ENGL 052C. Contemporary US Fiction, 1990 to the Present

This course will focus on contemporary U.S. fiction published since 1990 or so. The reading list will feature global perspectives on the U.S. as well as new understandings of the U.S.'s past and present by U.S.-born authors. We'll explore the novels' formal inventiveness as well as their engagement with history, race, gender, and a variety of other social issues, including multi-racial single and family identities (and, by implication, how this may help the U.S. national narrative evolve away from white suprematism). Three of the readings will use the genre of "historical fiction" to reinterpret U.S. history, but all the texts rewrite the possibilities of personal, family, and national/transnational narratives.

A special feature of the course will be the celebration of Swarthmore alum Patricia Park, who will visit Swarthmore to read from and discuss her first novel. Entitled Re Jane, its heroine Jane Re is a mixed-race orphan on a quest to learn more about her family history. The novel is set in Queens, Brooklyn, and Korea, and is both a fun romantic comedy and a clever reimagining of the Jane Eyre plot.
GATEWAY English Literature.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for ESCH
Catalog chapter: English Literature

Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

Access the class schedule to search for sections.

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