The American Novel: American Pastoral and Lolita

In this course we will discuss two of the great works of post-war American fiction. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is a novel that continues to scandalise and fascinate and Philip Roth’s American Pastoral is similarly uncompromising is its exploration of relations between the generations against the backdrop of political radicalism, race riots and the Vietnam War. Both texts explore the dark side of the USA at the apogee of its political and economic power and experiment boldly with narrative technique and structure without ever losing their narrative punch.

This course runs over 5 weeks: 3 classes on American Pastoral; 2 on Lolita.

It comes as a package at £255 and this includes weekly resources, and refreshments of tea and cake/cookies in the break.