Contemporary American Literature

English 432 offers a broad survey of US literatures, 1940-Present. With attention to writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Jack Kerouac, John Okada, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ralph Ellison, Art Spiegelman, and Leslie Marmon Silko, we shall consider artistic responses to WWII, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and political and social conflicts in the US. At the same time, discussions will encounter philosophical and cultural movements such as Modernism, Postmodernism, Feminism, and Postcolonial/Fourth World activism. This course meets the General Education Learning Outcome for Integral (Holistic) Education and Global Awareness. No prerequisites.