English 329W:
Contemporary Literature
Fall 2005
Centenary College
of Louisiana
Jefferson Hendricks
Week 1:
Aug 24
Introduction to Class
Allen Ginsberg,
Howl
(Parts I and II)
"Allen Ginsberg"
-- Alastair Wisker,
The Literary Encyclopedia
Groundbreaking Book:
Howl and Other Poems
by Allen Ginsberg (1955)
-- Academy of American Poets,
Poets.org
Sylvia Plath,
"Daddy"
;
"Lady Lazarus,"
"Sylvia Plath,"
Steven Alexrod,
The Literary Encyclopedia
Further reading:
hear Allen Ginsberg read his poem "A Supermarket in California"
-- Academy of American Poets,
Poets.org
"A Howl That Still Echoes: Ginsberg Poem Recalled"
-- Paul Iono,
San Francisco Chronicle
Allen Ginsberg @ Modern American Poetry Site (MAPS)
-- James Sullivan
Sylvia Plath @ Modern American Poetry Site (MAPS)
-- Karen Ford and Cary Nelson
"Voices of Feminism and Schizophrenia in Plath's Poetry"
-- Clarissa Lee Ai Ling,
Applied Semiotics
Week 2:
Aug 31
Milan
Kundera,
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
(1984)
"Milan Kundera,"
Wikipedia
"Milan Kundera,"
Jan
Čulík, U. of Glasgow
"The Joke's On Us"
-- Howard Jacobson,
The Guardian
(on the lack of irresponsibility in modern fiction)
Further reading:
"Clarifications, Elucidations: An Interview with Milan Kundera,
"
Lois Oppenheim,
Review of Contemporary Fiction
"Unbearable Stardom,"
Adam Thirwell,
The New Statesman
"Betrayal as a Flight from Kitsch in Milan Kundera's
The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
--
Jolanta W. Wawrzycka, Radford U.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
-- SparkNotes
Quiz #1
Week 3:
Sept 7
Margaret Atwood,
The Handmaid’s Tale
(1985)
"Margaret Atwood"
-- Faye Hammill,
The Literary Encyclopedia
The Handmaid's Tale
-- Wikipedia
Further reading:
Interview with Margaret Atwood about art and politics
-- Marilyn Snell,
Mother Jones
"Spotty-Handed Villainesses: Problems Of Female Bad Behaviour In The Creation Of Literature"
--
Margaret Atwood
Study Guide to
The Handmaid's Tale
-- Paul Brians, Washington State U.
study questions and an interview with Atwood about
The Handmaid's Tale
-- Random House
"The Politics of Language: A Device of Creativity and Power in Margaret Atwood's Novel
The Handmaid's Tale"
--
Gabriele Twohig, U. of Essen (pdf file)
The Handmaid's Tale
-- SparkNotes
Quiz #2
Week 4:
Sep 14
Don DeLillo,
White Noise
(1985)
"Don DeLillo"
-- Stephen Burn,
The Literary Encyclopedia
"Don DeLillo"
-- Jeffrey MacIntyre,
Salon
Further reading:
"Don DeLillo's
White Noise
: The Natural Language of the Species"
-- Cornel Bonca,
College Literature
"
We Simply Walk Towards the Sliding Door:
White Noise
as a Postmodern
Ars Moriendi
"
-- Mikko Kallionsivu
"Circuits, Simulations and Viruses: A Case Study of Media Brandscapes"
-- Paul Privateer,
Applied Semiotics
"Television and Literature: David Foster Wallace's Concept of Image-Fiction, Don DeLillo's
White Noise
and Thomas Pynchon's
Vineland"
-- Volker Hummel
"White Noise"
-- SparkNotes
"
White Noise
"
-- ClassicNote
Quiz #3
Week 5:
Sep 21:
Thomas Pynchon,
Vineland
(1990)
"Thomas Pynchon"
-- Kyle Smith,
St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture
Further reading:
"Totaling Postmodernism: Master-narratives in Pynchon's
Vineland
"
-- Bruce A. Sullivan
"Cultural Trauma and the 'Timeless Burst': Pynchon's revision of Nostaligia in
Vineland"
-- James Berger,
Postmodern Culture
"Television and Literature: David Foster Wallace's Concept of Image-Fiction, Don DeLillo's
White Noise
and Thomas Pynchon's
Vineland"
-- Volker Hummel
"The President's Emergency War Powers and the Erosion of Civil Liberties in Pynchon's
Vineland
"
-- David Thoreen,
University of Oklahoma Law Review
A Thomas Pynchon Chronology
-- Karl Stolley, Milliken U.
