ENGL 452

Spring 2024 All Classes

All Classes

The Postwar Era and Contemporary American Literature

SHOW FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

Credit: 3 OR 4 hours.

Examines American literature from the end of WWII to today, an era when U.S. society, politics, and culture came under pressure from such upheavals as the feminist movement, the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War, Vietnam, and the rise of neoliberalism--all of them occurring under the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation. While writers struggled with the changes and dangers of a nation and world in such unprecedented flux, the poetry, plays, fiction, memoirs, and films they produced in response to this new precariousness forged a fertile artistic moment, in popular literature that sustained previous traditions (in realism, science fiction, children's literature, and romance) and in an avant-garde opposed to all forms of social and literary conformity. Writers studied might include Gwendolyn Brooks, Thomas Pynchon, Amiri Baraka, David Foster Wallace, Toni Morrison, Tony Kushner, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Alice Walker.

3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.

My Favorites

My Schedule

Section Status updates every 10 minutes.

ENGL 452 class schedule data for spring 2024
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	32199	Lecture-Discussion	1G	9:00AM -9:50AM	MWF	44 English Building	Hutner, G	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/16/24-05/01/24 Credit: 4 hours Section Info: SP24 - ENGL 452 - Contemporary American Literature - Gordon Hutner - After a general introduction of the major directions in American literary history since World War II, this course will focus on the twenty-first century novel. Through a diverse selection of major exemplars, we will observe how fiction responded to the dizzying history of our time, from the presidential election of 2000, the attacks of 9/11, the War on Terror, the ever-worsening climate, economic downturns, political dissension, social division, gender recalibrations, racial hostilities, disease and pandemic, and the rise of the conspiratorial imagination. We will be reading a combination of extremely well-regarded contemporary novelists as well as newcomers who have already won prestigious awards. At the same time, our readings will be notable for the breadth of their inclusiveness and the variety of their aesthetic form. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
	32197	Lecture-Discussion	1U	9:00AM -9:50AM	MWF	44 English Building	Hutner, G	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/16/24-05/01/24 Credit: 3 hours Section Info: SP24 - ENGL 452 - Contemporary American Literature - Gordon Hutner - After a general introduction of the major directions in American literary history since World War II, this course will focus on the twenty-first century novel. Through a diverse selection of major exemplars, we will observe how fiction responded to the dizzying history of our time, from the presidential election of 2000, the attacks of 9/11, the War on Terror, the ever-worsening climate, economic downturns, political dissension, social division, gender recalibrations, racial hostilities, disease and pandemic, and the rise of the conspiratorial imagination. We will be reading a combination of extremely well-regarded contemporary novelists as well as newcomers who have already won prestigious awards. At the same time, our readings will be notable for the breadth of their inclusiveness and the variety of their aesthetic form. Restriction(s): Not intended for students with Freshman class standing. Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.