1
Literary History of the United States (III)
AN23102BA/AN28006BA/ AN33300/ANL23002BA
Spring 2015
Time and venue: Wednesday 14. 00- 15.40, Mbld. Lecture Room II
Class format: lecture
Status of course: required
Course requirement: End-of-semester examination
Instructors:
Dr. Lenke Németh
nemeth.lenke@arts.unideb.hu
Office hours: Wed 13.00-13.50,
Mon 12.00-12.50 Room
Room: Mbl 118
Tel.: 512 900/22069
Dr. Zsolt Virágos
Office hours: by appointment
Room: Mbl 118
Tel.: 512-900/22069
Dr. Csató Péter, after May 13th by appointment
csato.peter@arts.unideb.hu
Course description
This course is designed to be a full survey of mid- and late 20th and early 21st century American
literature. Significant developments as well as representative authors in fiction, poetry, and drama
will be introduced. The social, political, and intellectual background, characteristic features of
decades, the various literary trends, tendencies, labels, genre debates, as well as the cultural
debates and reconceptualizations relating to race, gender, and identity will be highlighted.
SCHEDULE
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Date
Feb 18
Feb 25
March 4
March 11
March 18
March 25
Apr 1
Apr 8
Apr 15
Apr 22
Apr 29
May 6
May 13
May 20
Topic
Introduction
Non-Conformism and American Fiction 1 (VZs)
Non-Conformism and American Fiction 2 (VZs)
African American Literature 1 (NL)
African American Literature 2 (NL)
Postmodernism (VZs)
Poetic Movements in the Twentieth Century (NL)
Postmodernist Fiction (VZs)
CONSULTATION WEEK
Modern American Drama (NL)
Postmodern American Drama (NL
American Modernism and Postmodernism: Women Writers (NL)
Existentialism and American Fiction (CsP)
Ethics and Culture: Paradigm Shifts (CsP)
Recommended reading for the examination
No single book will do. Your best bet is to attend the classes. Among IEAS library
possessions—and in inadequate copies—we have items that cover only part of the period, or,
full literary histories that carry chapters on post-1945 American literature. The same may
apply to thematic, ethnic, and genre monographs. Here are a few basic suggestions,
containing only comprehensive, period, genre, or gender titles—not all of them available in
our library. Explore libraries and bibliographies for more.
2
Abádi-Nagy Zoltán. Válság és komikum: A hatvanas évek amerikai regénye. Budapest:
Magvető, 1982.
---. Az amerikai minimalista próza. Budapest: Argumentum, 1994.
---. Mai amerikai regénykalauz, 1970-1990. Budapest: Intera, 1995.
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Vol. 7: Prose
Writing, 1940-1990 and vol. 8. Poetry and Criticism, 1940-1995. Ed. Cyrus R. K.
Patell. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
Berkowitz, Gerald M. American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London: Longman,
1992.
Berney, K. A., ed. Contemporary Dramatists. 5th ed. London: St. James P, 1993
---. Contemporary American Dramatists. Templeton: St. James, 1994.
Bigsby, C. W. E. Modern American Drama, 1945-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
---. Contemporary American Playwrights. Cambridge, Cambridge U, 2000.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Contemporary Poets. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Bradbury, Malcolm, and Richard Ruland. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History
of American Literature. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Bollobás, Enikő. Az amerikai irodalom története. Budapest: Osiris, 2005.
Brown, Susan Windisch. Contemporary Novelists. 6th ed. New York: St. James, 1996.
Cheyfitz, Eric, ed. The Columbia Guide to American Indian Literatures of the United
States Since 1945. New York: Columbia UP, 2006.
Elliott, Emory, gen. ed. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York:
Columbia UP, 1988.
---. Columbia History of the American Novel. New York: Columbia UP, 1991.
Ford, Boris, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vol. 9. American
Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1988.
Gray, Richard. American Poetry of the Twentieth Century. London: Longman, 1990.
---. A History of American Literature. London: Blackwell, 2004.
Hassan, Ihab. Radical Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel. Princeton:
Princeton UP, 1961.
---. Contemporary American Literature, 1945-1972: An Introduction. New York: Ungar,
1973.
Heiney, Donald, and Lenthiel H. Downs. Recent American Literature after 1930. New
York: Barron’s, 1973.
Herman, William. Understanding Contemporary American Drama. Columbia, SC: U
of South Carolina P, 1987..
Hilfer, Tony. American Fiction since 1940. London: Longman, 1992.
Hoffman, Daniel, ed. Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Writing.Cambridge.
MA: Harvard UP, 1979.
Huerta, Jorge. Chicano Drama: Performance, Society and Myth. Cambridge Studies
in American Theatre and Drama 12. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.
Kamp, Jim, ed.. Reference Guide to American Literature. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James
Press,1994.
Klein, Marcus. After Alienation: American Novels in Mid-Century. Cleveland:
Meridian, 1965.
Logsdon, Loren, and Charles W. Mayer, eds. Since Flannery O’Connor: Essays on
the Contemporary American Short Story. Macomb, ILL: Western Illinois U, 1987.
Országh, László and Virágos Zsolt. Az amerikai irodalom története. Budapest: Eötvös
József, 1997.
Parini, Jay. The Columbia History of American Poetry: From the Puritans to Our Time.
New York: Columbia, 1993.
Rainwater, Catherine, and William J. Sheick, eds. Contemporary American Women
Writers. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 1985.
Reynolds, Guy. Twentieth-Century American Women’s Fiction: A Critical Introduction.
Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.
Riggs, Thomas, ed. Contemporary Poets. 6th ed. New York: St. James, 1996.
3
Rudman, Jack. American Literature: Civil War to the Present.
Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History
of American Literature. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Tallack , Douglas. Twentieth-Century America: The Intellectual and Cultural
Context. London: Longman 1991.
Tanner, Tony. City of Words: American Fiction 1950-1970. New York: Harper, 1971.
Vadon Lehel. Masterpieces of American Drama: An Anthology and Introduction. I-II.
EKTF, 1994.
Virágos Zsolt. A négerség és az amerikai irodalom. Budapest: Akadémiai, 1975.
---. Cf. Országh.
Weaver, Gordon, ed. The American Short Story, 1945-1980: A Critical History. Hall:
Twayne, 1983.
Required Reading
Assigned for the end-of-semester examination
1. NON-CONFORMIST, BEAT, COUNTERCULTURE FICTION:
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
or Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957)
or Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962)
2. AFRICAN-AMERICAN FICTION:
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
or Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (1977)
3. POSMODERNIST FICTION:
John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse (1968)
or Donald Barthelme, The Dead Father (1975)
4. WOMEN WRITERS:
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1984)
or Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)
5. JEWISH FICTION AND SHORT FICTION:
Saul Bellow, Seize the Day (1956)
or Bernard Malamud, “The Magic Barrel” (1958), “The Jewbird” (1963)
6. SOUTHERN SHORT FICTION:
Flannery O’Connor, “Good Country People” (1955)
and Ernest J. Gaines, “The Sky Is Gray” (1963)
7. MINIMALIST SHORT FICITON:
Raymond Carver, “A Serious Talk”
and Bobby Ann Mason, “Nancy Culpepper”
POETRY
Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’a Waltz,” Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish,” Frank O’Hara, “Why I
am not a Painter,” Allen Ginsberg, “Howl,” Robert Lowell, “Skunk Hour,” Sylvia Plath, “The
Applicant,” Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”
DRAMA
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
4
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (1949)
Edward Albee, The American Dream (1961)
Sam Shepard, Buried Child (1978)
David Mamet, Oleanna (1992)