ENGL 293 - Topics in American Literature

FDR: HL
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter, Spring
Credits: 3-4

Spring 2017, ENGL 293-01: Topics in American Literature: Business in American Literature (4). In his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith tells a powerful story of the free market as a way to organize our political and economic lives, a story that has governed much of the world ever since. This course studies that story, considers alternate stories of human economic organization, such as those of American Indian tribes, and sees how these stories have been acted out in American business and society. We study novels, films, short stories, non-fiction essays, autobiographies, advertisements, websites, some big corporations, and some local businesses in the Lexington area. Our goal is not to attack American business but to understand its characteristic strengths and weaknesses so we can make the best choices about how to live and work happily in a free market society. (HL) Smout.

Spring 2017, ENGL 293-02: Topics in American Literature: The American Short Story (4). Prerequisite: Completion of the FW requirement. Initially limited to First-Years. This course is a study of the evolution of the short story in America from its roots, both domestic and international, tracing the main branches of its development in the 20th century. We also explore more recent permutations of the genre, such as magical realism, new realism, and minimalism. Having gained an appreciation for the history and variety of this distinctly modern genre, we focus our attention on the work of two American masters of the form, contemporaries and erstwhile friends who frequently read and commented on each other’s work–Hemingway and Fitzgerald. We examine how they were influenced by their predecessors and by each other and how each helped to shape the genre. (HL) Oliver.

Winter 2017, ENGL 293A-01: Topics in American Literature: The Literature of the Beat Generation (3). A study of a particular movement, focusing on the ways in which cultural and historical context have influenced the composition of and response to literature in the United States. This course examines the writings of such authors as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Anne Waldman, Amiri Baraka, Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, and Gary Snyder, who wrote starting in the mid-1940s, continuing through later decades, and becoming loosely known as the Beat Generation. What cultural, literary, historical, and religious influences from the U.S. and other parts of the world have shaped their work? What challenges did their boldly different writings face, and how did their reception change over time? What are their themes? Their notions of style? What have they contributed to American (and world) life and letters? The goal of this course is to lay a strong foundation from which such questions can be richly addressed and answered. (HL) Ball.

Winter 2017, ENGL 293B-01: Topics in American Literature: Subverting Stereotypes: Modern Appalachian Literature (3). The stereotype of the Appalachian dweller—a dirty, lazy, ignorant, moonshining, feuding, but musical and comic fundamentalist—is so inaccurate one wonders how it was contrived, as well as why anyone would believe it. However, the residents of the Appalachian Mountains have long struggled to throw off the images foisted upon them in film and print. In this course we examine the counter-narratives presented by recent fiction writers and poets of the region in their effort to probe beyond the highlanders’ notorious peculiarities and reach the recognizably human mysteries—diversity, humor, spiritual conflict, divided loyalties—which complicate the nature and experiences of the native mountain people. Our reading includes work by the Appalachian poets, Charles Wright, Ann Pancake, Denise Giardina, Charles Frazier, Robert Morgan, Lynn Powell, Ron Rash and others, and we supplement the reading with films and music. Each student is required to keep a reading journal, make an oral presentation to the class, and write both a short paper and a longer, research-based paper, with an option to substitute creative work for the short paper. (HL) Smith.

Winter 2017, ENGL 293C-01: Topics in American Literature: American Gilded Ages (3). It’s become something of a commonplace that the beginning of the 21st century looks very much like a second Gilded Age. Thomas Piketty calls our current moment a second Belle Epoque in Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein joke on Portlandia that “The dream of the 1890s is alive in Portland,” and the Comedy Central series Another Period mines the first Gilded Age for laughs by depicting the Vanderbilt-like Bellacourt family in the reality-TV mode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians or the Real Housewives of Orange County. This course examines the connections between the literature, history, and popular culture of the late-19th and early-20th centuries and that of today. We consider muckraking texts, environmental writing, and the literary forms of naturalism and serialization to compare the cultural forms, historical contexts and political and social issues that resonate both today and at the turn of the previous century. Possible course texts include Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickle and Dimed, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife, and the HBO series The Wire. (HL) Bufkin.

Winter 2017, ENGL 293D-01: Topics in American Literature: Introduction to Literary Editing (3). An apprenticeship in editing for one or more students with the editor of Shenandoah, Washington and Lee’s nationally prominent literary magazine. This is a course for anyone interested in editing literary journals, writing for the literary community (blogs, news releases, two book reviews, features, business correspondence), and how both print and on-line journals operate. Often a stepping stone to a publication career, the course involves an introduction to the creation, design, and maintenance of WordPress web sites, as well as a survey of current magazines. The course also offers opportunities for students to practice generating and editing their own texts and those of their peers. Each student oversees one facet of the journal (Poem of the Week, blog, submissions management, contests, social media), and each makes a presentation to the class on the nature and practices of two other current literary journals. Students work in pairs toward an understanding of the role journals play in contemporary literature and engage in peer editing. (EXP) (HL) Smith.

Winter 2017, ENGL 293E-01: Topics in American Literature: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Fiction (3). This course studies trends in contemporary American fiction, and the current publishing industry, by focusing on recent winners of the Pulitzer Prize. We begin with an overview of the prize’s history and the judging process, before delving into novels, novellas, and story collections. Readings include Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, and the three nominees from 2012, when no winner was chosen: Johnson’s Train Dreams, Russell’s Swamplandia, and Wallace’s Pale King (excerpts). Students also read and write about three Pulitzer nominees from a year of their choosing. The class explores book review venues—newspapers, blogs, podcasts—and considers the current literary market, from self-publishing through major commercial publishers. (HL) Brodie.

Fall 2016, ENGL 293A-01:  Topics in American Literature:  Introduction to Literary Editing (3).  Prerequisite: Completion of the FW requirement. An apprenticeship in editing for one or more students with the editor of Shenandoah, Washington and Lee’s nationally prominent literary magazine.  This is a course for anyone interested in editing literary journals, writing for the literary community (blogs, news releases, two book reviews, features, business correspondence) and how both print and on-line journals operate.  Often a stepping stone to a publication career, the course involves an introduction to the creation, design, and maintenance of WordPress web sites, as well as a survey of current magazines.  The course also offers opportunities for each student to practice generating and editing texts they or their peers have written.  Each student oversees one facet of the journal (Poem of the Week, blog, submissions management, contests, social media), and each makes a presentation to the class on the nature and practices of two other current literary journals.  Students work in pairs toward an understanding of the role journals play in contemporary literature and engage in peer editing.  (HL) Smith.