Modern American literature: writing the South
E Barry
8 points * 2 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton
This subject will examine the nature of the myth-making process in both serious and popular fiction of the American Southern states. It will look at a range of traditional literary modes and voices - historical romance, dialect comedy, slave narratives, folk-tale, `Southern grotesque' - and some of the ways in which these are currently being reshaped. In particular it will explore the writing of two social groups - women and blacks - whose identity was most often subsumed into stereotype and whose emergence from invisibility has contributed greatly to the strength of contemporary American literature.
Assessment
Seminar paper (15 minutes): 20% * Essay (1500 words): 20% * Essay (3000 words): 40% * Seminar participation: 20%
Prescribed texts
Abbott D and Koppelman S (eds) The Signet classic book of Southern short stories
Baldwin J Notes of a native son Dell
Chopin K The awakening Signet
Faulkner W The sound and the fury Penguin
Hurston Z N Their eyes were watching God Virago
Jacobs H Incidents in the life of a slave girl, written by herself Harvard UP
MacCarthy C All the pretty horses Picador
Morrison T Beloved Pan
O'Connor F Everything that rises must converge Penguin
Stowe H B Uncle Tom's cabin Signet
Twain M Pudd'nhead Wilson Penguin
Preliminary reading
Cash W J The mind of the South
Morrison T Playing in the dark Harvard UP
Van Deburg W Slavery and race in American culture