Department of English

Contemporary literature does not fit in neat boxes. We find novels written as comic books, poems as pictures, drama in the form of social action. It is as if the revolutionary upheavals in gender and racial identity of our day have inspired a corresponding fluidity in literary categories, with new possibilities springing up daily. This course explores some of these exciting developments in fiction, poetry, and drama, including works by Eve Ensler, Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Stephen Sondheim, Toni Morrison, Don DeLillo, Michael Cunningham, Maxine Hong Kingston, Art Spiegelman, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Ellen Solt, Gwendolyn Brooks, Anne Sexton, and others. Assignments: two papers (7-10 pages each) and a take-home final examination.