106-426 Post-War American Fiction

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Subject Description

This subject provides for a critical study of a range of highly influential fictional works in the post-war period. Each writer is chosen on the basis of stature and the representative nature of their writing, whether it be modernist, postmodernist, humanist or political. The subject is also concerned with post-war literary 'movements', such as Beat writing, the rise of 'black' writing, and New Journalism, and with the reaction to them in cultural debates. The subject will assume an interest in American cultural debates, as well as in literary texts.

Assessment

Written work of not more than 6000 words.

Prescribed Texts

• J Baldwin, Another Country. Penguin.
• S Bellow, The Dean's December. Penguin.
• J Cheever, Bullet Park. Vintage.
• D De Lillo, Mao II. Vintage.
• N Mailer, Advertisement for Myself. Panther.
• T Morrison, Beloved. Picador.
• V Nabokov, Lolita. Penguin.
• F O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge. Methuen.
• T Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49. Picador.
• W Stegner, Crossing to Safety. McPhee Gribble.
• H Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Paladin.