
Lecture Description
In this review session for the final exam, Professor Hungerford fields practice questions in an open forum so that students know what will be expected of their performance. She offers study advice from her own experience, and gratifies students' curiosity about some of her own preferences and reservations regarding choices for the syllabus.
Course Index
- Introductions
- Richard Wright, Black Boy
- Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
- Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.)
- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
- Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone
- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.)
- J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
- John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
- Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
- Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
- Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
- Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.)
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (cont.)
- Philip Roth, The Human Stain
- Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
- Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
- Edward P. Jones, The Known World
- Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
- Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
- Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (cont.)
- Review for Final Exam
Course Description
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.