Prizing the Book: Book Prizes, the Literary Canon, and U.S. Culture
AMST 199
Spring 2015
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01
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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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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 | | Special Attributes: FYS |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury
Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Morrison, Tar Baby
McCarthy, The Road
Doctorow, Ragtime
Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying
Sontag, In America
Frazier, Cold Mountain
Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
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Examinations and Assignments:
Short assignments, two essays, an in-class midterm, and take home final. One in-class presentation. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
faithful attendance and engaged participation. |
| Instructor(s): Karamcheti,Indira Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: CAMS 1; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 3 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: 15 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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