Where's Pynchon on the Modern Library List?

Peter F. Zogas pfzogas at gmail.com
Fri Dec 8 15:53:01 CST 2006


"Because Pynchon wasn't covered in a class
doesn't mean he's not important" --Joshua Lind

That's pretty much the point.

There are plenty of important authors that I've never encountered in classes
during my undergraduate career (a personal short list: H. James, Nabokov,
Philip Roth, DeLillo).  The difference is that Pynchon isn't even mentioned
in courses, save perhaps a passing reference in a course on literary
criticism--why, I don't know.  I know of one professor who enjoys Pynchon a
great deal but has no desire to teach him in a course.  Many of my peers
(English majors) are unaware of Pynchon, which doesn't surprise me.  English
programs at the undergraduate level (and here I'll generalize based on my
own limited experience) teach students how to read and give them a
conception of the movement and evolution of literature from Homer and the
Bible through to the present day.  They'll necessarily spend more time on
the few centuries preceding the 20th.  Working from the understanding that
all literature is influenced by what preceded, such a teaching approach
makes a great deal of sense.  It also explains why Pynchon and other
postmodern novelists can fall through the cracks with such ease (especially
at smaller schools).  Students who come through such a program are left to
discover such authors on their own, but they're well equipped to read them.


-Peter
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20061208/3ac9ffa8/attachment.html>


More information about the Pynchon-l mailing list