123042 PS Literary Studies / Proseminar Literature (2018S)

This class explores U.S. American literature after the Second World War, up to the end of the 1960s. We will look at selected novels, drama, and poetry of this period and trace how literary texts negotiated a dramatically changing social, cultural, and political landscape. In particular, we will look at such issues as consumerism and social conformity, mass culture, suburbanization, counterculture, racial politics, gender politics, the politics of sexual difference, or Cold War internationalism. We will critically examine the emergence of postmodern aesthetics, and ask ourselves in what ways literary texts helped articulate various politics of identity and difference, as well as early discourses of multiculturalism and diversity.

As part of this class, you will need to attend the Tennessee Williams play "The Glass Menagerie/Die Glasmenagerie" at the Vienna Burgtheater. You are free to choose your own date, and I encourage you to make use of their student tickets for 10€.