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)
Linda Hutcheon, A Poetics of Postmodernism (Routledge, 1988)
Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction (Routledge, 1987)
Jill Matus, Toni Morrison (MUP, 1998)
Dix, Jarvis and Jenner, The Contemporary American Novel in Context (Continuum, 2011)
Tim Engles, "'Who Are You, Literally?' Fantasies of the White Self in White Noise," Modern Fiction
Studies 45.3 (1999): 755-87.
James Phelan, "Sethe's Choice: Beloved and the Ethics of Reading," Style 32.2 (1998): 318-33.

Semester 1 Assessment:
1 x seminar presentation (10 minutes) [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 5] 20%
1 x critical analysis (1500 words) [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 5 ] 20%

Semester 2 Assessment:
1 x essay (1500 words) [Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4] 60%

Key Information Set Data:
80% Coursework
20% Practical Exam

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.

Primary texts might include:
Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho (1991)
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (1977)
Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses (1992)
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1993)
Don DeLillo, Falling Man (2007)

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.

Key Information Set Data:
16% Scheduled Teaching and Learning Activity
84% Guided Independent Study

Library holdings; OHP; VCR; DVD

1. EVALUATE CURRENT CRITICAL DEBATES ON AT LEAST TWO TEXT AND OFFER AN INFORMED ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUES THROUGH ORAL, VISUAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Communication
Analysis

2. DEVELOP AN ACCURATE AND SUSTAINED CLOSE READING OF AT LEAST TWO TEXTS IN ESSAY FORM Enquiry

3. DEVELOP METHODS FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION IN AT LEAST TWO TEXTS BY CRITICALLY ANALYZING SPECIFIC HISTORICAL CONTEXTS AND CRITICAL THEORETICAL APPROACHES Problem Solving

4. DEVELOP A WELL-INFORMED, CONCEPTUALLY RIGOROUS, AND REFLECTIVE LITERARY ARGUMENT ON AT LEAST TWO TEXTS IN ESSAY FORM
Cultural Enquiry

5. DEVELOP SKILLS OF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
Reflection