Texts:
- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road
- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of
Darkness
- Don DeLillo, White Noise
- Toni Morrison, Beloved
- Michael Longley, Selected Poems
- Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2
- A. S. Byatt, The Biographer's Tale
- poetry hand-outs
- online literary magazines
Contemporary
American Literature Webliography:
- Modern American
Poetry (MAPS)-- Cary Nelson, U. of Illinois (a superb online
companion to Nelson's Oxford anthology)
- Academy of American Poets
-- info on many contemporary American poets
- Literature
and Culture of the American 1950s -- Al Filreis, U. of Pennsylvania
- The
Beat Begins: America in the 1950s -- Michael Hall, U. of
Maryland
- Essays by
Marjorie Perloff -- one of the best critics of modern and
contemporary American poetry
- Literary
Kicks -- Levi Asher (a very fine Beat site)
- "American
Poetry Since 1945: The Anti-Tradition" -- Kathryn
VanSpanckeren, University of Groningen, The
Netherlands
- "American Prose
Since 1945: Realism and Experimentation" -- Kathryn
VanSpanckeren, University of Groningen, The
Netherlands
- Electronic
Poetry Center -- SUNY, Buffalo
- electronic book review
- Postmodern
Culture (text-only
version)
- Hyperrizons
-- a hypertext fiction page -- Michael Shumate, Duke U.
- The
Electronic Labyrinth -- Christopher Keep, Tim McLaughlin,
Robin Parmar
- The Write
Stuff (interviews with contemporary writers)
- links
to post-1945 American
Literature -- Akihito Ishikawa, Nagasaski U.
Syllabus:
Week 1:
Wed Aug
27 Introduction to class; poetry
handouts: Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg
Week 2:
Contemporary American Poetry: Langston Hughes, Sylvia
Plath,
Allen Ginsberg, James Dickey
Wed Sep
3
Week 3:
Wed Sep 10 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (quiz #1)
Week 4:
Wed Sep
17 Sylvia
Plath, The
Bell Jar (quiz #2)
Week 5:
Wed Sep
24 Ralph
Ellison, Invisible Man (quiz
#3)
Week 6:
Wed Oct
1 Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of
Darkness (quiz #4)
Week 7:
Wed Oct
8 Don DeLillo, White Noise (quiz #5)
Fri Oct
10 Turn in 1000 word mid-term essay
Week
8: NO CLASS -- FALL
BREAK
Wed Oct 15
Week 9:
Wed Oct 22
Toni Morrison, Beloved (quiz #6)
- a
Morrison biography page -- Danute Bois
- "Toni
Morrison" -- A. Yemisi Jimoh, University of Arkansas
- another
Morrison biography page -- A&E Biography.com
- another
Morrison biography page
- Anniina
Jokinen's Toni Morrison page -- extensive site with numerous
critical links
- Morrison's
1993 Nobel Prize Speech
- "On
the Backs of Blacks" -- Morrison essay in Time magazine (1993)
- SparkNotes
for Beloved
- summary/criticism
of Beloved --
Pink Monkey
- a
review of Jonathan Demme's film version of Beloved -- Charles Taylor, Salon
- "I
Made the Ink": Identity, Complicity, 60 Million, and More"
-- Naomi Mandel, MFS
- "Putting
'His Story Next to Hers': Choice, Agency, and the Structure of Beloved" -- Steven
V. Daniels, TSLL
- "Utopia
Limited: Post-Sixteis and Postmodern American Fiction" [on Beloved ] -- Marianne DeKoven, MFS
Week 10:
Wed Oct
29 No Class Meeting
Fri Oct 31
Turn in 500 word abstract of
final project
Week 11:
Wed Nov
5 Michael Longley, Selected Poems
Week 12:
Wed Nov
12 Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2 (quiz #7)
- The
Richard
Powers site -- David G. Dodd (biography, reviews, articles,
and more -- a model author site)
- "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
- "The
Salon Interview: Richard Powers" -- Laura Miller, Salon
- "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" -- Conjunctions
- "The
Esquire Conversation: Richard Powers and Sven Birkets"
-- Esquiremag.com
- "Fiction
to the Second Powers" (Joseph Tabbi -- Node9 4, July 2000)
- "Two
Geeks on Their Way to Byzantium: A Conversation with Richard
Powers" -- Harvey Blume, Atlantic Unbound
- "Richard
Powers: On the Novel in the Digital Age" -- interview with
Jefferson
Hendricks, Poets & Writers
- "Galatea
2.2--A Report" -- Winter Elliot, U. of Georgia
- review
of Galatea 2.2 --
Nina Kang,
Harvard Computer Society
Week 13:
Wed Nov
19 A. S. Byatt, The Biographer's
Tale (quiz #8)
Week 14: NO CLASS
-- THANKSGIVING BREAK
Wed Nov 26
Week
15:
Writing in the Digital Age
Wed Dec
3 Online literary magazines and
ezines
Week 16:
In-class Reports on Outside Reading/Final Essay
Wed Dec 10
- Note: Meet at Dr.
Hendricks's house -- 824 Robinson Place, five blocks or so
from the college
- Instructions: go west on
King's highway to Line Avenue (the intersection with the Walgreen's and
Byrd High School), then go North on Line (towards downtown) for five
blocks to Robinson Place (a boulevard street with shrubs and light
poles in the median). Turn left on Robinson; our house is the
first house on the right, a two-story, khaki-colored house with a big
porch. We'll meet from 2-4 and I'll have refreshments
for us.
- If you need a ride or have any
questions, call me at 820-1414.
Final Exam: Monday,
December 15 4-7 pm (NO
EXCEPTIONS!)