Prizing the Book: Book Prizes, the Literary Canon, and U.S. Culture
AMST 199
Fall 2014 not offered
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This course examines selected texts by U.S. winners of major literary prizes, including the Nobel, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer, and the Newbery. How important are these prizes in constructing a literary canon and criteria for judging literary value? What role do they play in reflecting and creating contemporary U.S. culture? In particular, we will read the individual award-winning texts for how they define, problematize, and resolve (if they do) peculiarly American concerns: race, American identity, the frontier and home, the burden of the past and the fear of the future, the new world and its relationship to the old world(s). |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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