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Postwarness: 1919-1929; 1945-1970

ENGL 285.302
instructor(s):
TR 3-4:30

The course will open with a brief consideration of postwarness in the American literary community at the conclusion of the first World War, concentrating specifically on the burst of "High Modern" creative activity at the center of the expatriate community in Paris. We will then proceed to an extended examination of the American literary community at the conclusion of the second World War, noting the continuation of a high modern literary community, the abortive effort at establishing a part of it in Paris, the development of a subterranean counter-highmodern literary community during the 1950s, and the surfacing of that community--with its immense countercultural audience--in the post-assassination 1960s. The course will revolve around a core of material (listed below) that all members of the class will prepare, but each class member will undertake a research project on some aspect of postwarness not necessarily contemplated by the core. These projects will be developed in individual conferences, and should produce a substantial research paper by the end of the semester. A reading journal of the core will also be required, probably in installment form.

                     CORE READING LIST
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
Norman Mailer, Advertisements for Myself
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
Allen Ginsberg, Collected Poems  (selection)
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
Kate Millet, Sexual Politics

fulfills requirements