Senior Level Academic ISU Topics and Novels

Sample Topics

  1. Modernism

James Joyce Portrait of An Artist as A Young Man

Virginia Woolf To The Lighthouse

E.M ForsterHoward’s End / Passage to India/Room With A View

  1. The Lost Generation

Hemingway A Farewell To Arms

FitzgeraldThe Great Gatsby

MaughamOf Human Bondage

  1. Existential Angst

Sartre No Exit/The Wall

Camus The Plague OR The Stranger

KazantzakisThe Last Temptation of Christ

BartheLost in The Funhouse

  1. The Novel of Ideas

KafkaThe Trial/ The Metamorphosis

HuxleyBrave New World

EcoThe Name of The Rose

ByattThe Tower of Babel

AckroydHawksmoor

  1. Thy Drugs Are Quick

WelshTrainspotting/Acid House

BurroughsJunkie

WolfThe Electric Cool-Aid Acid Test

Will SelfMy Idea of Fun

  1. The Epic Novel

MelvilleMoby Dick

DostoyevskyThe Brothers Karamazov

DickensTale of Two Cities

GrassThe Tin Drum

ScottThe Raj Quartet

  1. Classical Epics

HomerThe Odyssey

VirgilThe Aeneid

OvidThe Metamorphosis

  1. Biographical Novel

StoneThe Agony and The Ecstasy/Lust For Life

MaughamThe Moon and Sixpence

DelilloLibra

  1. Revisiting The Past

SwiftWaterland/Last Orders

AtwoodSurfacing

LaurenceThe Stone Angel

BrooknerA Start In Life

  1. Nuclear Fallout

ShuteOn The Beach

BockThe Ash Garden

WindhamThe Chrysalids

AtwoodOryx and Crake

  1. Paradise Lost

MiltonParadise Lost (selected excerpts)

