ENGLISH 345

Fall, 1998

Professor Landon

Office: Fine Arts 437. Office Hours: Monday Wednesday 1:00-2:30 PM and by appointment

Phone: 455-2052; E-mail landon@gl.umbc.edu

Internet WEB Page http://research.umbc.edu/~landon/index.html. English 307 is listed among the online courses.

This Fall the focus of The Satirical Vision will be political, with an emphasis on American political satire. We will begin with some classical examples of political satire, including Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, and Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Then we will explore one of the best-known twentieth-century political satires: George Orwell's 1984. Finally, we will spend the latter part of the course reading and viewing a selection of American novels and films which cast a satiric eye on contemporary America and which will include Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Robert Altman's Nashville, Mike Nichols' Primary Colors, and Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog.