ENG 488 - Contemporary American Fiction

An advanced seminar in the theory and practice of reading fiction in the context of current history and cultural shifts, Contemporary American Fiction will explore what a story says in relation to how it works.

The seminar’s primary texts will include novels and short story collections, along with essays from Theory of the Novel and various other critical and ancillary texts. Possible authors include Anthony Doerr, Don Delillo, Junot Díaz, Jennifer Egan, Percival Everett, Tess Gunty, Laird Hunt, Daphne Kalotay, John Keene, Matthew Kirkpatrick, Hilary Leichter, Carmen Maria Machado, Jason Mott, Karen Russell, George Saunders, Rone Shavers, Amber Sparks, Elizabeth Strout, Luis Alberto Urrea, Colson Whitead, and Charles Yu.

For this course, a seminar paper or an extended work of original fiction will be required as a final project.

Satisfies the Historical Approaches requirement for the English major.
Satisfies Literary Studies and Rhetoric requirement.