After the Unimaginable: Five American Works Shaped by Catastrophe

In this course, we explore how American writers have confronted experiences that push the limits of language and understanding by analyzing their responses to two major historical ruptures: the end of World War II and the height of the AIDS crisis. The selected works trace how Americans endure, remember, and attempt to rebuild after unimaginable catastrophe. Our study includes John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946), Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Paul Monette’s Borrowed Time (1988), Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz (1992), and Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers (2018). Together, these works reveal why we turn to literature in difficult times—to understand what has happened, to find comfort in shared humanity, to bear witness, and to search for meaning in a changed world.