In Search of the Great American Novel

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this course, we will discuss debates surrounding the Great American Novel, including examples on and off the syllabus. Why don’t we begin with Moby-Dick or The Last of the Mohicans, you might ask? Which William Faulkner and Toni Morrison novel can you possibly choose? What happened to the Nobel Prize winners Pearl Buck and Saul Bellow? Does the Great American Novel have to be a hefty tome, or can it be shortish? Does it have to engage with lofty ideals or can it be thoroughly ensconced in everyday life? Is it national, anti-national, or regional? How does it approach the problems of universality? This course will offer a broad examination of novels that might contend for the title of the Great American Novel, while also taking a thorough look at each individual example. As a result, the course will be a mixture of lecture and seminar discussion, with an attention to how books were historically received as well as how they resonate (or don’t) in the present moment. We’ll be reading some books that have long been considered Great American Novels—Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Invisible Man, for example—as well as books that might cause us to reconsider the very idea of a Great American Novel in the first place. Note: students with majors from outside the cross-listed departments should contact the professor to request admittance.