Prof.dr. Rodica MihailaTITLE OF COURSE: Contemporary American Literature – since 19452nd YEAR American Studies A ; 3rd YEAR English B (American literature and culture)- Spring Semester 2012

READING LIST (Underlined titles are mandatory)

FICTION

Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (Prologue, Chapter 1)* (optional for 3rd Year B)Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (“The Life You Save May Be Your Own)* (optional)Saul Bellow, One of the following: Seize the Day*; Humboldt’s Gift, Henderson the Rain KingNorman Mailer, Armies of the Night (Part I: 5,6)*; The Gospel According to the Son (Optional)John Updike, “Separating”*; One of the Rabbit novels (optional)John Barth, The Floating Opera . Lost in the Fun House (Life Story)* -optional Thomas Pynchon, “ Entropy”*, Crying of Lot 49 (optional)Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five - John Irving, The World According to Garp (optional)Raymond Carver, Cathedral (“A Small, Good Thing”) in Heath Anthology Toni Morrison, One of the following novels: Beloved, Song of Solomon, Sula. Anne Tyler, Accidental Tourist (optional) Amy Tan. The Joy Luck Club (“Two Kinds”*) Leslie Marmon Silko, “Lullaby”* ; Ceremony (optional) Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine or Track (optional) Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera (chapter 3, chapter 7) in Heath Anthology Don De Lillo. Mao II (optional only for 3rd year B) Cormac McCarthy. The Road Jonathan Franzen, Corrections (Optional) Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Optional)* To be found in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol.2 (Nina Baym et al, eds.)

POETRY* Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour ; Robert Frost; For the Union Dead; Gwendolyn Brooks, A Song in the Front Yard; kitchenette building ; The Leaders Sylvia Plath, Blackberrying; The Applicant; Lady Lazarus; Ariel; Daddy Allen Ginsberg, Howl (I); A Supermarket in California Robert Bly, Afternoon Sleep; Come with Me; Poem in ThreeParts.(optional) W.S.Merwin, The Drunk in the Furnace; The Last One (optional)John Ashbery, Paradoxes and Oxymorons; Introduction. Adrienne Rich, Snapshots of a Daughter-in Law; Twenty-One Love Poems (XI, XVIII) ; Diving into

the Wreck;The Roofwalker(optional)* All poems to be found in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol.2, The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry

DRAMATennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire* – in Norton Anthology Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman* (in Norton) (optional) Edward Albee, The Sand Box (in Heath Anthology) (optional) David Mamet, House of Games (in Norton) (optional only for 3 rd year B)

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