English 429.01 (Moscow) and 429.02 (Couer d'Alene via videoconference)  Contemporary Fiction         Fall 2016
Dr. Stephan Flores (sflores@uidaho.edu)                                                      
2:00 pm -3:15 pm TR Niccols 208 (Moscow) / HC 128 (CdA)                                                                      
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~sflores/                                                  Main office of Department of English: 885-6156

Office hours: W 2:30pm-4:00 p.m. & by appt.                                             Office: Brink 125

Prerequisite: English 102 or equivalent, and pre-or-co-requisite of Engl 175, or 257, or 258; English majors must in addition have completed Engl 215, or enroll by permission of instructor.

Course Description:

This course explores diverse cultural and historical perspectives and narrative techniques/styles in Post-45 fiction—what Amy Hungerford describes with provocation “as the period formerly known as contemporary.”  As specified in our department’s curriculum, Engl 429 focuses on British and/or American writers.

The primary texts for our class include Anglo and Irish novelists whose work is set in England and Ireland and novels and short stories by American writers—these works engage with a substantive range of identities, desires, and contested relations, inflected by class/status, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity, and conditioned by politics and culture, including the traumas of slavery and its legacies, post-9/11 strife, and a narrative of traumatic sexual abuse in a young Irish girl’s adolescence—throughout these subjects our interest and attention shall be engaged (concurrently) with the forms and styles of representation—of narrative structure, technique, voices, and language/diction/imagery. In part, that is, how does narrative contemporary fiction work and what work does it do? I plan to include some excerpts from other key works along with short fiction from post-1945 to the early 80s, including several 'classic' instances of experimental/"metafiction"; our main novels and short fiction, however, date from 1989-2013.

Along the way, we shall take up such questions as “do Post-45 fictions signal departures from the ethos and stylistic (earlier) qualities of modernism—and we’ll explore definitions of that term—or do works prominently studied/taught and produced in both the university and in the larger “literary” culture demonstrate the triumph of modernist aesthetics? As Wendy Steiner has argued, we surel (?) have moved beyond the early tendency in some critical quarters to split contemporary fiction between postmodern avant-garde sensibilities as defined and defended in opposition to ostensibly (naïve) realist novels of social urgency (particularly by women writers and people of color/minority ethnicities). Yet as Hungerford argues, the question remains whether post-1989 fictions, for example, display the historical marks of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War, and whether they usher us into pluralism and/or rather sectarian strife. What are the contours, achievements, and limits of narrative and language in Post-45 fiction? What do we enjoy and find compelling in these fictions and why? To what extent do "postmodern" narrative, and poststructural as well as "post-classical" (narrative) theories mark the limits of how narratives operate, what they can achieve, and to what extent they (always?) are caught up in the question of their own status or conditions of being--caught up/in, that is, the problems of representation and performative action and self/meta-referentiality? So, we'll talk about and explore, necessarily, both what these fictions are "about" and how they may be bound up, situtated culturally and historically, and at the same time, or by turns, we shall return repeatedly to keeping in view and in question how literature, or fiction "itself" and narrative "itself" are the subjects of our inquiry and questions.

Written work includes near weekly Inquiry-Starter entries (200 words each) posted on Bblearn, near weekly Discussion Starters (a claim and a question, to get us going), a Critical Analysis (4-5 pages), a Critical Essay (5-7 pages), and a Term Essay (10-12 pages--this Term Essay can extend prior work from the Critical Analysis or the Critical Essay, or it may be about a new topic and work of fiction). Our studies and your writing include substantial engagement with scholarly essays on some of the primary texts and on contemporary literature, including related topics and cultural/historical contexts of these fictions. 

Determining a list of primary texts is wonderful and tough, with some earlier or other “key” works and possibilities bypassed in order to include recent works, except for some mention in lectures and via excerpts some works are left out because of their length, and some were left out because you are likely to encounter them in other courses (among American novels, such great works as Housekeeping or The Round House, or earlier work such as Richard Wright's Black Boy, Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye or Song of Solomon, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or among 'English' novels such works as Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture, J.M. Coetzee's Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II, or his most? acclaimed novel Disgrace, Martin Amis's Money: A Suicide Note, Jonathan Coe's The Winshaw Legacy: Or, What a Carve Up!, or Zadie Smith's richly sharp novel White Teeth). For longer chronologies, see for example the Guardian's list of The 100 Best Novels Written in English or The Telegraph's Twelve of the Best New Novelists or the BBC's The 100 Greatest British Novels.

The quote that follows serves as a general guiding premise/claim for the course and its outcomes (also see expected learning outcomes noted further below, following the semester schedule): Literature provides us with a way of understanding how our social life works. Human social life consists of narratives for living, with ‘narratives’ being understood here as an actual life experience spread over time and guided by cultural stories that justify it to participants. Both the cultural and real-world narrative can change; both use frames to exclude norm-dissonant perspectives and values and to ensure that the meanings that support the continuity and homogeneity of the lived process are stable, predictable, and enforced. Who tells the stories in the culture thus largely shapes how that cultural world will be organized. Stories are what people believe and how they believe, and how people believe determines how they act and how they live. Stories can change how people think, perceive, believe, and act. The analysis of the work they perform is thus an important endeavor. And that is what criticism is all about. (An Introduction to Criticism: Literature/Film/Culture--Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)

Broader contexts for desired course outcomes are situated within the department's goals for the English major and the university's learning outcomes. In addition, as the course progresses, see further below learning outcomes specific to this course and level.

