1. Contemporary Literature Li Baojie July, 2010, Weihai

2. Multiculturalism Contemporary American literature is characterized by multi-culturalism. Multiculturalism and ethnic cultures Race and ethnicity Ethnic groups in the US European-American; Native American; Latino (Hispanic American); Afro-American (African American); Asian American (Chinese, Japanese; Indian; Korean; Vietnamese)

3. European American Mainstream culture: Values and religious features Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, John Updike, Philip Roth, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery O’ Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, Vladimir Nabokov, Norman Miller, John Bath, Thomas Pynchon, Joyce Carol Oates, Joseph Heller, Don DeLillo, and Cormac McCarthy

4. Important Landmarks 1960s: Hemingway, Bellow, Faulkner and vs. Philip Roth and Updike (take the candidates of winner of 1960’s National Book Award as an example) 1967. Norman Miller Why Are We in Vietnam (1968 National Book Award finalist) 1973. Bath’s Chimera win the Award 1974. Pynchon’s The Gravity Rainbow 1975. winner and other finalists as examples 1985. DeLillo’s White Noise won the Award.

5. 1989. winner: Spartina by John Casey finalists: winner Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan 1992. Winner : All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Finalist: Dreaming in Cuban 1999. Waiting by Ha Jin 2000. In America by Susan Santag 2001. finalist: The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich 2004. winner: The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck 2007. winner of Young People’ s Literature: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

6. Afro-American literature Older generation: James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Ralph Waldo Ellison, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison Invisible Man, 1953 winner of National Book Award for fiction, with The Old Man and the Sea and East of Eden by John Steinbeck as the finalists: Toni Morrison: Sula was nominated National Book Award in 1975. 1983, Walker’s The Color Purple won the National Book Award.

7. Latino Literature Definition of Latino literature Sub-cultural groups: Chicano (Mexican American), Cuban American; Dominican American, Puerto Rico (American) literature History and literature: double colonization of Latino Americans, mestizo race and its literary representation. Heterogeneity of Latino literature: eg. Comparative studies of Cuban, Dominican and Mexican; subcultural braches of Mexican

8. Representatives Chicano literature: Quinto Sol generation: Mario Suárez, Jose Antonio Villarreal, Rolando Honijosa, Tomas Rivera, Rudolfo Anaya and Estela Portillo Trambley Chicana writers: Gloria Anzaldua, Sandra Cisneros, Anna Castillo, and Denise Chavez Younger generation: Richard Rodriguez,