LT320-6-SP-CO:
Post-War(s) United States Fiction
2022/23
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
ReassessmentOnly
Monday 16 January 2023
Friday 24 March 2023
15
10 May 2021
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
This module explores disparate and changing treatments of American identity and purpose from the emergence from World War Two, through the era of the Vietnam War, and up to recent re-evaluations of history, applying a variety of critical approaches and considering crucial social, political and cultural contexts.
Broadly speaking, we follow a chronology of setting rather than publication date, allowing a fluid, intertextual picture of the United States to emerge, kicking off with work with the Second World War as the recurrent central image, sometimes portraying combat, but with its aftermath always in mind. The difficulties of return and re-assimilation into (or rejection from) the United States are explored from different perspectives: white middle-class, Native American, and African American. Moving on, fictional treatments of effects of the Vietnam War increasingly become concerned with America's perpetually 'post-war' state, with striking studies of this conflictexplored in work haunted not so much by the presence of great historical events but rather by absence and sense of loss. The module ends with more recent engagements with protest and terrorism, possible apocalypse,nd with the United States'attitudes towards itself, its history, its ongoing role in the world.
To enable students to study a range of post-1945 novels that examine the society and culture of the United States, with particular reference to the experiences and aftermaths of World War Two, the Vietnam War, and 9/11.
1. Knowledge of a range of U.S. novels exploring a variety of experiences in the post-1945 era
2. Consideration of important historical, social, and cultural contexts
3. Application of appropriate theoretical models to texts and contexts
4. Development of sophisticated written arguments relating to texts and contexts studied on the module
5. Engagement in debate and discussion on the texts and the topics they relate to
Essential Reading (in order of study)
Wk.16 Introduction; Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead
Wk.17 Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead
Wk.18 Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Wk.19 Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
Wk.20 Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress
Wk.21 Jayne Anne Phillips, Machine Dreams
Wk.22 Jayne Anne Phillips, Machine Dreams
Wk.23 Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country
Wk.24 Jarrett Kobek, ATTA
Wk.25 Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Anticipated teaching delivery for 2021-22: Weekly 2-hour seminar
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Comparative Essay (REASSESSMENT WITHOUT ATTENDANCE) |
|
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Owen Robinson, email: orobin@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Owen Robinson
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Doug Haynes
University of Sussex
Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
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