Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0197 - Post-1945 U.S. Lit

This course explores United States literatures from the post-World War II period to the present. We will traverse a range of literary forms (prose, poetry, essay, drama, comics), movements (e.g., postmodernism, Black Arts), and periods (e.g., the Cold War, the Vietnam era, the post-9/11 period). The course is explicitly reading focused: 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. The goals of the course are 1) to familiarize students with both canonical and counter-canonical literary figures, trends, and texts; and 2) to practice skills of close reading and contextualized analysis. In additional, students will write short essays, complete a team-based primary source research project, and create an annotated bibliography project. Authors include Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison, Frank O'Hara, Thomas Pynchon, Amiri Baraka, June Jordan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Pedro Pietri, Gloria Anzaldua, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Lynda Barry, and more.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.