Proseminar/Blockseminar "The Great American Novel"

When Time magazine celebrated the publication of Jonathan Franzen’s fourth book Freedom  in August 2010, the mid-western author was featured on the cover alongside the headline “Great American Novelist.” In the feature, book critic Lev Grossman asserted that instead of exploring subcultures, individual voices, and specific ethnic communities, Freedom combines the quintessential qualities of a Great American Novel: “Instead of subcultures, it’s about the culture,” he wrote enthusiastically (Time 2010). Born in the wake of the Civil War and dismissed by many critics of the mid-twentieth century as an anachronistic pipe dream, this concept of the Great American Novel indeed remains, as the Time vividly illustrates, alive until today. Grossman’s article is echoed by blogs and online lists that offer “top ten lists” and debate whether the Great American Novel still exists, whether it really existed in the first place and what books can be considered a “G.A.N.,” as Henry James first nicknamed the literary category.

This course traces the formal and thematic developments of the G.A.N. and focuses on its engagement with American history and identity. A principle goal of this class is to practice and advance the skills acquired in the introductory course to literary studies. In order to do so, we will analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Phillip Roth’s American Pastoral. In an exemplary fashion, these three books will be looked at as historical imprints of the G.A.N., from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to its heydays, its alleged ends, and afterlife at the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. We will consider the books’ contemporary environments (literary, geographical, political, etc.) and will critically discuss the public and academic discourses that have followed their publications up until today.

Please note: This seminar is designed as a compact seminar and will take place during the last week of March. Class starts on March 27 and will end on April 1. We will meet daily from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. (including coffee and lunch breaks). Please make sure to purchase and read the following texts before the first session of class:

The Scarlet Letter, A Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne (ISBN-10: 1512090565)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (ISBN-10: 0241965675)

American Pastoral by Phillip Roth (ISBN-10: 0099771810)

Further details on the schedule of this class will be announced on our course homepage (via OPAL). Please register for this class on OPAL no later than January 31.