Survey of Contemporary Literature

EN 4933/6933
Kelly Marsh
Fall 2008
Tue/Thur 9:30

In this study of contemporary European, American, and other literature, we will read

• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (1980) (Penguin) (India/England),
• The Handmaid’s Tale (1986) (Anchor) (Canada),
• The Commitments by Roddy Doyle (1987) (Penguin) (Ireland),
• The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (1992) (Vintage) (Canada),
• In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994) (Penguin) (D.R./U.S.),
• Plain and Normal by James Wilcox (1998) (Little, Brown) (U.S.),
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Harper Perennial) (1998) (India),
• Atonement by Ian McEwan (Anchor) (2001) (England),
• On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Penguin) (2005) (England),
• The Gathering by Anne Enright (Grove/Atlantic) (2007) (Ireland).

In addition to the reading, the requirements for this course are

• an annotated bibliography of critical material on one work,
• two exams,

and

• two ten-page research papers for undergraduates
• or one twenty-page research paper for graduate students.