American Literature Since World War II

Identify the multiple genres of contemporary literature, including works that mix genres, and analyze their particularities of style and content.

Use literary terms appropriately when discussing and writing about contemporary American literature.

Trace the literary history of the period, identifying the emergence in American literature of such cultures as Japanese-American or Nuyorican and analyzing the particular representation of these cultures in innovative literature.

Identify and evaluate connections between American texts and historical events such as the Civil Rights movement, the second wave of feminism, the gay rights movement, the Vietnam Conflict, 9-11 and the Iraq War, the passage of Loving v. Virginia, Roe v Wade and the Patriot Act as well as a host of other pertinent cultural events.

Identify and evaluate connections between American texts and artistic movements such as Confessional Poetry, Slam Poetry, journalistic fiction, Postmodernism, among the many aesthetic projects of the era.