Unit I
Existentialism: Introduction
Flynn,Thomas R. Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction.OUP, 2006, pp. 1-23.
Unit II
The Idea of Absurd: Introduction
Esslin, Martin. TheTheatre of the Absurd.A & C Black Publishers, 1961, pp. 19-28.
O’Brien, Justin, translator. The Myth of Sisyphus. By Albert Camus, Penguin Books, 2005, pp. 64-74
Unit III
Introduction to the writers and major themes in their writings
· Existential crisis
· Absurdity
· Alienation and Rootlessness
Barone, Dennis, editor. Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 1-24.
Harris, Charles B., Contemporary American Novelists of the Absurd. New Haven College and University Press Publishers, 1972, pp. 17-32.
Shuman, R. Baird, editor. Great American Writers: Twentieth Century. Salem Press, 2002.
Unit IV
Saul Bellow’sDangling Man(1944) & Herzog (1964)
Unit V
Paul Auster’s Mr. Vertigo (1994) & The Book of Illusions (2002)
Recommended Reading:
Barone, Dennis, editor. Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 1-24.
Esslin, Martin. TheTheatre of the Absurd.A & C Black Publishers, 1961, pp. 19-28.
Flynn, Thomas R. Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction.OUP, 2006, pp. 1-23.
Gerhard, Bach, editor. The Critical Response to Saul Bellow. Greenwood Press, 1995.
Harris, Charles B., Contemporary American Novelists of the Absurd. New Haven College and University Press Publishers, 1972, pp. 17-32.
Malin, Irving. Saul Bellow’s Fiction.Southern Illinois University Press, 1969.
O’Brien, Justin, translator. The Myth of Sisyphus. By Albert Camus, Penguin Books, 2005, pp. 64-74
Shuman, R. Baird, editor. Great American Writers: Twentieth Century. Salem Press, 2002.