LI 570—Modern and Contemporary American Novel                     

 

Dr. Harvey Hecht                                Grauel 314                Office Phone:  2500            E-mail:  hhecht@semo.edu          

 

 

In this class you will be expected to improve your understanding of modern and contemporary American novels:  their views of American culture, their techniques, and movements such as “post-modernism.”

 

Textbook:  Seven Contemporary Short Novels, Clerc and Leiter, eds, 3rd edition in Text Book Service.

You will need to buy the following, all available in paperback. 

 

Don DeLillo, White Noise

Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

Tim O’Brien, In the Lake of the Woods

Philip Roth, American Pastoral

 

Used copies are usually available on the web, at Amazon.com, for example:

               

University policy requires class attendance.  If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed or what changes might have been made in the syllabus.  Pop tests will not be made up; if you have a valid absence, the test will be x-ed (not count in your average).  Your low pop test score will be dropped.

  

A. Class Participation         50 pts                     D.  Pop Tests**                    10 each
B.  First Paper*                 100                             E.  Journals***                    50
C.  Second Paper*            100                            F. 2 Hour Exams               100 each

 

*You will be given guidelines for each paper.

 

**Pop tests are not made up; if you have a legitimate absence, a missed test will be x-ed (not count against you).  At the end of the semester the low pop test will be dropped.

 

***The journals will be submitted via the Drop Box option accessible from the link on the course web page.  One "page" (a “full screen,” single spaced), a week, starting the third week of classes. Entries will discuss and/or react to any reading or discussion from the class. The submissions for a given week must be filed by midnight Saturday evening to count for that week.  

 

CIVILITY:  You will adhere to University Policy on civility (See University Bulletin & Student Code of Conduct.  You will respect other class members & not intrude upon their right to an atmosphere conducive to learning.

You will turn off all cell phones and any other communication devices that could interrupt the class and keep distracting devices such as iPods, Palm Pilots, Blackberries and the like stored in your pocket or book bag.


I reserve the option to dismiss students from class for behavior that interferes with the students’ or the professor’s work in class.

 

REMEMBER--Any part of this or the reading assignments on the reverse may change at any time.  Any changes will be announced in class, of course; but it is your responsibility to keep up with any changes.  Questions???   ASK!!!

 

 

 

LI 570  Modern and Contemporary American Novel

 

January  20—Introduction

  22—History and development of the Novel

 

  27—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five*

 

February  9—Joseph Heller, Catch-22

             

   26— Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays

 

 

 March      12—First Examination

           

                  24—Philip Roth, American Pastoral

           

April            2—Tim O’Brien, In the Lake of the Woods
                    4—Paper One

                       

      14—Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye*                  

 

                  23—Don DeLillo, White Noise    

                  30—Paper Two    

         

May           14—10:00—Second Examination

 

*In Seven Contemporary Short Novels