01 TTH8 CAC 35439 FERGUSON SC-119
This course is a study of American literature from the 19th century to the present. We will use the metaphor of the detective as a way of approaching our own reading and analytical thinking. As we follow characters and authors in their uncovering of various plots, we will also work towards uncovering and interpreting these texts’ secret themes. Weekly reading quizzes will help guide your reading and prepare you for class discussions aimed at developing your skills in careful thinking, reading, and writing about American fiction. Also, class discussions will offer the opportunity to practice critical thinking “on the fly,” as we examine each other’s own readings of texts and learn to make sense of these authors’ themes in a contemporary context. Finally, essays will allow you to develop an argument about the themes we will examine more carefully: the individual and society, success, liberty and choice.
Required Course Texts:
Edgar Allan Poe, Complete Tales & Poems,
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, Harper,
Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, Scribner,
Amanda Cross, Death in a Tenured Position
Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy
Michael Chabon, The Final Solution: A Story of Detection
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