Description
Book SynopsisThis book offers insight into the ways students enrolled in European classrooms in higher education come to understand American experience through its literary fiction, which for decades has been a key component of English department offerings and American Studies curricula across the continent and in Great Britain and Ireland. The essays provide an understanding of how post-World War II American writers, some already elevated to ‘canonical status’ and some not, are represented in European university classrooms and why they have been chosen for inclusion in coursework. The book will be of interest to scholars and teachers of American literature and American studies, and to students in American literature and American studies courses.
Trade Review“Contemporary American Fiction in the European Classroom: Teaching and Texts … fills a gap in research by exploring the subject of teaching literature at university through a compilation of essays written by professors of American literature at various higher-education institutions across Europe. … This book provides a glimpse into the list of authors and works of fiction that are part of the syllabus, with each part of the book examining a different aspect of education … .” (Olga Kajtár-Pinjung, Americana - E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary, Vol. 18 (1), 2022)
Table of Contents1. Introduction: American Fiction Abroad.- Part I: Why Teach …?.- 2. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy in Hungary: Racialized Discourse in the Classroom.- 3. Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown in Europe as an Evaluative Tool of U.S. Race Relations: “When you think American, what color do you see?”.- 4. Octavia Butler at a Swedish University: Gender, Genre, and Intercultural Encounters.- 5. John Updike in Serbia.- 6. Contemporary American Women Writers in Romania.- Part II: How to Teach …?.- 7. Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace: Contextualizing the “Systems Novel” in Estonia.- 8. Donald Barthelme at Sorbonne University: Narrative, Internet Memes, and “The Rise of Capitalism”.- 9. The (Post)Apocalypse in Hungary: American Science Fiction and Social Analysis.- 10. Gloria Anzaldúa at European Universities: Straddling Borders of Fiction and Identity.- Part III: What Lessons Might Be Gained by …?.- 11. Teaching Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah in Ireland: “If you don’t understand, ask questions”.- 12. Teaching Philip Roth in Denmark: It’s Complicated.- 13. Teaching Post-Black Aesthetics and the Coming-of-Age Novels of Danzy Senna and Colson Whitehead in Portugal: Reconsidering the Gap.- 14. Teaching Marilynne Robinson, Democracy and the Mystery of American Belonging Through the PostChristian Eyes of Millennial Brits: “Homesick for a place I never left”.- 15. Teaching Jesmyn Ward and William T. Vollmann in Finland: Genres of Environmental Justice.- Part IV: What Light from the Recent Past?.- 16. A Backward Glance o’er American Fiction in French Academia.- 17. American Literature: A Tale of Two Polands.- Part V: Additional Resources.- 18. Incorporating One’s Own Literary Criticism into the Curriculum: The Teachable Essay via John Updike’s Short Stories.- 19. Sources for Further Study.
