76-144 Freshman Seminar

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Topics vary by semester. Fall 2014 In the first chapter of one of the most notorious college novels, Stover at Yale 1912, Dink Stover imagines the glories that await him when he arrives They had begun at last the happy, carefree years that every one proclaimed. Four glorious years, good times, good fellows, and a free and open fight to be among the leaders and leave a name on the roll of fame. Only four years, and then the world with its perplexities and grinding trials. The freshman of 2014, however, confront mounting student debt, accounts of gruesome college shootings, pressure to succeed from parents and peers, as well as the distractions of video games, college parties, and the internet. In this course we think about how we got here through the genre of the college novel, from the best selling classic, F. Scott Fitzgeralds This Side of Paradise, to Zadie Smiths On Beauty, to the best selling Pittsburgh based novel, Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon.

Prerequisites: none listed

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