GarlandThe Beach

GoldingLord of The Flies

WigginsJohn Dollar

SteinbeckEast of Eden

  1. Social Realism

SteinbeckThe Grapes of Wrath

SolzhenitsynA Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch

ZolaGerminal

HardyJude The Obscure/Tess

  1. War is Hell

CraneThe Red Badge of Courage

FindleyThe Wars

MailerThe Naked and The Dead

RemarqueAll Quiet on The Western Front

StoneDog Soldiers

FaulksBirdsong

O’BrienThe Things They Carried

HerrDispatches

FrazierCold Mountain

  1. Satire

PynchonVineland

HellerCatch 22

BartheGiles Goatboy

Vonnegut Cat’s Cradle/

Slaughterhouse Five

RussoStraightman

PierreVernon God Little

  1. The Individual and Social Responsibility

DickensOliver Twist

DickensHard Times

EliotSilas Marner

SteinbeckOf Mice and Men/Winter of Our

Discontent

PuigKiss of The Spider Woman

WieselNight

KeneallySchindler’s Ark

WolfBonfire of The Vanities

  1. Conspiracy Theory

StoneThe Damascus Gate

PalahniukSurvivor

  1. Dark Imaginings

PeakeGormenghast

HerbertThe Magic Cottage

KingThe Shining

ClarkeJonathan Strange and Mr. Norris

RiceInterview With A Vampire

KostovaThe Historian

  1. Male/Female Relationships

MaghamOf Human Bondage

FowlesThe French Lieutenant’s Woman

TylerThe Accidental Tourist

KunderaThe Unbearable Lightness of Being

BarnesTalking It Over/ Still Talking It Over

MarquezLove in the Time of Cholera

LaurenceThe Stone Angel/The Diviners

D.H. LawrenceWomen In Love

  1. Our Troubled Times

DelilloWhite Noise

CarverCathedral

CoetzeeDisgrace

BoyleThe Road To Wellville

CoetzeeWaiting For The Barbarians

RoyThe Tin Flute

FindleyHeadhunter

BarnesEngland, England

HageDeniro’s Game

  1. Appearance vs. Reality

Fowles The Magus

BarnesThe History of The World in 101/2 Chapters

  1. Coming of Age

SalingerCatcher In The Rye

DeaneReading In The Dark

MitchellWho Has Seen The Wind

FowlerA Separate Piece

RothPortnoy’s Complaint

PierreVernon God Little

Chabon Wonder Boys

IrvingCider House Rules

DoylePaddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha

WoolfThis Boy’s Life

TwainHuck Finn

  1. Exploring Evil

KozinskiThe Painted Bird

Eli WieselNight

EllisAmerican Psycho

BauschViolence

ConradHeart of Darkness

SusskindPerfume

  1. 19th Century Women and Punishment

FlaubertMadame Bovary

HawthorneThe Scarlet Letter

HardyTess of the D’Urbervilles

TolstoyAnna Karenina

  1. The Impact of Illness

ShuteLife Size

LambShe’s Come Undone

PlathThe Bell Jar

OndaatjeThe English Patient

WhartonEthan Frome

  1. African-American Issues and Identities

WalkerThe Colour Purple

BaldwinGoing To Meet The Man

MorrisonThe Bluest Eye

EllisonThe Invisible Man

Wright Native Son

McMillanWaiting To Exhale

The Harlem Renaissance Reader

FairbairnFive Smooth Stones

  1. Anti-Colonialism

AchebeThings Fall Apart

Thiong’oPetals of Blood

KingsolverPoisonwood Bible

ConradHeart of Darkness

MatthiessenAt Play in the Fields of The Lord

CareyA True History of The Kelly Gang

RhysWide Sargasso Sea

ScottThe Raj Quartet (Jewel in The Crown

  1. “New” Canadian Voices

BissoondathA Casual Brutality

RicciLives of The Saints

GowdyThe Romantic

  1. A Strong Sense of Place

GoldenMemoirs of a Geisha

PagnolJean de Florette

OkriThe Famished Road

KincaidAnnie John

IsherwoodGoodbye Berlin

HoegSmila’s Sense of Snow

  1. Sexual Identities

JongFear of Flying

MillerTropic of Capricorn/Cancer

NinDiary of Anais Nin

BrownRubyfruit Jungle

HallWell of Loneliness

ForsterMaurice

GreeneWhat the Dead Remember

WintersonOranges Aren’t The Only Fruit

KushnerAngels in America

  1. Challenging Detective Fiction

EcoThe Name of The Rose

AusterThe New York Trilogy

ArturoThe Flanders Panel

StoneThe Damascus Gate

  1. Popular Culture

DelilloWhite Noise

RushdieThe Ground Beneath Her Feet/Fury

HornsbyHigh Fidelity/About A Boy

RobbinsEven Cowgirls Get The Blues

ChabonAmazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

  1. Added Weight in Children’s Literature

BarriePeter Pan

CarterThe Burning Bed

CarrollAlice In Wonderland

RushdieHaroun and The Sea of Stories

  1. Untrustworthy Narration

JamesThe Turn of The Screw

IshiguroThe Remains of The Day

FordThe Good Soldier

FowlesThe Collector

  1. Generations

Allende The House of The Spirits

MacDonaldFall On Your Knees

MarquezA Hundred Years of Solitude

  1. Art and Literature

UrquhartThe Underpainter

FowlesThe Ebony Tower

ByattThe Matisse Stories

MaughamThe Moon and Sixpence

VreelandGirl in Hyacinth Blue

ChevalierGirl With A Pearl Earring

BergerA Painter of Our Times

PalukMy Name is Red

ChabonThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

StoneThe Agony and The Ecstasy

  1. (Re)Creating The Past

AtwoodAlias Grace

ByattPossession

UrquhartAway

TremainRestoration

WintersonSexing The Cherry

PalukMy Name is Red

RushdieThe Enchantress of Florentine

EccoBauldilino

UnsworthMorality Play

  1. Social Critique (Panoramic)

MaloufRemembering Babylon

RushdieMidnight’s Children/Shame

CareyOscar and Lucinda/True History of the Kelly Gang

WolfBonfire of The Vanities

PalahniukFight Club/Survivor

ByattThe Tower of Babel

MannThe Magic Mountain

HageDeNiro’s Game

McEwenSaturday

  1. The Loser (Studies in the Anti-Hero)

AmisMoney

