CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE

2023

Ileana Botescu-Sireteanu

Lecturer, Ph.D

American Studies Program, Transilvania University of Brasov

Ileana.botescu@unitbv.ro

Course description:

This course attempts at providing an insight into the most important features of contemporary
literature produced in The United States of America after the 1960s, a decade that coincides
with the emergence of postmodernism as a new cultural phenomenon. To this purpose, this
course draws the necessary theoretical background which could provide the premises for such
an analysis. In this respect, postmodernism, cultural studies, gender studies and narratological
theories are considered as the contextual and conceptual foundations. Also, the concepts of
dystopia, identity, gender and imperialism are investigated as paramount to the fictional
constructions of contemporary American authors.
The choice of authors has been primarily dictated by the specific time frame in which
this workshop is focused on and during which these authors have published some of their
works. Also, their preference for certain thematic areas, fictional concerns and theoretical
affiliations as well as to how illustrative their creations are for the contemporary American
cultural scene has been taken into account. The course gathers a selection of primary sources
that are now considered iconic for contemporary American literature.
Also, a selection of the most prominent literary and cultural theories of the 20th and
21st centuries has been used in the analysis of the selected texts.

Course Requirements and Bibliography:

- Course attendance is mandatory

- Class contributions: every student will have to make one presentation/be responsible for
one of the articles in the course package, and also make enough contributions to class
discussions. Any student who does not participate in class discussions will be unable to take
the exam.
 - Any form of plagiarism (=presenting somebody else’s ideas as your own) is severely
sanctioned. Students who plagiarize will be unable to take the exam.
- Your Grade:
1. class contribution/oral presentation/written assignment (50% of your final grade)

2. written examination (50%)

Course Outline:

1. Contemporary American Literature: An Introduction

2. The 1960s in American Literature: from Truman Capote to Harper Lee
3. American Dystopias: Sylvia Plath, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Donald Barthelme
4. Voicing minorities: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou
5. The American Dream: Philip Roth, John Updike
6. New Voices: Hania Yanagihara, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
7. Conclusions

Bibliography :

PRIMARY SOURCES:
Angelou, Maya. I Know why the Caged Bird Sings.
Adichie, Chimamamnda. Americanah
Barthelme, Donald. Snow White. Touchstone, 1966
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. Random House, 1965
Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mocking Bird. Grand Central Publishing, 1988.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? Selected Early Stories.
Ontario Review Press, 1993
Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. Harper Classics, 2005
Roth, Philip. American Pastoral.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse V. Vintage Classics, 2002
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple
SECONDARY SOURCES:
BAL, Mieke: Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, second edition,
University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2002
CĂLINESCU, Matei: Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence,
Kitsch, Postmodernism, Duke University Press, 1987
COLEBROOKE, Claire: Irony, Routledge, London, 2004
CONNOR, Steven: Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the
Contemporary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Blackwell, 1997
CURRIE, Mark: Difference, Routledge, New York, 2004
------ Transitions: Postmodern Narrative Theory, Macmillan, London, 1998
Ed. DOCHERTY, Thomas: Postmodernism. A Reader, Harvester Wheatsheaf,
Hertfordshire, 1993
------ After Theory, Edinburgh University Press, 1996
EAGLETON, Terry: Literary Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.
------ After Theory, 2003
FERNS, Christopher: Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature,
Liverpool University Press, 1999
Ed. FOSTER, Hal: Postmodern Culture, London & Sydney: Pluto, 1985

Ed. DU GAY, Paul, EVANS Jessica, REDMAN Peter: Identity: A Reader, Sage
Publication Ltd. London, 2000
HARVEY, David: The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of
Cultural Change, Blackwell, Cambridge, 1990
HASSAN, Ihab: The Postmodern Turn,the Ohio State University Press, 1987
HUTCHEON, Linda: The Poetics of Postmodernism, Routledge, London, 1989
------ The Politics of Postmodernism, Routledge, London, 2002
------ A Theory of Parody, Routledge, New York, 1985
------ Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony, London, Routledge, 1995
JAMESON, Fredric: Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Duke
University Press Durham, 1991
MALPAS, Simon: The Postmodern, London and New York, Routledge, 2005
EdS. ONEGA, Susana & GARCIA LANDA, Jose Angel: Narratology: An Introduction,
Longman, London, 1996
VARSAVA, Jerry A.: Postmodern Fiction, Mimesis, and the Reader, Florida State UP,
Tallahassee, 1990