Required primary texts (each highly acclaimed--see weblinks for further information)--these editions seem to be the most widely available, and unfortunately, with different pagination for the 'later' edition of the novel by McBride. If you have any edition, we can work around the pagination differences.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day (orig. 1989)--Pbk. 245 pp. (Vintage International,1990); ISBN-10: 0679731725 or ISBN-13: 978-0679731726
Roth, Philip. The Human Stain (orig. 2000) Pbk: 361 pages (Vintage International, 2001); ISBN-10: 0375726349 or ISBN-13: 978-0375726347
Jones, Edward P. The Known World (orig. 2003) Pbk: 432 pages (Amistad; Later Printing, 2006); ISBN-10: 0061159174 or ISBN-13: 978-0061159176
Amy Waldman, The Submission (orig. 2011) Pbk: 352 pages, (Picador; Reprint edition, 2012) ISBN-10: 1250007577 or ISBN-13: 978-1250007575
McBride, Eimear. A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing (orig. 2013) Pbk: 240 pages; Hogarth (2015); ISBN-10: 1101903430 or ISBN-13: 978-1101903438

Optional primary texts, however the selections from Proulx and Saunders will be provided so no real need to purchase these:

Proulx, Annie. Four short story selections from Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999). These selected stories--"The Half-Skinned Steer"; "The Mud Below"; "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World"; "Brokeback Mountain"--are available in PDFs in Bblearn.

Saunders, George. [several selected stories in PDFs from] Tenth of December: Stories (2013), including "Escape from Spiderhead"

Other primary and secondary works (scholarly articles/book chapters) available in PDF documents in folders on the course Bblearn site.

See this weblink for list of selected pieces on postmodernism/theory/narrative theory, available as PDFs in a folder on Bblearn.

See this weblink for list of selected resources on post-1945 Britain and U.K., available as PDFs in folder on Bblearn

I’ll also include a substanial collection of other short fiction on Bblearn (PDFs) that you can peruse and we’ll choose a few to discuss in class [if we have time!] Such as follows (these Post-45 stories will be an additional resource/archive for your information/interests)--I'll also include two or three pre-45 stories (by Sherwood Anderson and Katherine Mansfield) in the Bblearn folders:


J.D. Salinger, "For Esmé--with Love and Squalor" (1948)
Bernard Malamud, "Angel Levine" (1950)
John Cheever, "The Enormous Radio" (1953)--we'll touch on this the first day of class--also listen to the story ahead of class: Nathan Englander Reads John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio”
Vladimir Nabokov, "Signs and Symbols" (1958)
John Cheever, "The Death of Justina" (1960)--[we'll touch on this on the first day of class]
John Cheever, "The Swimmer" (1964)--[we'll discuss this the first day of class]
Doris Lessing, "A Woman on a Roof" (1963) [this and "To Room Nineteen" (1963)are 'illegal' because she's not "British" (or American—just listed because they are such great stories)]
Barth, John. [selections from Lost in the Funhouse (1968), such as his preface plus
“Frame-tale”
“Night-sea journey”
“Ambrose, his mark”
“Autobiography”
“Lost in the funhouse”
“Life-story”
 “Menelaiad
William Gass, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country: And Other Stories (1968) preface, the title story plus “The Pederson Kid” and "Order of Insects"
John Updike, "Museums and Women" (1972)
Selections from Superfiction, or The American Story Transformed: An Anthology (1975) including:
Robert Coover – “The Elevator”[originally pub. in Pricksongs and Descants, 1969]
Thomas Pynchon – “In Which Esther Gets a Nose Job” ( from the novel V)
Robley Wilson, Jr. – “Saying Good-Bye to the President”
Donald Barthelme – “Sentence”; also Barthelme's "Me and Miss Mandible"; "The Balloon"; "The Farewell"
Gilbert Sorrentino – “The Moon in Its Flight”
 Ronald Sukenick – “What's Your Story”
 Apple, Max. “Vegetable Love” from The Oranging of America, and the title story (1976)
Jayne Anne Phillips, "El Paso" (1979)
John Shirley and William Gibson, “The Belonging Kind” (1981; reprinted in Gibson’s Burning Chrome, 1986)
Ann Beattie, "Snow" (1983)--[we'll dicuss this on the first day of class]
Richard Ford, "Great Falls" (1983)
Sue Miller, "The Lover of Women" (1986)
Sue Miller, "The Quality of Life" (1986)
Louise Erdrich, "Matchimanito" (1988)
Charles Baxter, "The Disappeared" (1990)
Denis Johnson, "Emergency" (1992)
Edward P. Jones, "A New Man" (1993)
Cornelia Nixon, "The Women Come and Go" (1993)
Padgett Powell "Trick Or Treat" (1993)
Alison Baker, "Loving Wanda Beaver" (1994)
John Clayton, "Talking to Charlie" (1994)
Bernard Cooper, Truth Serum" (1994)
Richard Ford, "Privacy" (1996)
Millhauser, Steven. "The New Automaton Theater" (1998)
Proulx, Annie. [as noted above, perhaps up to four short story selections from Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999)
A. J. Kennedy, "Not Anything to Do with Love" (2002)
Jill McCorkle, "Intervention" (2003)
Annie Proulx, "What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?" (2003)
Jhumpa Lahiri, "Hell-Heaven" (2004)
Percival Everett, "The Fix" (2004)
Steven Millhauser, "In the Reign of Harad IV" (2006)
Stephan Powell Watts, “Unassigned Territory” (2007)
Joshua Ferris, "The Dinner Party" (2008)
Elizabeth Strout, "Pharmacy" (2008)
Dorothy Allison, "Jason Who Will Be Famous" (2009)
Lydia Davis, "Break It Down" (2009)
Caitlin Horrocks, "The Sleep" (2010)
Steven Millhauser, "Phantoms" (2010)
Danzy Senna, "Admission" (2011)
Christine Grillo, "Legendary and Non-Evolving" (2012)
Janet Peery, "No Boy at All" (2013)
George Saunders [as noted above, several selected stories in PDFs from] Tenth of December: Stories (2013)--this superb collection includes Victory Lap" (The New Yorker, 2009); "Sticks" (Harper's, 1995); "Puppy" (The New Yorker, 2007); "Escape from Spiderhead" (The New Yorker, 2010); "Exhortation" (part of "Four Institutional Monologues" from McSweeney's #4, 2000); "Al Roosten" (The New Yorker, 2009); "The Semplica Girl Diaries" (The New Yorker, 2012); "Home" (The New Yorker, 2011); "My Chivalric Fiasco" (Harper's, 2011); "Tenth of December" (The New Yorker, 2011)--if you are at all interested in short fiction, I encourage you to buy Saunders' book/collection.
Nafissa Thompson-Spires, “Heads of the Colored People: Four Fancy Sketches, Two Chalk Outlines, and No Apology” (2015)
J. Duncan Wiley, "Inclusions" (2015)
Joy Williams, "Chicken Hill" (2015)

This weblink to a selection from The New Yorker Fiction Podcasts, as well as weblink to the New Yorker's main fiction podcast site.

