Reading World Literature (201-0-20)

Topic

Global Campus Novel

Instructors

Laura Brueck
847/467-4746
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Office 4-427
Office Hours: Varies quarter to quarter, please check with instructor.

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-435: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

This course considers the popular genre of the "campus novel" (and the occasional film) over time and around the world. Spanning works of mystery, comedy, social realism, and literary fiction from the 1950s to today and across the United States, India, and Africa, what these novels share is the setting of the college or university campus as site of social idealism or ruin. They serve as vehicles for evolving ideas around education, class, identity politics, and gendered and racial faultlines. Throughout we will ask why, as the idea of the American university comes under increasing threat, this genre not only persists, but is arguably more popular than ever.

Learning Objectives

In this class you will learn to read literature closely and apply critical frameworks to literary texts, familiarize yourself with the elements of the campus novel genre, and think comparatively and across global forms of the campus novel as world literature.

Teaching Method

Lecture and discussion

Evaluation Method

Grades will be based on preparation and participation in class, in-class writing assignments and quizzes, and out-of-class prepared oral presentations.

Class Materials (Required)

Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin (1957)
Julie Schumacher, Dear Committee Members (2014)
Amanda Cross, Death in a Tenured Position (1981)
Brandon Taylor, Real Life (2020)
David McGlynn, Liberal Arts (2026)
JM Coetzee, Disgrace (1999)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)
Uday Prakash, The Girl with the Golden Parasol (2001)
Aruni Kashyap, How to Date a Fanatic (2026)

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
SoC Humanities and Fine Arts Distro