Start Date
1 October, 2024
There will be 10 weekly meetings on Tuesday, 11am - 1pm, starting from 3 October.
Overview
This course presents four texts which represent, critique, satirize and challenge contemporary American cultures.
Concepts of privilege, power and heritage are significant themes in all of the texts which address what it means to be an American today.
- My Life of Rest and Relaxaton by Ottessa Moshfegh’s explores the life of a woman who seemingly has everything but who spends her money trying to obliterate her consciousness.
- Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng centres around a mother/son relationship in a time of extreme political repression.
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver takes inspiration from David Copperfield, and charts the fight to survive of a poor boy from Appalachia.
- An American Conversation by Claudine Rankine is a collection of poems, memoir, essays and images which assesses the centrality of whiteness to any understanding of race in the U.S.
This course aims to explore the work of some major American writers and through this contemporary debates in America about identity and privilege. This course would suit anyone interested in contemporary writing and politics. No prior experience required.
Syllabus
Week 1 Introduction to writers and texts. The opening of My Life of Rest and Relaxation.
Week 2 My Life of Rest and Relaxation
Week 3 An American Conversation
Week 4 An American Conversation
Week 5 Our Missing Hearts
Week 6 Our Missing Hearts
Week 7 Demon Copperhead
Week 8 Demon Copperhead
Week 9 Demon Copperhead
week 10 Demon Copperhead - and conclusion
Please note that the ‘last date available to book’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure enrol as soon as possible. Registrations will not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm.
Course Lecturer: Dr Shirley Jones
At Continuing Education, I currently run courses on contemporary women's writing, nineteenth-century writing, and the thematic strand, The Monthly Novel. Previously I have also taught courses on classic authors, such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Dorothy Wordsworth. My Ph.D was a study of the Victorian writer, Margaret Oliphant.
Outside of Continuing Education, I am a member of a writers' group and I run community writing workshops at the VG&M and the Lowlands centre in West Derby,
Courses fees: Full fee £155/Concession £80.
Back to: Continuing Education