Eyes on the Prize: Literary Fiction as Cultural Capital

In this course we will read selected novels that have won recent national prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newberry Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Award, to understand how the creation and circulation of cultural capital works in the USA. Alternative modes of evaluation, such as #Booktok and Oprah's Book Club, will be explored. Students will choose what criteria will be considered for the readings in the second half of the course. Particular attention will be paid to gender, sexuality, race and class as categories of analysis in order to explore the relations between art and prestige in contemporary culture.