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Syllabus and Required Readings
2015 Study of the U.S. Institute on Contemporary American Literature
** note: the syllabus may be revised to meet Institute objectives **
Program Director: Aaron Jaffe.
Office: Humanities. 317B. Phone: 502-439-9350.
Fax: 852-4182, attn. Aaron Jaffe. E-mail aaron.jaffe@louisville.edu
OBJECTIVES:
1) To offer participants the opportunity to deepen their understanding of U.S. society, culture,
and values through an examination of contemporary U.S. literature.
2) To examine how major writers, schools, and movements continue the traditions of the U.S.
literary canon and at the same time establish new directions for U.S. literature.
3) To place contemporary U. S. literature in historical context and in contexts of contemporary
society and culture.
4) To aid participants in individual research and curriculum development related to the
Institute’s themes.
5) To improve curricula and quality of teaching about the U.S. in universities abroad.
INSTITUTE TEXTS (The following will be provided to participants by the Institute.)
John Ashbery, Collected Poems, 1956-1987 - selections
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street.
Don DeLillo, White Noise.
Junot Diaz, “The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” (short story version, 2000)
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad.
Percival Everett, Erasure and Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
Allen Ginsberg, Howl and Other Poems.
Mat Johnson, Pym.
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior.
Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies.
Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker.
Ben Lerner, 10:04.
Toni Morrison, Beloved.
Harryette Mullen, Sleeping with the Dictionary and Urban Tumbleweed.
Suzan-Lori Parks, Venus.
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49.
Adrienne Rich, Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose – selections
Vanessa Veselka, Zazen.
Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone.
Paul Hoover, ed., Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (2nd ed.).
Paula Geyh, et al., eds., Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology.
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J. D. McClatchy, ed., The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry.
Guidebooks to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
“Website readings” to be posted on password-protected website.
Institute Schedule
Notes: Whenever possible, all weekly readings should be completed by Monday of the week
in which they are to be discussed. Read ahead when possible.
Unless otherwise announced, morning sessions run from 10:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.;
afternoon sessions run from 2:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m.
Advance readings posted on password-protected website should be read before arrival.
Unless otherwise announced, Prof. Aaron Jaffe will lead or otherwise participate in all
academic sessions and seminars.
Week 1 (Arrival, Orientation, Introduction)
Readings: selections from John Ashbery, Allen Ginsberg, and Adrienne Rich (see below). Read
ahead: next week’s novels.
12 June 2015. Scholars arrive in Louisville. 7:30 pm: welcome reception (informal) at
International Center.
13 June. Morning: sleep/acclimate. Noon-4:30: lunch and general orientation in seminar room.
Campus tour. 6 pm: dinner at a local restaurant.
14 June. 10:45 am: Group brunch. 1-5:00 pm: academic orientation session #1 in seminar room,
with Tom Byers and Susan Ryan. 6pm: group dinner at Asia Buffet.
15 June. 9:30-12:30: academic orientation session #2 with Dr. Tom Byers and Dr. Susan Ryan.
Lunch in seminar room followed by distribution of participants’ funds. Bring passport. Trip to
bank and grocery store. Evening: Welcome dinner (depart Kurz Hall 6:30 pm).
16 June. 9 am: depart dorm for Social Security. Tour Seelbach Hotel, KY Center for the Arts,
and Humana Building. Lunch at Bristol Downtown (restaurant). Afternoon 2 pm: University ID
cards followed by library tour. 6 pm: depart dorm for electronics shopping.
17 June. 9:30 am: seminar with Drs. Byers and Ryan on the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, Adrienne
Rich, and John Ashbery. Rest of afternoon: library and reading time. 6:30 pm: Depart dorm for
dinner at Associate Director’s house.
Readings: For Ginsberg, focus on “Howl,” Sunflower Sutra,” “In a Supermarket in California.”
For Rich, focus on "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," "Transcendental Etude," "From a Survivor," "For
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Memory," “The Burning of Paper Instead of Children,” “Tear Gas,” "When We Dead Awaken:
Writing as Re-Vision" (Rich 4, 86-90, 59, 93-95, 166-77). For Ashbery, “A Man of Words,”
“Foreboding,” “Mixed Feelings,” “The One Thing That Can Save America,” “Saying It to Keep
It from Happening,” “And Ut Pictura Poesis is Her Name,” “Down by the Station, Early in the
Morning,” “Never Seek to Tell Thy Love,” “Introduction,” “I See, Said the Blind Man, as He Put
Down His Hammer and Saw.”
18 June. Morning and early afternoon: computer help; library and reading time. 2 pm: begin
participant presentations.
19 June. Morning: participant presentations. Afternoon: meet with staff; then finish
presentations. Local public transportation orientation.
