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ENGL 291: The American Novel Since 1945

Lecture 23 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.). In this second lecture on The Known World, Professor Hungerford addresses Edward P. Jones's ambitious and ambivalent relation to literacy. Jones shows us the power of narrative to bring together the fragmentation of the world, but is at the same time deeply aware of the fragility of text, all of the ways it can be destroyed, misinterpreted, abused, or lost. The son of an illiterate mother, Jones - who, it seems, composed and memorized large portions of The Known World before setting anything down in print - models a form of literary self-consciousness infused with the moral dilemmas of slavery and freedom that is unique among contemporary novels. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 23 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Meditations on the Difficulty of Writing: The Right-to-Left Directionality of Creation
[00:13:43] 2. The Fragile Power of Text: Insubstantiality of Freedom
[00:20:45] 3. The Complicity of Creation
[00:24:58] 4. The Durability of Plastic Arts: Augustus's Carving and Alice's Weaving
[00:33:32] 5. Edward P. Jones's Authorial Project: Weaving Unity into the Fragmented Modern Narrative

References
Lecture 23 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
Instructor: Professor Amy Hungerford. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introductions
Lecture 02 - Richard Wright, Black Boy
Lecture 03 - Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Lecture 04 - Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.)
Lecture 05 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Lecture 06 - Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone
Lecture 07 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
Lecture 08 - Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lecture 09 - Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.)
Lecture 10 - J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Lecture 11 - John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
Lecture 12 - Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Lecture 13 - Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Lecture 14 - Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Lecture 15 - Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Lecture 16 - Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.)
Lecture 17 - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
Lecture 18 - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (cont.)
Lecture 19 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain
Lecture 20 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 21 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 22 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World
Lecture 23 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
Lecture 24 - Students'Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Lecture 25 - Students'Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Lecture 26 - Review for Final Exam