The Modern American Novel: An Introduction

Some of the most wonderful fiction in English is by American writers. In this course we shall study five key novels of the 20th century. by Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Silko, Morrison and Roth, that constitute contrasting interpretations of American experience in the modern age. We shall examine the representation of history, region and family conflict in William Faulkner's depiction of the poverty-stricken Deep South in As I Lay Dying (1930), in Leslie Marmon Silko's exploration of modern Pueblo Indian experience in Ceremony (1987) and in Toni Morrison's examination of slavery in Beloved (1987). We shall also analyse fictional accounts of personal aspiration and downfall that explore questions of individual and national identity in the modern age: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) and Philip Roth's American Pastoral (1998). Our studies will focus on the relationship between the literary techniques of these works and on their social and political concerns.