One of literature’s chief characteristics is its ability to think about itself and the culture and history it is a part of while simultaneously projecting an engaging narrative. When literature reflects on both itself and the surrounding culture, it becomes a particularly rich tool for literary critics and readers to engage history and, more importantly, the present socio-cultural landscape. This can be most glimpsed at in the simple question: how did we get here? The job of readers is to work within an explicit narrative in order to excavate the implicit cultural commentary. This self-reflective characteristic of literature couldn’t be more pronounced in American literature where authors have, not only reflected, but have critiqued, parodied, and even attacked the culture they are writing within. Whether in the quiet contemplation of Thoreau, or the vibrant rhetoric of Anzaldua; whether in the cut ups of Dos Passos representing the industrial revolution, or the parody of consumerism in Fight Club—American literature has regularly interrogated itself and the surrounding culture through both its form and content. In order to engage how literature thinks about itself and its culture as well as its historical moment our course will be split into themes accompanied by appropriate authors. The themes that follow are not the only ones imaginable. However, I’ve selected the themes I feel will help us answer the following questions: How is literature supporting and perpetuating a particular cultural project, such as, for example, nationalism? How is literature critiquing such projects and what forms do these critiques take? Basically, we want to examine how literature thinks and to do so we must carefully examine the reciprocal relationship between American literature and American culture.

Themes will be the following and will appear in this order: “Nation Building” (Benedict Anderson, Hector St. John De Crevecoeur, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Nathanial Hawthorne); “The Antebellum Period and Slavery” (Frederick Douglass, Octavia E. Butler), “Utopia/Dystopia” (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Nathaniel Hawthorne); “Reflections on America” (Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Gloria Anzaldua); “American Modernism and Postmodernism” (Herman Melville, John Dos Passos, Chester Himes, Hubert Selby Jr., Jack Kerouac, Pulp Fiction/Tarantino, Thomas Pynchon); “American Consumer Culture” (Bret Easton Ellis, Fight Club/Fincher/Palahniuk, Jean Baudrillard, Don DeLillo). While most of these texts appear in chronological order, we will not allow time to determine the trafficking of these texts. Therefore, I hope that we will be able to discuss, write, and think across these themes and period during the quarter.

Students will compose regular goposts on the course online forum and compose two 5-6 page papers. Students will also participate in group presentations correlating with the above themes.

*Texts and films might shift slightly between now and Fall quarter.

Texts:
Kindred, Octavia E. Butler
Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Bartleby, Herman Melville
If He Hollers Let Him Go, Chester Himes
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon

Films:
Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino
Fight Club, David Fincher/Chuck Palahniuk

Course Packet Materials:
Imagined Communities (excerpts), Benedict Anderson
“What is an American?,” Hector St. John De Crevecoeur
“Common Sense” (excerpt), Thomas Paine
“The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson
“My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” Frederick Douglass
“Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne
Walden (excerpt), Henry David Thoreau
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Walt Whitman
“A Supermarket in California,” Allen Ginsberg
Borderlands (excerpts), Gloria Anzaldua
The Big Money (excerpt), John Dos Passos
Last Exit to Brooklyn (excerpt), Hubert Selby Jr.
Underworld (excerpt), Don DeLillo
American Psycho (excerpt), Bret Easton Ellis
“Consumer Society,” Jean Baudrillard