Global Contemporary Fiction

Introduction: What is postmodern/contemporary/global American literature? How many are there?

• By Way of a Proposition: Way Chee Dimock, "Literature for the Planet," PMLA  116 (1) 2001: 173-188
• Writers on America—15 Reflections, U.S. State Department
• "Immigrant Fiction/'New American' Fiction -- Worthwhile Categories?" (NYT,  1 July 2014)

Of Mice and Men: Transitioning and Spying For World Peace

• Ha Jin,  A Map of Betrayal
• Arlif Dirlik, "Literary Identity/Cultural Identity: Being Chinese in the Contemporary World."
• Ha Jin, "The Art of Fiction," No. 202, Paris Review
• Ha, Jin. "Exiled to English." In Sinophone Studies: A Critical Reader, edited by Shu-mei Shih, Chien-hsin Tsai and Brian Bernards, 117-124. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
• Michael Wutz , "The Individual versus the State - A Conversation with Ha Jin," Weber, 31. vol. 2, Spring/Summer 2015, 4-16.
• Betrayal I _________________________________
• Betrayal II ________________________________

• Of Topical Interest:
  • Ian Buruma, Essays by Han Han, the Chinese Blogger and Media Superstar (NYT, 1 Sept 2016)
  • Michiko Kakutani, Le Carré, The Con Man's Son: Writer, Liar, Survivor, Spy (NYT, 1 Sept 2016)

Radicalism Abroad & Nation Building: Naxalism, Ecology, and the Burden of Migration

• Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
• Hurst Artist in Residence, Fall 2016, Cristina (27 Sept 2016), 5:30-7:30 TBA
• JL official site, including interviews and Readers' Guide
• The Anthropocene I,II,III
• Dipesh Chakrabarty, "The Climate of History: Four Theses," New Literary History 35, 2 (2009): 197-222.
• Postcolonial Studies and the Challenge of Climate Change," New Literary History 43, 1 (2012): 1-18.
• Reviews of The Lowland I, II, III, IV
• Michael Pollan, "The Intelligent Plant," The New Yorker, 23 Dec 2013
• Reviews of Other Words I, II(February 2015)
• The Lowland- Focus Questions
• Mira Nair, The Namesake (2007, film screening, time permitting)
• Lowland I ________________________________
• Lowland II ________________________________

• Of Topical Interest:
  • Why Do So Many Contemporary American Writers Send their Characters Abroad?

Radicalism at Home & Nation Building: Weather Underground and the Burden of History

• Russell Banks, The Darling
• Weather Underground
• Evan Carton, "White Boy (American Hunger) and the Angel of History: Russell Banks's Identity Knowledge, "American Literary History, 27 (4), 2015: 741-767.
• Russell Banks, H & I, The 2004 PEN/Hemingway Prize Speech, Agni 60
• Robert Birnbaum, Identity Theory Interview with Russell Banks, on The Darling
• Darling I _______________________________
• Darling II _______________________________

Fluid Capital - Fluid Borders? American Literature with Enormous Wings

• Karen Tei Yamashita, Tropic of Orange
• Kandice Chuh, "Of Hemispheres and Other Spheres: Navigating Karen Tei Yamashita's Literary World," ALH 18 (3), 2006: 618-637.
• Min Hyuong Song, "Becoming Planetary," ALH 23 (3), 2011: 555-573.
• Film screening: Edward Burtynsky, Manufactured Landscapes I, II(selections TBA)
• Orange I ________________________________
• Orange II ________________________________

• Of Topical Interest:
  • Coke & Orange Juice :)
  • Man Booker Prize Goes to American for First Time - Paul Beatty
  • Lucia Perillo, Poet Whose Illness Shaped Her Poetry, Dies at 58

Historical Caesura and the American Trauma

• Don DeLillo, Falling Man
• "After the Unthinkable: How 9/11 changed fiction, "The Economist, 2 Sept 2011
• Richard Drew's 9/11 Photography, The Falling Man
• YouTube, 9/11 Falling Man Documentary
• Jim Junod,  "The Falling Man," Esquire, 9/2003
• Ann Keniston and Jeanne Follansbee Quinn, Ed.,Literature After 9/11 (selections TBA)
• "Intensity of a Plot," Interview with Don DeLillo, Guernica, 17 July 2007
• Man I ___________________________
• Man II __________________________

• Of Topical Interest:
  • Ha Jin, The Boat Rocker (2016)
  • James Welch: Five Fast Fact You Need to Know, Google: James Welch's 76th Birthday

Literature, Genetics, Cognition, and Everything Else

• Richard Powers, Generosity and select essays/interviews in CALPAL
• Cognitive Science I, Cognitive Science II
• Marco Roth, The Rise of the Neuronovel," n+1, 8, Fall 2009
• James Wood, "Brain Drain - The Scientific Fictions of Richard Powers, "The New Yorker, 5 Oct 2009
• Joseph Carroll, "Biology and Poststructuralism"
• Joseph Caroll, "The Deep Structure of Literary Representations"
• Andrew Niccol, Gattaca, or Gilles Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers (TBA, time permitting)
• Richard Powers, "How to Speak a Book," NYT, 7 Jan 08
• Generosity I ___________________________
• Generosity II __________________________

• Of Topical Interest:
  • What's Wrong With Literary Studies?