Studies in Contemporary American Literary Forms

FAIN: FF-10314-74

Amherst College (Amherst, MA 01002-2372)
Benjamin Demott (Project Director: January 1974 to present)

To examine the innovative genres and the traditional forms of American literature since 1945. Such writers as Bellow, Updike, Vonnegut, Mailer, Baldwin and Sontag will figure in discussion and research. Primary emphasis will be on problems of value arising in relatively newer modes, and on how to create and sustain a vital sense of humanistic standards in classes on recent literature. Topic will include the anti-novel, fantasy fiction, the interview, confessional poetry and the autobiographical essay.