This module examines some key texts and issues in American writing and culture since the 1960s. It explores the way in which literary texts respond to Counter-cultural protest against 1950s conformity; how writers begin to develop the features of what we now recognise as postmodernism; how writers critique the consumer culture and commodity fetishism of late captitalism; and how African-American women writers bring the issues of multiculturalism and sexuality into the canon of American literature. It also looks at how a literary-historical period is constructed through a canon of 'classic' American texts by paying attention to the critical and popular reception of the novels published on the list.

1 x seminar presentation (10 minutes) [Learning Outcomes 1]
1 x essay (2500 words) [Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4]

The module is based on a series of lectures and seminars. Students will prepare a 10 minute paper for presentation to the seminar evaluating the relevance of two critical texts and raising issues for analysis and discussion. Students will complete a 2500 word essay on ONE text from the module, the title from a set list of questions.

Kenneth Millard, Contemporary American Fiction: An Introduction to American Fiction Since 1970 (Oxford UP, 2000)
Mark Currie, Postmodern Narrative Theory (Macmillan, 1998)
Frank Lentricchia, ed. New Essays on Don DeLillo's "White Noise" (Cambridge UP, 1991)

James Phelan, "Sethe's Choice: Beloved and the Ethics of Reading," Style 32.2 (1998): 318-33.