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Contemporary American Novel

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Course title: Contemporary American Novel
Instructor: Dr. Sven Cvek, Dr. Hrvoje Tutek
ECTS credits: 6
Status: elective
Semester: 3rd and 5th or 4th and 6th
Enrollment requirements: enrollment in the 3rd and 5th or 4th and 6th semester

Goal
The course explores a number of novels which have been published since 9/11. The argument for targeting this body of texts derives from the notion that the contemporary or the “now” of the United States dates from this event. The course attempts to describe the form of the novel in contemporary US writing, the manner in which it reflects the present moment in US history and the way it engages the challenges of present reality.
Content
  1. Introduction
  2. Introduction to Pynchon
  3. The 1960s
  4. Inherent Vice, anticipation of the present
  5. 9/11
  6. Erickson, Shadowbahn
  7. Epistemological anxiety and US culture today
  8. McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
  9. Financialization
  10. DeLillo, Cosmopolis
  11. DeLillo, “Hammer and Sickle”
  12. New Regionalism and Annie Proulx
  13. Race/ethnicity, P. Beatty The Sellout
  14. Dystopia in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
  15. Conclusion
Obligatory literature
  1. Pynchon, Inherent Vice
  2. Erickson, Shadowbahn
  3. McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
  4. DeLillo, Cosmopolis
  5. DeLillo, “Hammer and Sickle”
  6. Proulx, “Tits Up in a Ditch”
  7. Beatty, The Sellout
  8. McCarthy, The Road
Additional literature
  1. Grgas, Američki studiji danas: identitet, capital, spacijalnost,
  2. Grgas, “Duge devedesete: prošlost koja još uvjek traje”
  3. Grgas, “THomas Pynchon na oštrici noža tehnologije i ekonomije”
  4. Grgas, “Postmodernity Grounded”
  5. Kumar, Amitava, “Wprld Bank Literature: A New Name for Post-colonila Studies”