Landmarks in Contemporary English and American Literatures
Master's Programme in English Studies: Professional Applications & Intercultural Communication
Academic staff
Course code:
70482115
Type:
Compulsory – Teaching and Research Itinerary (Module 2)
Approach to education
Blended-learning (25%)
Term
First
Classroom
Humanities Building II, classroom 12
Teaching period
1 – 22 December 2023
Teaching times
Wednesdays 18.45 – 21.00
Thursdays 18.45 – 21.00
Fridays 18.45 – 21.00
Teaching guide
Landmarks in Contemporary English and American Literatures
Description
The goal of this course is to examine some of the most relevant aspects of contemporary British and American literature, starting from the 1960s to the present day. It looks at landmark novels which will help us understand the complex literary and cultural changes undergone by these societies. The texts, of diverse nature, exemplify the cultural and social fragmentation of postmodernity, as well as social alienation and critique of the repressive state, as observed in A Clockwork Orange (1962), a dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess; the treatment of Vietnam War through the lens of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), an approach to science fiction which unveils the dialectics of war and its ensuing social consequences; or multiculturalism, pictured as an intergenerational culture shock in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake (2003), a Bengali-American writer, nowadays regarded as one of the best known examples of the hybridization process of America at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. Students will be requested to compare textual interpretations (through their readings and in-class discussion of the novels) and the use of the image offered by filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange, 1971) or Mira Nair (The Namesake, 2006).
The course is divided into three sections:
Section I – The British Novel since the 1960s
‣ The Repressive Role of the State: A Clockwork Orange (1962), by Anthony Burgess
Section II – American Fiction since the 1960s
‣ The Dialectics of Horror: Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), by Kurt Vonnegut
‣ The American Novel— From Philip Roth to Don DeLillo
Section III – American Multiculturalism and Its Reflection in Literature
‣ Multicultural Societies—East Meets West in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake (2003)
Landmarks in Contemporary English and American Literatures