Check out short fiction by these selected writers online:

Tessa Hadley, "Dido's Lament"(August 8 & 15, 2016 issue of The New Yorker)--also see her other fiction in The New Yorker

Aimee Bender:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/contributors/aimee-bender

http://www.nerve.com/fiction/benderaimee/onasaturdayafternoon

http://www.stylist.co.uk/books/the-meeting-by-aimee-bender

http://www.missourireview.com/anthology/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/theremembererwithmaterials.pdf

Judy Budnitz:

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/budnitz-leap.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/guilt-a-short-story-by-judy-budnitz-1.267599

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/books/review/nice-big-american-baby-absolutely-fabulist.html

Lydia Davis:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/07/lydia-daviss-very-short-stories/372286/

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/06/299053017/lydia-davis-new-collection-has-stories-shorter-than-this-headline

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/t-magazine/entertainment/lydia-davis-aesop-paris-review.html?_r=0

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/17/long-story-short

A. M. Homes:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/07/zoo-story-am-homes-womens-prize-fiction

http://www.salon.com/2002/09/05/homes_4/

http://www.barcelonareview.com/eng/eng44.htm

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/03/02/brother-on-sunday

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/01/am-homes-short-story-rain

A couple pieces of earlier fiction:

Sherwood Anderson, "I Want to Know Why" (1918; see also recent film version )

Katherine Mansfield, "The Garden Party" (1922)

Login to Bblearn before our first class meeting by using your UIDAHO NetID. You can update your password at http://help.uidaho.edu/. If you haven't already, setup your NetID at www.vandalsetup.uidaho.edu. If you continue to experience problems accessing BbLearn after changing your password, please contact the ITS Help Desk by email helpdesk@uidaho.edu, or phone (208)885-HELP.
Student Help using BbLearn

Requirements:

1. Fourteen written Inquiry Starters: a thesis/problem-driven analytical response (approximately 200 words each) informed by some aspect of the text under discussion (for the assigned reading for that Tuesday or week) as well as any assigned criticism/commentary--see two examples for Inquiry Starters via this weblink). Inquiry Starters present a means for you and the class to share close critical analysis, enthusiasms and questions as you delve into the text’s significance, methods, and effects, and to learn from others' comments (a version of Graff's "They Say, I Say" exchange, see Bblearn). No late entries —Inquiry Starters are due/posted on the Bblearn discussion thread (see left side menu on Bblearn, click on that, then find appropriate thread for each IS, and post an entry and provide a "title" for your entry) before class (by 1:00 pm on the near weekly due date--due before almost every Tuesday's class). ISs posted after 1pm but before class will be docked/reduced by one point; each IS entry posted after (or during!) class will lose four points--that is, your semester point total will be reduced by four points for each late or missing Inquiry-Starter entry. Come to class prepared to talk about your ISs/ideas; at times we'll spotlight individual ISs, using the projector to introduce the ISs via Bblearn to facilitate discussion, so keep in mind that you may be called upon in class to comment further upon your IS. Remember: Missing or late inquiry-starter entries will be counted against your semester grade, and if your grades are on a borderline between grade ranges then missing even one entry may reduce your semester grade (see below).

2. Fourteen written Discussion Starters posted on Bblearn, due on Bblearn by 1pm each Thursday: at minimum, write one sentence of commentary on some aspect of the assigned reading for each Thursday, and also pose a Discussion Starter question. No late entries —Discussion Starters are due/posted on the Bblearn discussion thread (see left side menu on Bblearn, click on that, then find appropriate thread for each DS, and post an entry and provide a "title" for your entry) before class: by 1:00 pm on the near weekly due date--due before almost every Thursday's class. DSs posted after 1pm but before class will be docked/reduced by one point; each IS entry posted after (or during!) class will lose two points--that is, your semester point total will be reduced by two points for each late or missing Discussion-Starter entry. Come to class prepared to talk about your DSs/ideas; at times we'll spotlight individual DSs, using the projector to introduce the entries via Bblearn to facilitate discussion, so keep in mind that you may be called upon in class to comment further upon your DS. Remember: Missing or late Discussion-Starter entries will be counted against your semester point total.

3. A Critical Analysis on either The Remains of the Day or The Human Stain (4-5 pages, 12 pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, due by noon on Monday 3 October, hard copy in my mailbox in Brink 200 (for Moscow-based students), and electronic copy sent by email to me (by all students), in preferably in MS Word or rich text format): This assignment directs you to explore a significant issue and rhetorical/theoretical strategy/topic that you identify in a novel or short fiction of your choice. Your analysis can be quite "thesis-driven"—that is, you may find it effective to compose a thesis for your response that maps out for readers the engaging, important points that you want to develop—or you may prefer a more reflective, question and problem-posing approach. You are not required in this analysis to incorporate secondary criticism/scholarship, but you may find that reading one or more scholarly articles on the work in question will enrich your underderstanding and sharpen your analysis. See also general advice for writing a Critical Essay, as well as the folder in Bblearn on writing essays, though of course this critical analysis essay is quite concise, and necessarily or perhaps more focused and selective than longer essays, and see 'skills and desired outcomes' for 400-level literature courses, for the literature emphasis, and for this course. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students. Note that if you choose to write on The Human Stain for this Critical Analysis, then your Critical Essay must focus on The Known World.

