AML 5027 Summer 2024 - Jaffe

This course is a deep dive into Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) and related literary and cultural materials from the post WWII period.

Rather than muddling through the entire intimidating collection of Theory’s -isms and sifting through an equally perplexing collection of proper names (Derrida, Foucault, Canguilhem, Cixous, etc.), we will selectively sample some of its most compelling texts, ideas, and questions, concentrating on a handful of its most compelling threads of inquiry about literature, about culture and about critical and interpretive practices. Along the way, we will delineate some useful maps of the issues and motives of literary and cultural theory that will expand the ways you read and think about literary, social, and cultural texts.

Requirements: This course satisfies the requirement for coursework in the following Areas of Concentration: Post-1900 Literary and Cultural Studies (American, British, or Irish); a Literary Genre (Fiction).