Philip Roth was a central and controversial figure in American fiction for over fifty years. He subsequently published over twenty novels in a variety of modes, from the satirical to the experimental to the historical. In his American trilogy, the scope of his fiction expanded to produce a portrait of post-war America as riven, from the McCarthy era to the Clinton impeachment, by the conflict between the quest for purity (political, sexual, ethnic, and racial) and "life in all its shameless impurity." This course surveys his career from the earliest short fiction to the end of the last century. Roth delighted in provoking his readers and students to be prepared to be offended by his treatment of women, Jews and people of color.
4
UnitsOptional
Grading1, 2, 3
PasstimeNone
Level LimitLetters and science
CollegeMaslan is a really nice guy and good prof. Your final grade is based on a bunch of forums which are each worth 10-20%. If you do well on the first few, he'll keep giving you good grades. The reading is the hardest part of the class because he expects you to have read the whole book before the first class on it and it's easy to fall behind.
You can sit back and listen with him, but also expect to make contributions. He sets interesting and varied assignments, and you can tell he's passionate. Funny, endearing, and incredibly smart. I would definitely take a class by him again.
Prof. Maslan is a good professor and makes it very clear what you need to do. His lectures can be very long and a bit dry but you have to pay attention to them as the final and midterm are almost completely based on the lecture. If you pay attention and review his slides, however, they are super easy and almost a guaranteed A as long as you review
Extremely dull, overly wordy to the point of having to decipher everything he says, and overall I just dread going to his class. The quarter isn't over but I can already tell I will remember absolutely nothing from this class a month after finishing it. It's just one of those classes...
ENGL132WD; We were consistently one week behind schedule. The material covered was incredibly engaging, but because of the limited time and disorganization, much of the assigned readings would go undiscussed, and assignments would frequently be omitted as a result. Professor is brilliant and hilarious, but unorganized.
Despite his averse teaching style I actually thoroughly enjoyed his class. I hated that the midterm and final were in-person written exams, but I appreciated him giving us a clear expectation for what was going to be on it and what he wanted from it. He posts PowerPoints but they aren't too helpful unless you're reviewing. GO TO LECTURE!!!
Russell Samolsky
4.3
Yunte Huang
3.1