4. Critical Essay on The Known World and/or The Human Stain (6 pages, see highlighted weblink for fuller advice on writing critical essay as well as the folder in Bblearn--hard copy due by noon Monday November 7---six pages for main body of essay, double-spaced (e.g. 12-pt. Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins), with reference to two scholarly articles from Bblearn folder. The primary aims of this thesis-seeking/problem-posing exploratory essay assignment is to engage with the text and its critical interpretation/reception by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments, and enriching your literary understanding, interests, and commitments. Use/learn Modern Language Association format for any notes and works cited (see, for instance, link to MLA format guidelines further below. For this assignment I encourage you to write an essay in response to one or more specific questions/problems of understanding and interpretation and to engage to some extent in the scholarly conversation and debate. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students. Note that if you wrote your Critical Analysis on The Human Stain, then this Critical Essay must focus predominantly on The Known World.

5. Term Essay on novel or novels or short fiction (and topic) of your choice (double-spaced (12 pt, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, MLA format, approximately 10-12 pages for main body of essay), with significant reference to at least two secondary works of criticism (selected from folders on Bblearn)--due Monday December 12 by noon, with printed copy in my mailbox in Brink 200 (Moscow-based students), and also send a copy to me by email, preferably in MS Word or rtf format attachment. This critical essay develops ideas prompted by our study and discussion, by recent scholarship, and by your perspectives. I shall attend to the ways that you select, define, and engage questions and contradictions, and to the clarity, imagination, and grace that you demonstrate in presenting your topic, (hypo)thesis, and argument, and the extent to which your work engages with, explains, and contributes to the larger "conversation" of scholarship on the topic and text(s) under analysis. I do not always expect essays to conclude by "solving" such problems or by "proving" your thesis; I hope that you address interesting topics (questions for debate, interpretation, and analysis) in thoughtful and useful ways. Please feel invited to confer with me during the writing process. See also general advice for critical essays similar to prior advice on the Critical Essay that pertains as well to this Term Essay, and also see the folder of advice, in Bblearn. You may be interested to write about a novel (or short stories) and topic different than what you addressed in your Critical Analysis and Critical Essay. You may draw upon and incorporate your prior work but the substantial, major portion of the Term Essay should be new, either an extension of your prior writing or an essay on another topic and perspective (thesis) than what you presented in your Critical Analysis or Critical Essay. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students.

6. Participation: Please take advantage of opportunities to share your insights and to listen and reply to others' ideas (often the Inquiry Starters and Discussion Starters can help you to initiate and to enter conversations). I hope that questions and discussions will enable you to move the class in directions you find most helpful, give you opportunities to develop critical skills through collaboration, and provide for a productive, interesting exchange of perspectives among the class. The Inquiry Starters and Discussion Starters will prompt our discussions: you should be prepared to comment on the day's reading for every class session--that is, complete the reading and be ready to contribute to each class meeting, including periodic occaions where I'll ask you to write about (in class) some aspect of the reading under discussion for that day. We may form small groups from time to time primarily for discussing/sharing Inquiry Starters and Discussion Starters (as noted above).

7. All required work is due at the beginning of class on the due date—work turned in late will be graded accordingly. Required graded written work will be downgraded one notch (for example, B+ to B, converted to points for each assignment) for each weekday late (not just days classes meet but counting just one day for a weekend); note, however, that the Term Essay cannot be turned in late--it is due in class on December 12. Work submitted more than a week late will not be accepted. I will grant short extensions for medical and family emergencies—but talk with me as soon as possible to request an extension. Always keep copies of your work.

8. Attendance: One or two absences will not affect your semester grade; a third absence will lower your semester total by three points, with a five-point reduction for each additional absence (four absences=minus 8 points, five absences = minus 13 points); six or more absences is sufficient cause for you to receive a failing grade for the course, regardless of your semester point total. All absences will be counted—excused or not—if something extraordinary occurs, talk to me.

9. Grades: Critical Analysis (50 pts); Critical Essay (100 pts); Term Essay (130 pts). These required assignments add up to a maximum of 280 points. Thus 252-280 points equals an A, 224-251 equals a B, 196-223 equals a C, 168-195 equals a D, and anything below 168 merits an F. I shall reserve a potential five bonus points based on my perceptions of the strength of your participation and efforts over the semester; incomplete or missing Inquiry-Starter entries will be counted against your semester grade, with the loss of four points for each missing or incomplete entry; missing or late Discussion-Starter entries will reduce your point total by two points each--make every effort to complete each week's ISs and DSs on time, in part because such penalty points add up all too quickly.Also note that near the end of November, I will post your point totals for the graded assignments, and any accumulated penalty points to date for missing/late ISs and DSs, and absences, to the Grade Center in Bblearn.

10. Office hours. I encourage you to confer with me—especially before assignments are due—to talk about your interests, intentions, and writing strategies. If you cannot make my regular hours (in Brink 125), we’ll arrange another time. I also welcome communicating with you by E-mail (sflores@uidaho.edu).

11. Use of laptops and cell phones during class is prohibited; occasional use of laptops—typically for group work and to access the online components of the class—may be permitted with instructor’s approval.

12. Do not submit work for this class that you have submitted or intend to submit for a grade in another course; as always, be careful to cite anyone else's work that you draw upon. See highlighted link on the class website to a useful guide to avoiding plagiarism, and a link to information on the university's policies regarding plagiarism. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students.

13. Classroom Learning and Civility: To support learning and discovery in this course—as in any university course—it is essential that each member of the class feel as free and as safe as possible in his or her participation. To this end, we must collectively expect that everyone (students, professors, and guests) seek to be respectful and civil to one another in discussion, in action, in teaching, and in learning. Because knowledge and learning are constructed and construed through social inquiry and exchange, it is vital that course dialogue and debate encourage and expect a substantial range of reasoned, expressive, and impassioned articulation of diverse views in order to build a stronger understanding of the materials and of one another's ways of knowing. These practices strengthen our capacities for understanding and the production of (new) knowledge. As with the critical writing assignments for this class, our primary aims include engaging with texts and their varied critical interpretations by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments with supporting lines of evidence and explanation, and enriching our literary understanding, interests, and commitments.

Should you feel our classroom interactions do not reflect an environment of civility and respect, you are encouraged to meet with me during office hours to discuss your concern. Additional resources for expression of concern and avenues of support include the chair of the Department of English, Dr. Scott Slovic, the Dean of Students office and staff (5-6757), the UI Counseling & Testing Center’s confidential services (5-6716), or the UI Office of Human Rights, Access, & Inclusion (5-4285).

14. Disability Support Services: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documented temporary or permanent disabilities. All accommodations must be approved through Disability Support Services (885-6307; dss@uidaho.edu; www.uidaho.edu/dss) located in the Idaho Commons Building, Room 306 in order to notify your instructor(s) as soon as possible regarding accommodation(s) needed for the course.

Schedule/Syllabus; If we fall behind, then on occasion we may defer or spill over discussion to next day, and adjust accordingly--for works that we discuss only one day, you are to have finished reading the work prior to class discussion; for works that we discuss over several days, make an effort to have finished most of the work prior to the first day of discussion but recognize that for the first day we'll likely focus our analysis/conversation on the first half or so of the text under discussion. For many of the texts, see PDFs of criticicim, study guide/questions in folders on class Bblearn site. Note:I have included both slightly different paginations on the novel A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing cited below, to account for a more recent and differently paginated edition of the novel.

Dates

Tuesday

Thursday

8/23-25

ahead of this first class meeting, read the following several short stories (available in our course Bblearn site/folder as PDFs), and begin to ask "What does fiction/literature do? what can it do? why write and read fiction? how does fiction work, how is a story 'put together'? To what extent does fiction, especially post-1945 fiction, refer to itself, to its own status/condition as fiction/literature? How can we talk about/consider these several stories by John Cheever and a story by Ann Beattie, in relation to these questions?

:John Cheever, "The Swimmer," also try to read his story "The Enormous Radio" (1953) and/or "The Death of Justina" (1960); read Ann Beattie, "Snow" (1983)--also may also enjoy listening to one or two of the Cheever stories ahead of class via the New Yorker Fiction Podcast,with a brief discussion of each story: Anne Enright reads John Cheever's "The Swimmer"; Nathan Englander Reads John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio”
 

Discussion Starter due on Bblearn thread by 1pm (each Thursday, through 12/1); The Remains of the Day (3-20); Postwar Britain--continuing course introduction, with some "lecture" based on "From imperial to post-imperial Britain" (1-7) and "From welfare state to free market" (51-55) from British culture of the postwar : an introduction to literature and society, 1945-1999. Eds. Davies and Sinfield (see PDFs on Bblearn site); also see online BBC history segments, esp. "The Making of Modern Britain" including Jeremy Black's essay " Britain from 1945 Onwards"

8/30-9/1

Inquiry Starter due by 1pm on Bblearn (nearly every Tuesday); The Remains of the Day (23-110); for examples of some prior students' Discussion Starter entries, see this weblink: DSs: Nick Cooley,William Rannals, Bethany Davis

Discussion Starter due; The Remains of the Day (113-141); example DSs: Christie Culp, Tanya Thomas, Kyle Miller; See this weblink for list of selected scholarship on Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, available as PDFs on Bblearn; read a scholarly essay on Ishiguro/The Remains of the Day, from the Bblearn folder, such as Cynthia F. Wong's "Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day" (2005, in PDF in folder, from A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000)

9/6-8

Inquiry Starter due; The Remains of the Day (145-201 but try to finish the novel by today!); sample DSs: Jackie Bennett, Joe Roberts, Kyle Gray--looking ahead, plan to read Hungerford's essay and Hutner's response to her essay, for this Thursday.

Discussion Starter due; The Remains of the Day (205-245);sample DSs: Kate Watts, Danielle Yadao, Becca Payne; Hungerford, Amy. “On the Period Formerly Known as Contemporary.” American Literary History 20:1-2 (2008): 410-419; Hutner, Gordon. “Historicizing the Contemporary: A Response to Amy Hungerford.” American Literary History 20:1-2 (2008): 420-424.

9/13-15

Inquiry Starter due; The Human Stain (1-74)

Discussion Starter due; The Human Stain (75-145)

9/20-22

Inquiry Starter due; The Human Stain (146-201)

Discussion Starter due; The Human Stain (202-284);

See this weblink for list of selected scholarship on Roth's The Human Stain, available as PDFs in folder on Bblearn

9/27-29

Inquiry Starter due; The Human Stain (285-361); also note, check out weblinks clips to the film version of The Human Stain, via folder in Bblearn

Discussion Starter due; for today, read two 'theory' essays on the status of the term 'postmodern':

Andrew Hoberek's "Introduction: After Postmodernism" (2007) OR Gladstone, Jason and Daniel Worden. “Introduction: Postmodernism, Then.” Twentieth-Century Literature 57:3-4 (Fall/Winter 2011).;

and especially, we'll spend more time on this essay by
Adams, Rachel. “The Ends of America, the Ends of Postmodernism.” Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal 53.3 (Fall, 2007): 248-272.

also get started on reading: The Known World (1-53); note: Critical Analysis due by noon next Monday

10/3, and 10/4-6

Critical Analysis due by noon Monday October 3; Inquiry Starter due; The Known World (55-177)

Discussion Starter due; The Known World (179-220); See this weblink for list of selected scholarship on Jones's The Known World, available as PDFs in folder on Bblearn

10/11-13

Inquiry Starter due (on either or both of the short stories); we'll focus class discussion--for a change--on two short stories, by Senna and Ferris (see PDFs in Bblearn short stories folder, arranged in chronological order)--you also can listen to Ferris's story at the weblink. Danzy Senna, "Admission" (2011); Joshua Ferris, "The Dinner Party" (2008)

Monica Ali reads Joshua Ferris's "The Dinner Party."

also keep reading The Known World (221-315)

Discussion Starter due; The Known World (317-388)

10/18-20

Inquiry Starter due; The Submission (3-108)

Discussion Starter dueon Millhauser's story; Steven Millhauser, "In the Reign of Harad IV" (2006--in Bblearn short stories folder, arranged in chronological order); also you can listen to the story and brief discussion of it, at this weblink: Cynthia Ozick reads Steven Millhauser's "In the Reign of Harad IV." As usual, there is a brief introductory conversation with Deborah Treisman, with Ozick, and then after Ozick reads the story, you can catch the discussion at about 24:30 (mins.:secs) into the podcast--Treisman's and Ozick's conversation and insights are great.