BanksAffliction

JonsonJesus’ Son

IrvingThe Fourth Hand

MillerDeath of A Salesman

RichlerBarney’s Version

  1. Poor But Proud

FaulknerAs I Lay Dying

Nichols The Milagros Beanfield War

McCourtAngela’s Ashes

McCarthyOuter Dark

CareyTrue History of The Kelly Gang

  1. Victoriana

JamesThe Golden Bowl

HardyJude The Obscure

WhartonThe Age of Innocence

41. Magic Realism

KunderaThe Book of Laughter and Forgetting

MarquezA Hundred Years of Solitude

EscovalLike Water for Chocolate

RushdieMidnight’s Children

OkriThe Famished Road

42. Fathers, Mothers, Daughters, Sons

AllisonBastard Out of Carolina

TanThe Joy Luck Club

MorrisonBeloved

GodwinA Mother and Two Daughters

ConroyThe Great Santini/Prince of Tides

LawrenceSons and Lovers

AtwoodThe Cat’s Eye

RothCall It Sleep

HolmesJack

GibbonsEllen Foster

BanvilleThe Sea

WellsDevine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

DuncanMoon Women

43. Searching For The Spiritual in The Real

MaughamThe Razor’s Edge

HesseSiddhartha/Steppenwolf

CoelhoThe Alchemist

KazantzakisThe Last Temptation of Christ

44. The Family

FaulknerThe Sound and The Fury

IrvingA Widow For One Year

AtwoodThe Blind Assassin

O’NeilLong Days Journey Into Night

FranzenThe Corrections

McEwenAtonement/Saturday

45. Modern Maritime Fiction

McLeodNo Great Mischief

AdamsMercy Among The Children

ProulxThe Shipping News

UnsworthStrange Hunger

46. India, India

RoyA God of No Small Things

RushdieMidnight’s Children

MistryA Fine Balance

SethA Suitable Boy

MehtaKarma Cola

ForsterPassage To India

IrvingSon of The Circus

OndaatjeAnil’s Ghost

  1. Dear Diary

FieldingBridget Jones Diary

DalbyThe Tale Murasaki

FrankThe Diary of Anne Frank

  1. The Immigrant Experience

GutersonSnow Falling On Cedars

TanThe Joy Luck Club

RicciLives of The Saints

MukarjeeJasmine

KogawaObasan

DoctorowRagtime

VassanjiNo New Land

OndaatjeSkin of A Lion

  1. The Epistolary Novel

WalkerThe Color Purple

BantockThe Griffin and Sabine Series

SymondsThe Convict Lover

WrightClara Callan

  1. Metafiction

CalvinoIf On A Winter’s Night A Traveller

BarthLost In The Funhouse

KunderaThe Unbearable Lightness of Being

BarthThe Last Voyage of Somebody The Sailor

O’BrienIn The Lake of The Woods

  1. Playing With Time

AgeeA Death In The Family

AmisTime’s Arrow

VonnegutHocus Pocus

  1. Psychoanalysis and Literature (Freud and Jung)

OatleyThe Case of Emily V.

FindleyPilgrim

DaviesThe Depford Trilogy

LawrenceSons and Lovers

FowlesThe Magus

UnsworthMooncranker

  1. Native Voices

HighwayKiss of The Fur Queen

KingGreen Grass, Running Water

AlexieThe Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

54. Future Imperfect

Hoban - Riddley Walker

William Gibson - Neuromancer OR Idoru

Theroux - O-Zone

Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash

Burgess - A Clockwork Orange

Richard Wright - A Scientific Romance

Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz

Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Russell - The Sparrow AND/OR The Children of God

Brin - The Postman

Charnas – McKee, Russ, Delany - Radical Utopias(3 novels)

Niffenegger - The Time Traveller’s Wife

Saramongo - Blindness

55. After-effects of the Holocaust

Susan Fromberg Schaeffer - AnyaWilliam Styron - Sophie’s Choice

D.M. Thomas - The White HotelAnne Michaels - Fugitive Pieces

Bernard Schlink - The ReaderKosinski - The Painted Bird

Louis Begley - Wartime LiesJurik Becker - Jakob The Liar

Harris - Five Quarters of the OrangeMoran - The Man in the Box

Eli Wiesel - Night

56. Native American Issues

Ryga - In The Shadow of Our Vulture

Dorris –Yellow Raft in Blue Water

Berger - Little Big Man

Kingsolver –The Bean Trees & Pigs in Heaven

Erdich –Tracks

Alexie (and others by him) -The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

King –Green Grass, Running Water

Momaday - House Made of Dawn

Silko– Ceremony

Keneally - The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

Single Author Studies

1. Virginia Woolf

2. William Faulkner

3. Edith Wharton

4. Willa Cather

5. F. Scott Fitzgerald

6. Ernest Hemingway

7. James Joyce

8. Edith Wharton

9. Doris Lessing

10. E.M. Forster

11. Roddy Doyle –The Barrytown Trilogy (all)

12. D.H. Lawrencemany

13. Richard Russo

14. Oliver Sacks

15. Guy Gavriel Kaye

16. Patricia Highsmith –the ‘Ripley’ series

17. John Updike

18. Philip Roth

19. Thomas Pynchon –earlier works

20. Tom Robbins –earlier works (1)

21. Kurt Vonnegut –esp. early (10)

22. Naguib Mahfouz

23. Yukio Mishima

24. Michael Ondaatje26. David Adam Richards

25. Margaret Atwood

26. Margaret Lawrence (15)

27. Flannery O’Connor (3 By Flannery O’Connor –3 novels collected)

28. Robertson Davies

29. Victorians: Hardy, Dickens, Trollope etc.

30. Larry McMurtry

31. Richard Russo

32. Alice Munro (largely SS collections)

33. Evelyn Waugh

34. W.O. Mitchell

35. Richard Ford

36. Ann Beattie

37. John Barth

38. David Foster Wallace

39. Rick Moody

40. Tim O’Brien

41. Ian McEwan

42. The Bronte sisters

43. Anne Tyler

44. John Irving

45. Milan Kundera

46. Jose Saramago

47. Michael Chabon

48. Richard Russo

49. Robertson Davies

50. Jane Austin

ISU Topics and Novels-SrLevelAcademic.revSept2012.doc