"Invisible, Inc."
-- Scott McLemee
Quiz #4
Week 6:
Sep 28:
Michael Ondaatje,
The English Patient
(1992)
"Michael Ondaatje"
-- Peter Easingwood,
The Literary Encyclopedia
"The English Patient"
-- Robert Clark,
The Literary Encyclopedia
For further reading:
"An Interview with Michael Ondaatje,"
Gary Kamiya,
Salon
"
Ondaatje's
The English Patient
and Altered States of Narrative,"
Beverly Curran,
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
"
Ondaatje's
The English Patient
and Rewriting History,"
Stephanie Hilger,
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
"Michael Ondaatje's
The English Patient
, 'History', and the Other
,"
Steven
Töt
ö
sy de Zepetnek,
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
"
Post-Nationalism and the Cinematic Apparatus in Minghella's Adaptation of
The English Patient,"
Hsuan Hsu,
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
"The English Patient Reposed in His Bed Like a [Fisher?] King': Elements of Grail Romance in Ondaatje's
The English Patient
"
-- Bill Fledderus,
Studies in Canadian Literature
"The English Patient"
-- SparkNotes
Quiz #5
Week 7:
Oct 5
Ernest Gaines,
A Lesson Before Dying
(1994)
"Ernest Gaines"
--
Southern Literary Review
"I Hear the Voices...of My Louisiana People: A Conversation with Ernest Gaines"
Meeting Ernest Gaines
-- William Ferris,
Humanities
Toni Morrison
"On The Backs of Blacks,"
Time Magazine
(1993)
Morrison's Nobel Prize Lecture
(1993)
"Toni Morrison"
-- Wikipedia
"Toni Morrison"
-- A. Yemisi Jimoh,
The Literary Encyclopedia
Further reading:
"A Melus Interview: Ernest Gaines"
-- Wolfgang Lepschy,
MELUS
"A Lesson Before Dying"
-- SparkNotes
Quiz #6
Week 8:
Monday October 10: first essay due by 2:00 pm in Jackson Hall 307
(Mid-term grades due by noon Wed. Oct. 12)
W Oct 12: No Class (Fall break starts at 8:00 pm)
Week 9:
Oct 19
Donna Tartt,
The Secret History
(1992)
"Donna Tartt
,"
Lindsay Sullivan,
The Literary Encyclopedia
Further reading:
"Smart Tartt"
-- Vanity Fair
, 1992
interview with Donna Tartt
-- ReadingGroup Guides.com
interview with Donna Tartt
-- Robert Birnbaum,
Identity Theory
(2002)
Donna Tartt fan page
Quiz #7
(through Book I: Chapters 1-5)
Week 10:
Oct 26:
Donna Tartt,
The Secret History
(1992)
Further reading:
"Peter Mullan Deconstructs Donna Tartt's
The Secret History
"
-- Peter Mullan,
The Guardian
(four-part series
)
"
Team Spirit: Memories of Being a Freshman Cheerleader for the Basketball Team"
(from "Basketball Season," a memoir) -- Donna Tartt,
Harper's
"My Friend, My Mentor, My Inspiration"
-- Donna Tartt,
Oxford American
"Heaven on a Hummingbird's Wing"
-- Donna Tartt,
The Guardian
Quiz #8 (Book II: Chapters 6-8)
Week 11:
Nov 2
Bobbie Ann Mason,
In Country
(1985)
"Bobbie Ann Mason"
-- short bio from
Bedford/St. Martin's
"An Interview with Bobbie Ann Mason"
-- The Missouri Review
"Big Dreams for
Little Women"
-- Bobbie Ann Mason,
Salon
(on Louisa May Alcott and her novel)
Further reading (and listening):
"Winning Her Father's War"
(review of
In Country
) -- Joel Conorroe,
New York Times
"Bobbie Ann Mason's Border States"
-- Mervyn Rothstein,
New York Times
review of
In Country
-- Stephanie @ Submerged Truth (a recent Centenary graduate)
"Bobbie Ann Mason's Portrayal of Modern Western Kentucky"
-- Judy Aycock-Simpson, Tennessee Technological U.
"Bobbie Ann Mason's New Kentucky Home"
-- Annita J. Turpin, Roanoke College
"Changing Roles and Finding Stability: Women in Bobbie Ann Mason's Shiloh and Other Stories"
-- Tina Bucher, U. of Tennessee
"Mason's Characters Get Some College"
-- Scott Vander Ploeg, Madisonville Community College
review of
Understanding Bobbie Ann Mason
by Joanna Price
-- Barbara Marshall, Liverpool Community College
hear Bob Edwards's interview with Bobbie Ann Mason on NPR
-- (on Mason's 2001 collection of short stories
Zigzagging
)
"What Did We Learn From VietNam?"
--
Salon
(
Bobbie Ann Mason, Michael Lind, Philip Caputo, Jonathan Schell and others talk about the war)
"On The Road Again:
The Female American Road Trip"
-- Elissa Pugh, Sweet Briar College
"Bobbie Ann Mason"
-- song lyrics by Mark D. Sanders
Quiz #9
Week 12:
Nov 9
Richard Powers,
Galatea 2.2
(1995)
Further reading:
The
Richard Powers site
-- David G. Dodd (biography, reviews, articles)
"Eyes Wide Open"
-- Richard Powers,
New York Times
"A Review of Books in the Age of Their Technological Obsolescence"
-- Joseph Tabbi,
The Electronic Book Review
"An Interview with Richard Powers"
-- Jim Neilson,
Review of Contemporary Fiction
"Richard Powers: Industrial Evolution"
-- Michael Tortorello,
Rain Taxi
"The Last Generalist: An Interview with Richard Powers"
-- Jeffrey Williams,
Cultural Logic
"A Dialogue: Richard Powers and Bradford Morrow"
--
Conjunction
"Galatea 2.2
--A Report"
-- Winter Elliot, U. of Georgia
Quiz #10
Week 13:
Nov 16
A. S. Byatt,
Possession
(1990)
Further reading:
Byatt "official" home page
A. S. Byatt page
@ British Council
"Limeade Seas and Bloody Cobblestones"
-- interview with Byatt -- Laura Miller,
Salon
Possession
-- ReadingGroup Guides.com
"What Possessed A.S. Byatt?"
-- Mira Stout,
New York Times
Annotations to A. S. Byatt's
Possession
-- San Jose State U.
Summary of
Possession
-- Michael McGoodwin
Quiz #11
Week 14: No Classes November 21-25: Thanksgiving Break
Week 15:
Nov 30
A. S. Byatt,
Possession
(1990)
Further reading:
"A. S. Byatt's
Possession
-- Postmodern or Post-Postmodern?"
-- Jessica Leader
"
An Empty Clean Bed:" Whiteness, Desire and Fear in A. S. Byatt's
Possession"
-- Felicity Rose
"The Fallen Nature of Narrative and Knowledge -- Fragmentation and Byatt's
Possession"
-- Katherine Lesch
"On A. S. Byatt's
Possession: A Romance
"
-- Trudy Mercer
"Habitable Worlds and Literary Voices: A. S. Byatt's
Possession
as Self-Conscious Realism"
--
Merja Polvinen, U. of Helsinki
"Color and Identity in A. S. Byatt’s
Possession"
-- Stephen Dondershine, San Jose State U.
"Three at One Blow: Using
Possession
to Introduce Theory"
-- Julia Whitsitt,
CEA Critic
"A
. S. Byatt's
Possession
for British and for American Readers"
-- Helge Nowack, Regensburg U.
Quiz #12
Week 16:
Monday, Dec. 5
:
2nd essay due
by 2:00 pm in Jackson Hall 307
W Dec 7: TBA