Keep reading The Submission (109-156)

10/25-27

Inquiry Starter due; The Submission (157-254)--see Bblearn folder on The Submission, which includes Reading Group Guide to The Submission ;Reading Group Toolbox on The Submission ; Could 'Submission' Be America's September 11 Novel? from radio program Fresh Air, Sept. 6, 2011; see especially Two 'Remarks' and Two Essays from Virtual Roundtable on The Submission [all in one PDF, particularly Walkowitz's essay] ;Virtual Roundtable on The Submission (via weblink] ; Dialogue: Amy Waldman [Idaho Public Television interview with Waldman] PBS Newshour: [Fairly Brief] Conversation with Amy Waldman; and

Read this essay by today or by this Thursday: Baelo-Allué, Sonia. "From the Traumatic to the Political: Cultural Trauma, 9/11 and Amy Waldman's The Submission" (2016), or see one of these essays: Gauthier, Tim. 9/11 Fiction, Empathy, and Otherness. London: Lexington Books, 2015.[excerpt on The Submission]; Keeble, Arin. The 9/11 Novel: Trauma, Politics and Identity. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2014.[excerpt on The Submission]

also main website for the September 11 memorial ; Primary Sources for 9/11, by year
includes speeches and other documents of the time; Arabs Muslims in the Media
short video on Evelyn Alsultany's book, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11 (New York University Press, 2012).; The Wire: Is the Cordoba House Good for America? ; NPR: Islamic Center Near Ground Zero Sparks Anger ; New York Times coverage of Muslim Community Center plans in Manhattan

Discussion Starter due on The Submission (255-337) or on short story of your choice from our BBlearn folder or links on our main course site

Read this essay by today: Baelo-Allué, Sonia. "From the Traumatic to the Political: Cultural Trauma, 9/11 and Amy Waldman's The Submission" (2016), or see one of these essays: Gauthier, Tim. 9/11 Fiction, Empathy, and Otherness. London: Lexington Books, 2015.[excerpt on The Submission]; Keeble, Arin. The 9/11 Novel: Trauma, Politics and Identity. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2014.[excerpt on The Submission]

11/1-3

Inquiry Starter due; short fiction selections from Proulx's Close Range: Wyoming Stories--read at least two of the following four stories: "The Half-Skinned Steer"; "The Mud Below"; "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World"; "Brokeback Mountain."

Discussion Starter dueEimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Part I, Lambs (1-33/3-35)

11/7, 11/8-10

Critical Essay is due MONDAY November 7th by noon--email document to me by noon, and drop off hard copy in Brink 200 on Monday, or you can bring a hard copy to class on Tuesday November 8th (except for CdA students); Inquiry Starter due; short fiction selections from Saunders's Tenth of December: Stories--read at minimum these two stories: "The Semplica Girl Diaries" and "Tenth of December"; also read at least one of the following: "Victory Lap" ;"Escape from Spiderhead"; "My Chivalric Fiasco"--the whole collection is superb, so it's difficult to choose!

Discussion Starter dueA Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Part II, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (37-83/39-85); James Wood's review of the novel, via folder in Bblearn. Here's a snippet: "Eimear McBride's first novel, “A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing” tells a fall-and-fall story that, especially in a traditional Irish setting, can seem familiar fictional material: a departed father, a pious, abusive mother, an errant and blasphemous daughter, a predatory uncle, a death in the family, a God-soaked household busy with meddling priests and vain prayer. Irish fiction and drama have prospered on their ration of curses, drink, and church: family history of this kind would seem to be the nightmare from which we are happy enough not to be awakened. “A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing” is indeed conventional in places, but in most respects the novel is blazingly daring. . . ."

11/15-17

Inquiry Starter due; A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Part III, Land Under the Wave (87-123/89-125);read one of the essays on trauma theory in that folder, and see if you can make any connection to/enlarged or different understanding of, the trauma(s) in this novel:

Freiburg, Rudolf. “’I do remember terrible dark things, and loss, and noise’: Historical Trauma and Its Narrative Representation in Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture.” Contemporary Trauma Narratives: Liminality and the Ethics of Form. Eds. Susana Onega and Jean-Michel Ganteau. New York and London: Routledge, 2014. 70-86.

Baker, Charley. "'Nobody's Meat': Revisiting Rape and Sexual Trauma Through Angela Carter." Ethics and Trauma in Contemporary British Fiction. Eds. Susana Onega and Jean-Michel Ganteau. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2011. 61-83.

Ramadanovic, Petar. “In the Future . . .: On Trauma and Literature.” Topologies of Trauma: Essays on the Limit of Knowledge and Memory. Belau, Linda and Petar Ramadanovic, eds. New York: Other P, 2002. 179-209.

Balaev, Michelle. “Trends in literary trauma theory.” Mosaic 41.2 (June 2008): pp. 149-66.

