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Prerequisite: English 2 & English Communication

Grades: 11, 12

Credit: .50

Contemporary Literature is a one-semester course.  This course focuses on literary works in a contemporary framework (1950's to present) or modern voice that carry the universal themes.  Choices include One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Ironweed, as well as others that exemplify movements such as modernism, postmodernism, minimalism, confessionalism, and the Beats.  Students will respond to the themes and issues discussed in the literature within a personal context.  Topics include family matters, self-actualization, coming of age, and conformity and rebellion.  Writing experiences are linked to the literature and reader responses.  Students successfully completing this course should develop a recognition of what distinguishes contemporary literature from the literature of other periods, as well as a grounding in the nature of the social circumstances and cultural conditions in which contemporary literature is produced