Contemporary American Studies
Fall 2007
Tentative list of materials
to be studied
I.
Summer Unit and
Introduction to the Course (Pre-WWII, American Dream, Role of Literature)
a.
The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)
b.
Other Introductory
Readings
II.
African-American
Identity in America (Identity, Blues and Jazz, Civil Rights)
a.
“The Uses of the
Blues,” “Autobiographical Notes,” and “Many Thousands Gone” (James Baldwin)
b.
Invisible Man
(Ralph Ellison)
c.
“The Art of John
Coltrane and Ralph Ellison” (Derek Wright)
d.
Music from John
Coltrane and other Blues and Jazz artists
e.
A Raisin in the Sun (
III.
American Life in
the ‘50s and Beyond (Post-War Reaction, American Family Life, McCarthyism,
Build Up to Vietnam War)
a.
Twilight Zone
b.
I Love Lucy
c.
Excerpt from Make Room for TV: Television and the Family
Ideal in Postwar
d.
“The Things They
Carried” (Tim O’Brien)
IV.
America Grows Up
(AIDS and homosexuality, the Rise of MTV, Terrorism)
a.
Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches (Tony Kushner)
b.
Angels in America (The Film)
c.
Romeo and Juliet (The Film)
V.
Race and Identity
in Today’s
a.
Poetry from Nikki
Giovanni
b.
American History X
c.
Music from the
Rap/Hip-Hop Revolution
d.
Excerpts from Hip Hop Matters (S. Craig Watkins) and
other texts
e.
A Time
to Kill