Brown, Laura S. “Not Outside the Range: One Feminist Perspective on Psychic Trauma.” Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Ed. with introduction by Cathy Caruth. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins UP, 1995. 100-112.

also note the reviews of McBride's novel in the Bblearn folder, especially by James Woods, along with other resources: from The New Yorker, The Guardian review, The New York Times review, The Washington Post, National Public Radio review, Slate.com review, The Times Literary Supplement review, The Sydney Review of Books; context: Ireland and those with disabilities; Ireland/abuse; child abuse in Northern Ireland; very brief excerpts from James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Samuel Beckett's dramatic piece "Not I"

Discussion Starter due A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Part IV Extreme Unction (127-170/129-172); see

11/29-12/1

Inquiry Starter due; Two or three readings for today, including at least two stories, one by Barth, and one by Thompson-Spires (see the short stories folder in Bblearn) :
Barth, John. [selections from Lost in the Funhouse (1968), such as his preface plus read “Lost in the funhouse” and at least look a bit at “Frame-tale” “Night-sea journey” and “Life-story” to get a sense of what Barth is up to—the other stories in Bblearn from this book are “Ambrose, his mark” “Autobiography” and “Menelaiad” (you can tell from the page numbers the order in which these pieces appear in the book).
Nafissa Thompson-Spires, “Heads of the Colored People: Four Fancy Sketches, Two Chalk Outlines, and No Apology (2016)
Finally, if you can manage it, read Mary Rohrberger's essay "Origins, Development, Substance, and Design of the Short Story"

Discussion Starter due A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Part V, The Stolen Child (173-227/175-229)

12/6-8

Inquiry Starter due; short fiction selections: Alice Munro's "Passion" (2004) and Padgett Powell's "Trick or Treat" (1993)--also see Lydia Davis's brief story "Break It Down" (2009). Try to read one of the brief scholarly articles on Munro's "Passion" in the Bblearn folder on short fiction/literature, theory.

Short fiction: Lydia Davis's story "Break It Down"; Joy Williams' "Chicken Hill" (see weblink (also in Bblearn) to New Yorker fiction podcast of Williams's story, with discussion); Tessa Hadley, "Dido's Lament"(August 8 & 15, 2016 issue of The New Yorker--also see story in PDF in Bblearn short stories folder)

12/12 Term Essay due Monday by noon/12pm (hard copy to Brink Hall 200 main office or drop by my office in Brink 125--also send copy to me by email; CdA students can send Term Essay by email to me.  
     

Student Learning Outcomes (see this link for longer list and contexts for desired outcomes, that supplement the three outcomes stated below)
In English 429 students will learn, develop, and strengthen abilities
- to understand and to explain the historical dimensions of literary characters’ desires for and relation with others, including social negotiations and ideological debates over valued identities and principles, particularly as these desires and relations are understood as rhetorical functions and effects of the literary text in its particular language/form/structure and its contexts
-to explore the extent to which the culturally-inflected and historically-situated desires and power relations and identities in literary works are shown to be in flux, narrated and dramatized as being put into question or engaged in a debate among different social, political, class, gender, ethnic, religious/ideological arrangements
-to write a substantial critical essay that engages with a literary text and its critical interpretation/reception by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments, and enriching literary understanding, interests, and commitments

-to understand a select variety of different preoccupations/concerns in post-1945 contemporary fiction

-to understand the strategies and effects of different kinds of narrative structure and techniques in contemporary fiction

More expansive description and list of 'skills and desired outcomes' for 400-level literature courses, for the literature emphasis, and for this course.

Evaluation/Assessment Rubric for Instructor's Written Responses to Critical Essay and Term Essay, with check mark along a scale of Excellent to Weak, with specific comments to supplement comments/feedback on the texts of the essays themselves:

Rubric for Initial Criteria for Evaluating Critical Writing/Essays:   Excellent          Very Good-Good          Competent-Fair          Weak
Note: Ultimately the evaluation of your work is holistic,
and therefore also intends to register the different, nuanced,
unexpected and evocative effects of your analysis,
exploration, creative expression/affect, and engagement
with learning and discovery.

1. Strength and clarity of (hypo)thesis/focus/introduction

2. Intellectual/conceptual strength and persuasiveness of
main claim as well as ensuing argument/logic/premises/
critical analysis/theory/ideas         

3. Cohesive and coherent development, logical
 organization, including well-structured paragraphs with
clear points and compelling, specific support/evidence

4. Analysis of text’s/topic’s relevant cultural/historical
 contexts and if specified, of related scholarship/criticism;
analysis of text’s rhetorical/persuasive strategies, structure

5. Topic’s depth/complexity, including explanation of
problem to be addressed, recognition of text’s
conflicts/contradictions (ideological/rhetorical),
creativity and sense of discovery/affective engagement
conveyed—the articulated sense of “what’s at stake, why
 all of it matters”

6. Significance/ conclusion

7. Effective sentences, syntax, verbs, diction,
punctuation, complexity, and suitable style: academic,
critical, appropriate to your understanding of the
materials/subjects

8. MLA style—parenthetical citation of sources,
Works Cited; formatting; spelling ungraded but noted

University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism)

Lessons on Style (general advice/quited dated handout but perhaps worth looking over) [pdf]

Quick Advice on Punctuation (also dated) [pdf]

Summary/Overview of Perspectives on Critical Theory

Online Writing Center Resources (from writing essays to grammar and usage advice):

http://wiki.english.ucsb.edu/index.php/The_Craft_of_a_Literature_Paper

Purdue OWL workshop/guidelines on using MLA for citation

MLA Quick Guide to Works Cited/citation


Possibilities for building a select bibliography in contemporary British and American novels (this is NOT our readling list but resources, and periodically there may be a critical essay or chapter to go along with our primary texts):

See this weblink for list of selected scholarship on Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, available as PDFs in folder on Bblearn

See this weblink for list of selected scholarship on Roth's The Human Stain, available as PDFs in folder on Bblearn

See this weblink for list of selected scholarship on Jones's The Known World, available as PDFs in folder on Bblearn

See Bblearn folder on Amy Waldman's The Submission, for variety of resources, as listed above in the course schedule/syllabus.

See this weblink for list of selected pieces on postmodernism/theory/narrative theory, available as PDFs in a folder on Bblearn.

