HL2030 Post 1945 American Literature & Culture

Through the interpretation and study of selected works of American literature and culture from 1945 to the present, we will consider the ways that writers respond to changes in the economic, political, and social conditions of the United States during the postmodern era. While some writers reassert long-standing themes such as the individual's quest for freedom defined against the constrictions of status-quo, domestic life (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Morrison, the Confessional Poets), others pose intellectual questions about language and meaning through metafictional innovation (Nabokov, Vonnegut, Barth) or confront national myths such as the American Dream (Dylan, Mamet) and the romance of the Western frontier (McCarthy). In an age where mass culture has replaced intellectual literacy, contemporary American authors ponder the place of the novelist in the world (DeLillo), reflect on the meaning of ethnic identity (Walker), and seek out a critical perspective from which to view the present