American Fiction: The 20th Century

In this subject, students study a range of major works of American fiction from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries identifying and tracing the different genres and themes that occur over the century and that seem important to American writers. The list is not definitive but includes such ideas as the role of the writer and fiction, the problems of gender, sexuality, class and race but also war, consumerism, surveillance and authority, the environment and technology. Drawing on class discussions and the critical and theoretical articles they read in class they develop their own essay topics.