Weekend
20 June. Optional visit to Cub Run Cave (about 1.5 hours from Louisville).
21 June. Free time; reading. Afternoon: Optional visit to 21C the Art Hotel and KY Museum of
Art and Craft.
Week 2 (From Modern to Postmodern)
Readings: more Post45 American poetry (on Blackboard); Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot
49. Bobbie Ann Mason, “Shiloh” (Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology). Don
DeLillo, White Noise. Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone. Selected Poetry and Fiction. Read ahead:
Vanessa Veselka, Zazen.
22 June. Morning: seminar continues on Post45 American poetry, with Dr. Joshua Adams and
Dr. Byers on Plath, "Lady Lazarus," "Words"; Merrill, "The Broken Home,"
Creeley "I Know a Man," "I Keep to Myself Such Measures," "Mother's Voice"; Graham, "At
Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Body," "The Dream of the Unified Field."
Afternoon: Library and reading time.
23 June. Morning: Seminar with Prof. Stephen Schneider and Prof. Ryan on “Shiloh” and
Winter’s Bone. Afternoon: Library and reading time.
24 June. Morning: Seminar continues, with Drs. Byers and Ryan on postwar regionalisms.
Afternoon: Library and reading time. Evening: Fiction Reading and Discussion with Ryan Ridge.
25 June. 10 am-noon: Library and reading time; Noon: Meet with staff; orientation for San
Francisco/Los Angeles Study Tour. Afternoon: Seminar with Professor Amy Elias on Pynchon.
26 June. Morning: Seminar on Don DeLillo, White Noise, with Professor Amy Elias.
Afternoon: meeting with staff, followed by Library and reading time.
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Weekend
27 June. 9:30 a.m. Depart dorm for all-day tour of Louisville as a postmodern city, with Profs.
Ryan, Byers and Jaffe.
28 June. Free time. 1:30 pm: Optional trip to Half-Price Books.
Week 3 (Study Tour, I: Re/location, Time, and the Space of Literature)
Readings: Toni Morrison, Beloved; Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior. Ben Lerner,
10:04. Vanessa Veselka, Zazen. Read ahead: next week’s materials.
29 June. Morning: Background seminar on Toni Morrison and other study tour readings, with
Prof. Ryan; Afternoon: Library and Reading time.
30 June. Free time. Prepare for study tour. Dr. Byers will accompany the California study tour.
1 July. Study tour begins. Fly to San Francisco. Visit Golden Gate Bridge (weather permitting).
Evening: optional group dinner.
2 July. Morning: Bus tour with expert guide. Sites connected to The Crying of Lot 49; Mission
District murals. Lunch at restaurant near Green Apple Books. Possible addition tour of
Chinatown and visit to City Lights Books, home of the Beat Movement. Evening: Attend a play
or free time. Special Guest: Professor Charles Tung.
3 July. Morning and Afternoon: seminar at UC-Berkeley with Professor Charles Tung and
Christopher Miller on Ben Lerner and postwar literature and new media; Professor Colleen Lye
on Kingston. Evening: Attend a play or free time.
Weekend
4 July. Morning: 9:30 visit to Martin Luther King Memorial, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
and/or Contemporary Jewish Museum; Afternoon: free time. Evening: Optional walking trip to
Fisherman’s Wharf for fireworks display.
5 July. Bus to Los Angeles down PCH 1, stop at Hearst Castle.
Week 4 (Study Tour, II: Literary Futures, Multi-Ethnicity, and Environment)
Readings: Diaz and Cisneros, story selections; Everett, Erasure and Percival Everett; Lee, Native
Speaker; LA poetry, fiction and other website readings to be announced. Read ahead: Egan.
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6 July. Morning: Tour L.A. with Professors Gabriela Nuñez and Nicole Seymour, California
State University, Fullerton; Afternoon: Seminar with Nuñez and Seymour on LA materials (on
blackboard).
7 July. Morning: Seminar with Percival Everett. Afternoon: Seminar with Tom Lutz and Evan
Kindley on the L.A. Review of Books, contemporary book reviewing, and American nonfiction.
Evening: Free time.
8 July. Morning: Seminar with Professor Warren Liu, Scripps College, on Native Speaker and
Asian American Poetry from website. Afternoon: Group activity to be announced.
9 July. Return to Louisville.
10 July. Morning: Seminar on Beloved with Susan Ryan, Aaron Jaffe, and Stephen Schneider.
Afternoon: Library and Reading time.
Weekend
11 July. 7:30 pm: Leave dorm for dinner at Director’s home.
12 July. Free time. Optional outing, tba.
Week 5 (Diverse Voices: Questions of Race and History; D.C. trip)
Readings: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad. Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies
(selections). Sherman Alexie, “Captivity” (from the PAF reader)
13 July. Morning & Afternoon: Seminar with Professor Janet Lyon on Egan, Veselka, and other
works from study tour.
