Selected aspects of English cultural studies: Traveling to Ukraine: Jonathan Safran Foer’s "Everything Is Illuminated" 2510-f2ENG2S-ECS-TTU

The aim of the class is to introduce graduates to the political writing of David Foster Wallace. Mostly known for his long novels, Wallace was also a significant essayist, and his political writing is amongst the most nuanced and refined in recent memory. Neither a Republican or a Democrat, the writer walks a very tight line between the tenets of conservatism and liberalism, which is particularly valuable in the times of partisan politics shaped by the American traditional two-party model.

We will begin the course by discussing perhaps Wallace's most famous essay, "E Unibus Pluram" to understand the influence of the media on the contemporary American political landscape. Then, we will take a look at how Wallace's reflections work in practice by talking about his post 9/11 essay "The View From Mrs. Thompson's". To examine the the use of the media in conducting US politics, we will turn to "Up, Simba," where Wallace joins the campaign trail of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. The course will close (if time permits) with reading "Something To Do With Paying Attention," a short story which eventually became a part of his posthumous novel The Pale King. In it, the writer reflects on the condition of civic responsibility in a world in which political action has become overwhelmingly performative.