Readings for Contemporary Studies
Below is a collection of ancillary sources that we will be drawing from in Contemporary Studies. Some we will read from in class, via printed handout, while others may be assigned for homework. Elements of these works may be included in the exams for this course, particularly in relation to their context concerning historical events in 20th century America.
Click on each title to download a PDF file of the text.
Links below each image allow you to watch/listen for better understanding.
Click on each title to download a PDF file of the text.
Links below each image allow you to watch/listen for better understanding.
Listen to it HERE. |
"Anthem" by Ayn Rand
This classic dystopian novel imagines a society where there is no individual. Mirroring the fear of communism in post-WWII America, Rand delivers a searing critique of Soviet ideology through a futuristic society that loathes the fundamental elements of Americanism. |
Listen to it HERE. |
"Night" by Elie Wiesel
Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. Offering much more than a litany of the daily terrors and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also addresses the philosophical as well as personal questions concerning what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy will be. |
"The Supper" by Tadeusz Borowski
Set in a Nazi concentration camp, “The Supper” tells the story of a cold evening when the men’s hunger is becoming worse and worse. A group of twenty Russians is brought out and lined up in front of the waiting men. Because they are communists, the men are to be punished. A young Block Elder has already told the men they will not get any supper that evening. |
-OR-
|
"Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous
"Go Ask Alice" became a cult classic in the 1970s, revealing the inner thoughts of a teen in turmoil and detailing her attempts to pull herself out of her drug-induced haze. The book took the romance out of the drug culture that so dominated the 1960s and 70s, and is hailed still today as a groundbreaking book on teenage drug addiction. |
Listen to it HERE. |
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin
This is an allegorical tale about a Utopian society in which Omelas' happiness is made possible only through a terrible sacrifice. Would you walk away from Omelas? |
Listen to it HERE. |
"There Will Come Soft Rains"
by Ray Bradbury "There Will Come Soft Rains" tells the story of the only house that has survived a nuclear blast in Allendale, California in 2026. This house has automated systems, not unlike a modern-day smart house. |
Listen to it HERE. |
"Split Cherry Tree" by Jesse Stuart
A high school teacher in a one-room schoolhouse keeps a boy after school to work and pay for damage he did to a cherry tree. The boy's uneducated father comes to school to argue with the teacher, but comes to appreciate the value of higher education. This tale exemplifies the logic behind "culture wars" that grew from the rural to urban shift in the early 20th century. |
Watch & Listen to it HERE. |
"Dulce et Decorum est" by Wilfred Owen
Written during World War I and published posthumously in 1920, the Latin title of this work is taken from the Roman poet Horace and means "it is sweet and honorable...", followed by "pro patria mori," which means "to die for one's country". |
Listen to it HERE. |
"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'brien
In this novel by Vietnam veteran Tim O'brien, seventeen American foot soldiers are on the march in the booby-trapped swamps and hills of Vietnam. Young and frightened, most of them are ill prepared emotionally for the stresses of war. The story does not follow a traditional linear plot but instead offers fragments of their experience, including seemingly unending lists of gear and personal effects that they carry with them. What they carry links them, yet distinguishes them. |