U.S. Literature and the End of the American Century

Catalog description

What is (or was) American empire? This course examines U.S. literature from WWII to the early 21st century. This period has been termed the American century because of the U.S.'s dominant role in shaping global politics and culture, a dominance backed by military interventions abroad and the rise of the police state at home. How do the era's writers negotiate and challenge the police, military, and imperial powers of the U.S. state? We will place fiction, poetry, and essays in conversation with historical documents and policies, asking how literature has imagined an end to the American century.