14 July. AM: Seminar, part I led by Susan Ryan and David Anderson on selections from
Sherman Alexie and Leslie Marmon Silko and part II led by the Academic Director on Jhumpa
Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (selections). 1:30: Washington, D.C. orientation. Afternoon:
library time.
15 July. 8:30 am: Depart for day trip with Susan Ryan to National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, in connection with Toni Morrison, Beloved.
16 July. Morning: seminar with Judith Roof on contemporary U.S. drama. Afternoon: Seminar
with Judith Roof continues.
17 July. Morning: fly to DC. Tour Library of Congress. 8 pm: U.S. Army Band at U.S. Capitol
(optional).
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Weekend
18 July. 9:50 am: Depart for visit to National Museum of the American Indian, Viet Nam War
Memorial, Exterior of White House, and Lincoln Memorial, followed by free time for visits to
sites of individual interest.
19 July. Free time.
Week 6 (Cultural Inscription and Re-scripting)
Readings: Mat Johnson, Pym. Website readings to be announced. Other poetry and criticism
selections to be announced. Selections from Harryette Mullen, Sleeping with the Dictionary.
20 July. 11a.m. – Tour Library of Congress Afternoon: Participants meet with State Department
Program Officer to discuss the Institute, followed by possible sightseeing. Evening: return to
Louisville.
21 July. Morning: seminar on African American and avant-garde poetry with Alan Golding and
Harryette Mullen. Afternoon: reading by Harryette Mullen; discussion with Profs. Mullen and
Golding. Possible trip to the Muhammad Ali Center.
22 July. Morning: seminar with Profs. Alan Golding and Harryette Mullen. Afternoon: Reading
and Library time.
23 July. Morning: seminar with Jaffe and Ryan on Johnson and loose ends; Afternoon: final
book mailing. Library time. Evening: Event planned and presented by participants. Program can
be academic or social or both and can be as long or short as participants choose.
24 July. 10:00: final seminar. Discussion of program. Afternoon: free time, packing.
6:30 farewell dinner at University Club.
25 July. Participants depart.
Website Readings
I. Advance Readings
1. Jean-François Lyotard. Selections from The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.
Trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Theory and History of Literature 10.
Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984. xxiii-xxv.
2. David Harvey. "Postmodernism." The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989.
38-65.
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3. Jacques Derrida. "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences." Writing
and Difference. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1978. 278-93.
4. Fredric Jameson. "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism." Postmodernism, or, The Cultural
Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke UP, 1991. 1-54.
5. Andreas Huyssen. From “Mapping the Postmodern.” After the Great Divide: Modernism,
Mass Culture, Postmodernism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986. 183-206, 216-21.
6. Jean Baudrillard. From “The Precession of Simulacra.” Simulations. Trans. Paul Foss, Paul
Patton, and Philip Beitchman. New York: Semiotexte, 1983. 1-13, 23-26, 38-49.
7. Terry Eagleton. From The Illusions of Postmodernism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. 27-44.
8. Hilton Kramer. “A Note on the New Criterion.” New Criterion 1.1 (September, 1982): 1-5.
9. Hilton Kramer. “Postmodern: Art and Culture in the 1980s.” New Criterion 1.1 (September,
1982): 36-42.
10. Judith Butler. “Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions.” Gender Trouble: Feminism
and the Subversion of Identity. Thinking Gender. New York: Routledge, 1990. 128-41.
11. Henry Louis Gates. “Writing ‘Race’ and the Difference It Makes.” Critical Inquiry 12
(1985): 1-21.
12. Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” Identity: Community, Culture, Difference.
Ed. Jonathan Rutherford. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990.
13. Tom Lutz, selections from Cosmopolitan Vistas: The New New Regionalism and the
Future of Literature. Cornell University Press, 2004.
Others to be announced.
II. Readings for Week 4
1. Rigoberto Gonzalez, “Día de las Madres,” from Latinos in Lotus Land: An Anthology of
Contemporary Southern California Literature. Ed. Daniel A. Olivas, Bilingual Press,
2008. (PDF to be distributed)
2. Jenny Price, “13 Ways of Looking at Nature in L.A.” (read online)
3. Luis Rodriguez, “Concrete River” (poem text; read online first) (video of Rodriguez’s
reading; view after reading poem)
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4. Chapters 5 and 6 of Helena María Viramontes’s Their Dogs Came with Them (PDF to be
distributed) (video of Viramontes; view before reading chapters)
5. Tom Lutz, “Future Tense,” LA Review of Books.
III. Readings for Week 6 (others to be announced)
1. Harryette Mullen. “Poetry and Identity.” West Coast Line 19 (1996): 85-89.
2. Harryette Mullen. “The Solo Mysterioso Blues: An Interview with Harryette Mullen.”
Callaloo 19 (1996): 651-69.