# 17

20th Century American Social Fiction Leading to Political Change

Wednesday-1:00 P.M.                                                            Winter 2012
Coordinator:  Ellen Lubic                                                      Co-Coordinator:  Alice Lewis

Course Description

American literature of the 20th century is uniquely engaging in that it portrays all of the elements that have created the social constructs and infirmities of our society, including poverty, greed, civil rights violations, classist society, wars, the court system, robber barons and the resultant entanglements from the beginning of the democratic republic to modern times.
In this SDG we will work in seven teams of two: each team will choose a novel from the list below at the Pre Meeting. We will read and discuss the novel the first week and then we will discuss the politics and history of the time reflected in the novel the second week.
John Dos Passos, USA Trilogy
John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy
Richard Wright, Native Son
Toni Morrison, Beloved
James Baldwin, Fire Next Time
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Ernest Hemingway, Farewell to Arms or The Sun Also Rises
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry

Pre-Meeting:  Wednesday, December 14, 1:00 P.M.