4:00p-5:15p TR (30) 3 cr.

This course will consider a wide range of narrative writing in contemporary Ireland, England, and (predominantly) the United States. The course will have several focuses: alternatives to realism (Stuart Dybek's The Coast of Chicago, Mark Leyner's Et Tu Babe, Steven Millhauser's The Knife Thrower); the phenomenon of the contemporary memoir (Mary Karr's The Liar's Club, Henry Louis Gates's Colored People, Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes); gender and narrative (Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body, Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Martin Amis's Night Train). Other works will be included as well; we will read, on the average, a book per week. The primary purposes of the course will be to explore several kinds of recent writing and in the process to introduce students to writers most of whom have already written a number of books (and are likely to keep on writing). In both regards, my hope is that students will develop enthusiasms that will carry them beyond this particular course.

Students will write short email comments on each work; the comments will be due by noon of the first day of discussion for each week. There will also be a 6-8 page essay and two exams; essay topics will be negotiated individually.

Check with me (email hedin@indiana.edu) for a final reading list later in the semester.