural forms (film, new media forms, art). Second, we'll explore the field of the contemporary by thinking about the larger questions it raises: how do we think about the relation between literature and politics now? Can contemporary literature give us a vantage on the history of the present? We'll think through these questions by engaging several theories of the contemporary from art historians, philosophers and literary critics.
Grading
In-class presentation, response papers, and a final seminar paper
Texts
Look, Solmaz Sharif
Remainder, Tom McCarthy
Long Division, Kiese Laymon
Normal People, Sally Rooney
Split Tooth, Tanya Tagaq