HENB01153U English - Elective 4, topic 3: CALIFORNIA DREAMING: California Fiction and the American Dream

America’s America, the west of the west, the Golden State, California occupies a special place in American mythology. This course will explore California as the site of American aspirations and their betrayal and renewal as expressed in fiction. Works to be read and discussed will include:  The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Ask the Dust by John Fante, The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, together with a compendium of short fiction and excerpts from works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joan Didion and others. Background reading will include: The American Dream: A short history of an idea that shaped a nation by Jim Cullen.