Brooks, Geraldine. "Introduction." The Best American Short Stories 2011
Hungerford, Amy. “On the Period Formerly Known as Contemporary.” American Literary History 20:1-2 (2008): 410-419.
Hutner, Gordon. “Historicizing the Contemporary: A Response to Amy Hungerford.” American Literary History 20:1-2 (2008): 420-424.
Gladstone, Jason and Daniel Worden. “Introduction: Postmodernism, Then.” Twentieth-Century Literature 57:3-4 (Fall/Winter 2011): 291-308.
McGurl, Mark. “The Program Era: Pluralisms of Postwar American Fictions.” Critical Inquiry 32 (Autumn 2005): 102-129.
Barth, John. “The Literature of Exhaustion.” From The Friday Book: Essays and Other Non-Fictions. London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1984.
Best, Stephen and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Special Issue: Surfacing Reading. Representations 108:1 (Fall 2009): 1-21.
Schiff, Randy P. “Resisting Surfaces: Description, Distance Reading, and Textual Entanglement.” Exemplaria: Medieval, Early Modern, Theory 26.2-3 (Summer/Fall 2014): 273-290.
Rooney, Ellen. “Live Free or Describe: The Reading Effect and the Persistence of Form.” differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 21.5 (2010): 112-139. [rejoinder to Best and Marcus]
Freeman, Lisa A. “Why We Argue About the Way We Read: An Introduction.” The Eighteenth Century 54.1 (Spring 2013): 121-124.
Gray, Richard. “Open Doors, Closed Minds: American Prose Writing at a Time of Crisis.” American Literary History 21:1 (Spring 2009): 128-151.
Rothberg, Michael. “A Failure of the Imagination: Diagnosing the 9/11 Novel: A Response to Richard Gray.” American Literary History 21:1 (Spring 2009): 152-158.
Smith, Rachel Greenwald. “Organic Sharpnel: Affect and Aesthetics in September 11 Fiction.” American Literature 81:1 (March 2011): 153-174.
Gasiorek, Andrzej and David James. “Introduction: Fiction Since 2000: Postmillenial Commitments.” Contemporary Literature 4 (Winter 2012): 609-627.
Warren, Kenneth. “Historicizing African American Literature.” From What Was African American Literature? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012.
Bradford, Richard. The Novel Now: Contemporary British Fiction. (Blackwell, 2007)
A companion to the British and Irish novel 1945-2000 (2005). Ed. Brian W. Shaffer. Includes Patricia Waugh's chapter "Postmodern Fiction and the Rise of Critical Theory"
British Fiction Today, eds. Rod Mengham and Philip Tew (Continuum, Jan. 2007)
Contemporary British fiction (2003) edited by Richard Lane, Rod Mengham, and Philip Tew
Head, Dominic. The Cambridge introduction to modern British fiction, 1950-2000 (2002)
A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction. Ed. James English (Blackwell, 2005)
Lee, Alison. Realism and power: postmodern British fiction (1990)
Parkes, Adam. Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (Continuum, 2001)
British culture of the postwar : an introduction to literature and society, 1945-1999. Eds. Alistair Davies and Alan Sinfield (2000) --on reserve, see esp. introduction to Part I “From imperial to post-imperial Britain” (1-7) and introduction to Part II “From welfare state to free market” (51-55)—see also third edition of Sinfield’s Literature, Politics and Culture in Postwar Britain (Continuum, 2007)
Shaffer, Brian W. Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro (1998)
Holmes, Frederick M. The historical imagination : postmodernism and the treatment of the past in contemporary British fiction (1997)
Wood, Michael.  “The contemporary novel.” The Columbia history of the British novel (1999) Ed. John Richetti
Tew, Philip. Contemporary British Novel (Continuum, May 2007)
Brook, Stephen. Class: Knowing Your Place in Modern Britain (Gollancz, 1997)
Burk, Kathleen, ed. The British Isles Since 1945. Oxford UP, 2003.
Clarke, Peter. Hope and Glory: Britain 1900-2000. Second ed. Penguin, 2004.
Other Britain, other British : contemporary multicultural fiction (1995) edited by A. Robert Lee
Holmes, Frederick M. The historical imagination : postmodernism and the treatment of the past in contemporary British fiction (1997)
Millard, Kenneth. Contemporary American fiction (PS379.M47 2000 )
Millard, Kenneth. Coming of age in contemporary American fiction (PS374.B55M65 2007 )
Kelly, Adam. “Moments of Decision in Contemporary American Fiction: Roth, Auster, Eugenides.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 51.4 (Summer 2010): 313-332.
O’Donnell, Patrick. The American novel now : reading contemporary American fiction since 1980. (PS379.O35 2010 )
Moynihan, Sinead. Passing into the present Contemporary American fiction of racial and gender passing.
Bilton, Alan. An introduction to contemporary American fiction (PS379.B54 2003 )
Kley, Antje. “Narratives of Recognition in Contemporary American Fiction: Edward P. Jones's The Known World and Richard Powers's The Echo Maker.” Amerikastudien/American Studies 57.4 (2012): 643-661.
Punday, Daniel Five strands of fictionality : the institutional construction of contemporary American fiction (PS374.P64P86 2010 )
Hoberek, Andrew. “After Postmodernism: Form and History in Contemporary American Fiction” Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal 53.3 (Fall, 2007): 233-247.
Adams, Rachel. “The Ends of America, the Ends of Postmodernism.” Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and Critical Journal 53.3 (Fall, 2007): 248-272.

Writing About Fiction (from The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction), plus glossary

Curious about what's on my coffee table/contemporary novels to-read-list?:

Paul Beatty, The Sellout (2015)

Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen: A Novel (2015)

Graeme Macrae Burnet, His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (2015)

Ali Smith, How to Be Both (2014)

Joakim Zander, The Swimmer: A Novel (2013)

Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2012)

Karen Russell, Swamplandia! (2011)

Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (2013)

Michel Faber, The Book of Strange New Things (2014)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah: A Novel (2013)

Our Book Club, Season 8, Selections (boldface) and Also-Rans: