The Middle Class in American Fiction 4219-SC0016
The course will discuss American fiction that depicts the middle class, starting with Realism and Naturalism (Wharton, Howells, Dreiser), through 20th century (Updike, Roth, Carver) to 21st century (Franzen, Saunders, Ng). The historical readings will be discussed in dialogue with the 21st century fiction in a comparative perspective. The readings will be a selection of short stories and novels (with one novel to read in full and present in groups). The theoretical framework of social class is based on sociological and economic readings (Veblen, Weber, Bourdieu, Giddens, Piketty) to give context to the changes in the condition and identification as the middle class that occurred in American society. We will reflect on literature’s reaction to those changes and the authors’ artistic choices in relation to the political, social and cultural circumstances of their era (Moretti, Kaplan, Jameson). There will also be historical and critical reflection on the middle class in the context race and on how much the idea of the middle class and American Dream is racialized (“Negroland” by Margo Jefferson, “Warmth of the Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson, “Passing” Nella Larsen).
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
1. KNOWLEDGE
- knows a number of American literary works about the middle class
- has comprehensive knowledge and understanding of selected facts and phenomena concerning the culture of the United States in the context of the middle class, as well as the and theories that explain them
- is aware of multiple social, political and artistic contexts of creating works literature and its reception
- has comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the social specificity of the United States and how multiculturalism and multi-nationality of its inhabitants condition thedynamics of social development and potential difficulties in such development
2. SKILLS
- is able to use critical tools concerning literary theory and social class
- is able to formulate critical arguments about literature about the middle class from different historical eras.
- is able to use a range of theoretical apparatuses in analyses of individual texts
3. SOCIAL COMPETENCES
- is aware of different literary forms and their statuses in American culture
- is open to new phenomena and ideas in American literary culture
- understands and appreciates the role of literature in the United States
Assessment criteria
Group work on a selected novel – 25%
Final test – 25%
Attendance and participation – 25%
Short responses on Kampus – 25%
Grading scale:
0-60 – 2
60-70 – 3
71-75 – 3,5
76-85 – 4
86-90 – 4,5
91-95 – 5
96-100 – 5!
Bibliography
- Selection of short stories – to be confirmed
- Novels (1 to pick)
Raymond Carver “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (1981)
Don DeLillo “White Noise” (1985)
Theodore Dreiser “Sister Carrie” (1900)
Jeffrey Eugenides “The Marriage Plot” (2011) / "Virgin Suicides" (1993)
Jonathan Franzen “Freedom” (2011)
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, “The Love Song of WEB DuBois” (2021)
Nella Larsen „Passing” (1929)
Celeste Ng “Little Fires Everywhere” (2017)
Philip Roth “Portnoy’s Complaint” (1969)
Jonathan Safran Foer “Here I Am” (2016)
Zadie Smith “On Beauty” (2005)
John Updike “Couples” (1968)
Edith Wharton “Age of Innocence” (1920)
Critical Readings (fragments)
Pierre Bourdieu “Distinction” (1979)
Fredrik Jameson “The Political Unconscious” (1981)
Margo Jefferson „Negroland” (2015)
Amy Kaplan „The Social Construction of American Realism” (1988)
Franco Moretti „Bourgeois” (2013)
Thomas Piketty “Capital in the 21st century” (2013)
Thorstein Verblen “The Theory of the Leisure Class” (1899)
Isabel Wilkerson „Warmth of the Other Suns” (2010)
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: