ENG41670

Our understanding of the “contemporary” is informed by diverse narratives of globalization, neoliberalism, and late capitalism; as well as the events of 9/11 and the escalation of racial, economic, and environmental crises and protests. This module focuses on developments in the American novel around the turn of the twenty-first century. Within our set of contemporary texts, we will encounter a diverse group of writers and their experiments with popular forms, images, and expectations.
The course will employ primary and critical texts to build a collaborative discussion of the American literary and social moment. We will concentrate on novels by canonical contemporary authors that employ the images and structures of what is conventionally considered to be “genre” or “popular” fiction, from science fictions to dystopian narratives and graphic novels. Together, we will consider the ways in which contemporary novels forge narrative acts of historical transgression, speculative remaking, disaster, and renewal.
For better and worse, we will encounter texts that are rarely fully critically digested or contextualized. Thus, the module will ask you for flexibility and creativity in pursuing the new, changing, and uncertain definitions of the present period.