The American Novel Since 1945
Published: Spring 2008
Description
In “The American Novel Since 1945” students will study a wide range of works from 1945 to the present. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel’s form, fiction’s engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O’Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones. The course concludes with a contemporary novel chosen by the students in the class.
Course Takeaways
- Get a snapshot view of where literature and reading stood during one of the most fraught periods in world history
Meet the Instructors
Alan E. Kazdin, PhD, ABPP is Sterling Professor of Psychology and Child Psychiatry at Yale University. At Yale, he has been Chairman of the Psychology Department, Director of the Child Study Center at the School of Medicine, and Chair of the Publications Committee of the Yale University Press. His 750+ publications include 49 books that focus on parenting and child rearing, psychosocial interventions, interpersonal violence, and research methodology. His parenting work has been featured on NPR, PBS, BBC, CNN, Good Morning America, 20/20, Dr. Phil, and the Today Show. In 2008, he was President of the American Psychological Association.
Full biography
