Pop Fiction

Catalog description

This course will analyze popular fiction. What makes a book a "best seller"? What makes literature sell in the millions of copies? Writers who strike it rich generally write books that are fast-paced and easy to read, following a set of conventions that readers recognize, and touch a nerve within their society. With a focus on current and past best sellers, this course will introduce you to a variety of literary sub-genres (true crime, romance, horror, memoir, road novel, extreme adventure, western, roots quest). The books we will read often return to themes of individualism, cultural difference, and violence in American culture-prominent elements in our psyches, popular culture, and pulp fiction. We will discuss, among other topics, how popular literature can help us understand the intersectionality of identity-especially issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability.