English 134

Book List

Clevidence, Cody-Rose: Beast Feast; Coates, Ta-Nehisi: Between the World and Me; Gladman, Renee: Calamaties; Hayes, Terrance: American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin; Lerner, Ben: 10:04; Tei Yamashita, Karen: I Hotel

Other Readings and Media

Course Reader

Description

In this course we will look at examples of very recently published literary works across a range of genres. We’ll explore some of the many ways that writerly innovation is challenging aesthetic norms (including those of “the novel,” “the poem,” and “the essay”), psychosocial norms (who is “I”? where are “we”? what should we do?), and cultural expectations (what does literature do? what is reading for?). A central question will focus attention on the ways in which some key contemporary writers are experimenting with literary forms in the context of difficult issues. Some of the works are about difficulty, some of the works themselves constitute a kind of difficulty. The texts that we’ll be reading are dynamic, often vertiginous, sometimes quite weird, and always intriguing. In addition to the required books, readings will be available in a course reader and/or on bCourses.