In the first of her two lectures on Edward P. Jones's The Known World, Professor Hungerford begins from the novel's title, asking what counts as knowledge in the novel and why knowledge is central to the story. This leads to related questions: who is a knower, and what can be known? Highlighting several different versions of how knowledge of the past is communicated through storytelling within the novel, she draws distinctions between Jones's model of historical knowledge and that of other writers on the syllabus. Professor Hungerford suggests that Jones revives a nineteenth-century form of the novel when his narrator takes on a God-like omniscience, but unlike the nineteenth-century novel's narrators, Jones's omniscient narrator provides little in the way of God-like consolation.

1. Introductions
2. Richard Wright, Black Boy
3. Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
4. Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.)
5. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
6. Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone
7. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
8. Jack Kerouac, On the Road
9. Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.)
10. J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
11. John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
12. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
13. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
14. Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
15. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
16. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.)
17. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
18. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (cont.)
19. Philip Roth, The Human Stain
20. Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
21. Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
22. Edward P. Jones, The Known World
23. Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
24. Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
25. Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (cont.)
26. Review for Final Exam

In this course, Professor Amy Hungerford gives 27 video lectures on "The American Novel Since 1945". Students will study a wide range of works from 1945 to the present. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel's form, fiction's engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones. The course concludes with a contemporary novel chosen by the students in the class.