Contemporary Literature And Culture

This course seeks to investigate various fictional images of an oft-tumultuous contemporary world from the mid twentieth century to the present. The contemporary is multi-faceted and represents a truly cosmopolitan series of landscapes and contemporary authors are alert to the strains of contemporary music, influenced by film and television, conscious of the prevalence of visual imagery in society and are keenly aware of the mult-racial/religious natures of their cities and towns. In an age where traditional literary categories are being challenged and reshaped, where social values and cultural identities are being invented and reinvented, we will consider ways in which some of the most important writers of this generation are responding and how they, in turn, are shaping the contemporary.