This course will analyze today's popular and contemporary
fiction. What makes a book a "best seller?" What makes
literature sell in the millions of copies? Writers who strike it
rich generally write books that are fast paced and easy to read,
following a set of conventions that readers recognize, and touch
a nerve within their society. Writers who win the hearts of the
literati and schoolmarms generally try to touch that nerve also,
but they do so with language and plots that are inventive,
artistic, and memorable. With a focus on current and past best
sellers, this course will introduce you to a variety of literary
sub-genres (true crime, memoir, road novel, extreme adventure,
western, roots quest). The books we will read often return to
themes of individualism, race, and violence in American culture-
prominent elements in our psyches, popular culture, and pulp
fiction- though we will certainly discuss other themes as well.