ENG 698, Twentieth-Century American Fiction

Dr. Glen Johnson

The Catholic University of America

Course description: Novels and stories by American writers since World War I, considered both as expressions of national culture and in the context of international developments and techniques.

Texts:

Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time (1925).

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925).

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937).
Raymond Chandler, “Red Wind” (1938).

William Faulkner, The Hamlet (1940).

Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky (1949).

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952).

Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962).

Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (collected 1971).

Toni Morrison, Sula (1973).

Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (1980).

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985).

Saul Bellow, Ravelstein (2000).

Instructional method: lecture, member-led discussion

Course Requirements:

Lead class discussion of one major work
Short (15 minutes) in-class report on a “cultural topic”
Midterm exam (take-home)
End of semester exam (in class)
Paper reviewing critical issues relevant to your chosen work (6-10 pages)
Attendance & participation

Summary schedule:


Date Reading Cultural topics
January 10 Intro to the course Modernism
Critical & research sources


January 17 Hemingway, In Our Time Gertrude Stein
Hemingway as celebrity


January 24 Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Maxwell Perkins
Film Versions of Gatsby


January 31 Faulkner, The Hamlet Huey Long


February 7 Hurston, Their Eyes Were “Strange Fruit” – Billie Holliday
Watching God


February 14 O’Connor, short stories Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
You Have Seen Their Faces


February 21 – ADMIN MONDAY – no class today
February 28 Ellison, Invisible Man Louis Armstrong

Take-home midterm due before break


March 6 SPRING BREAK


March 13 Raymond Chandler Film Noir
“Red Wind”


March 20 Bowles, The Sheltering Sky Robert Frank’s The Americans
March 27 Nabokov, Pale Fire Cindy Sherman


April 3 Morrison, Sula Gone With the Wind


April 10 Robinson, Housekeeping Reinhold Niebuhr


April 17 McCarthy, Blood Meridian Georgia O’Keefe


April 24 Bellow, Ravelstein Steve Reich

Critical issues paper due by April 27.

May 1 End of course exam