ENG 3033.001: American Literature, 1945 -- Present
Professor Jeanne Reesman
UTSA, Fall 2009
9:30-10:45 a.m. TR, HSS 2.02.16
Office: MB 2.460
Hours: T 8:30-9:30 a.m.; R 8:30-9:30 a.m. & 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
and other times by appointment
Phone: 210-458-5133; FAX: 210-458-5366
Email: Jeanne.reesman@utsa.edu
Website: http://colfa.utsa.edu/ecpc/faculty/reesman/default.htm
Course Description:
This lecture/discussion course surveys major American writers from 1945 to
the present, including literary, cultural, philosophical, religious, social, multiethnic, and economic dimensions of the period. Following World War II, as
the American economy returned to prosperity and the American middle class
grew, a resurgence also took place in American fiction, poetry, and drama,
inspired by the modernism of the previous generation but emboldened to
treat new themes and present new gendered and racialized voices especially
beginning in the 1970s. With the 1980s-2000, the scene shifted to a “postmodern” aesthetic and a questioning of authorship itself. We will read the
works of important figures in late modernism and present post-modernism,
diverse writers who seek to present the “modern” and “post-modern” worlds
they differently experienced.
Requirements & Grades:
4-page paper
4-page paper revised
Exams (3 @ 20%)
Participation bonus
15%
25%
60%
+5%
Texts:
Nina Baym, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 7th
edition, Vol. E. American Literature Since 1945 (Norton)
Jack Kerouac, On the Road (Penguin)
Ernest Hemingway, Islands in the Stream (Scribner’s)
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (Vintage)
Junot Diaz, Drown (Riverhead Trade)
1
Syllabus:
All page numbers are from NAAL 7, Vol. E, unless noted
August 27
Introduction to class, syllabus, requirements, grades
September 1
THE LATE 1940s and the 1950S:
ROBERT PENN WARREN (1905-1989) 2111
Bearded Oaks
2113
Audubon 2114
I. Was Not the Lost Dauphin 2114
VI. Love and Knowledge
2115
VII. Tell Me a Story
2116
American Portrait: Old Style 2116
Mortal Limit
2120
RANDALL JARRELL (1914-1965) 2266
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
2268
September 3 ROBERT LOWELL (1917–1977)
2392
The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket 2395
For the Union Dead
2407
ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911–1979) 2166
The Fish
2167
The Armadillo
2175
In the Waiting Room
2177
September 8 GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917–2000) 2409
September 10
September 15
A Street in Bronzeville
kitchenette building
the mother
2411
We Real Cool 2413
2411
2411
ALLEN GINSBERG (1926–1997)
Howl 2576
Footnote to Howl
2583
A Supermarket in California
2574
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1911–1983)
2184
A Streetcar Named Desire
2186
September 17
A Streetcar Named Desire (film)
September 22
A Streetcar Named Desire (film)
September 24
2584
FLANNERY O’CONNOR (1925–1964)
Good Country People 2529
2521
2
EUDORA WELTY (1909–2001)
Petrified Man 2148
2146
September 29
RALPH ELLISON (1914–1994)
2297
Invisible Man
2298
Prologue
2298
Chapter I [Battle Royal]
2304
October 1
EXAM 1
October 6
THE 1960S:
JOHN CHEEVER (1912–1982)
The Swimmer 2250
2248
PHILIP ROTH (b. 1933)
Defender of the Faith
October 8
2720
2722
JACK KEROUAC (1922–1969)
(Norton headnote)
2439
Jack Kerouac, On the Road (Penguin)
October 13
ANNE SEXTON (1928–1974) 2641
The Truth the Dead Know
2642
Sylvia’s Death
2643
Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman
ADRIENNE RICH (b. 1929) 2649
Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law
Diving into the Wreck 2656
October 15
2645
2651
SYLVIA PLATH (1932–1963) 2698
Morning Song 2700
Lady Lazarus 2701
Daddy 2704
The Applicant 2709
MARY OLIVER (b. 1935)
In Blackwater Woods
2792
2794
October 20
READING DAY
October 22
EXAM 2, 4-page paper due
October 27
1970S-PRESENT:
ALICE WALKER (b. 1944) 3009
Everyday Use 3010
3
October 29
SHERMAN ALEXIE (b. 1966)
3239
At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School
Pawn Shop 3241
Sister Fire, Brother Smoke
3241
Tourists
3241
3. Marilyn Monroe
3241
The Exaggeration of Despair 3242
November 3
SIMON J. ORTIZ (b. 1941)
2914
Passing through Little Rock 2915
Earth and Rain, the Plants & Sun 2916
Vision Shadows 2917
Poems from the Veterans Hospital 2918
Travelling 2918
From From Sand Creek
2919
November 5
GLORIA ANZALDÚA (1942–2004) 2935
La conciencia de la mestiza/Towards a New
Consciousness
2936
3240
AMY TAN (b. 1952)
3154
The Joy Luck Club
3155
Two Kinds 3155
November 10
ERNEST HEMINGWAY, Islands in the Stream, Part 1, “Bimini”
November 12
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (film)
November 17
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (film)
Discussion of book and film
November 19
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Vintage (film)
November 24
Fight Club (film)
November 26
THANKSGIVING
December 1
Fight Club
Discussion of book and film
December 3
Revision of 4-page paper due
Selected stories, Junot Diaz, Drown (Riverhead)
EXAM 3:
AT FINAL EXAM TIME, Monday, December 14, 10:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
4
Class Policies:
1. Late papers are not acceptable and will be penalized one letter grade for
each day M-F they are late. If an exam is missed due to absence, student
must notify instructor that day or the day after and arrange to have a makeup test on the next class day.
2. Regular class attendance is strongly encouraged; it correlates directly to
good grades at the end of the term. So does active class participation in
discussions. Students should keep up with the reading, come to class having
read the selection for the day, be ready to discuss and debate. Tardiness is
also strongly discouraged as it disrupts your fellow students. A sign-up sheet
will be passed around at each class meeting for students to register their
attendance. After 3 unexcused abscences, ½ point will be deducted from the
FINAL AVERAGE for each subsequent absence.
3. According to the UTSA Student Code of Conduct, “Scholastic dishonesty”
includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, falsifying
academic records, and any act designed to give unfair advantage to the
student (such as, but not limited to, submission of essentially the same
written assignment for two courses without the prior permission of the
instructor, providing false or misleading information in an effort to receive a
postponement or an extension on a test, quiz, or other assignment), or the
attempt to commit such an act. Students who are guilty of scholastic
dishonesty face penalties as outlined in the Code of Conduct.
5