american subterranean
United States Fiction and Film
from the 20th and 21st Centuries
ECL 526 / MALAS 600D
Tuesday Thursday 12:30PM to 1:45PM
HH 150, Professor William Nericcio
Spring 2026
Quicklinks: Tumblr | Facebook | emails | books | theSKINNY
hat happens when the American Dream flips itself inside out, when the neon billboard of liberty flickers and burns out, leaving us groping in the dark for meaning? That’s where this class begins—not with the sunlit slogans of the republic, but in the crawlspaces and trapdoors where the real stories live. The American Subterranean is nightmare as mirror, comedy as confession, noir as national anthem. We will dig through texts, images, films, and fictions that refuse to behave—works that fracture, joke, scream, and seduce all at once.
This isn’t a polite march through the canon. Think of it instead as psychoanalysis for a country addicted to its own myths. Dreams, after all, are never innocent—they are coded dispatches from the unconscious. So too with American culture: its novels, its films, its graffiti, its TV satires, its haunted photographs. Each is both an artifact and a symptom, and together they chart the hidden underside of “America,” that fractured experiment in freedom, exploitation, comedy, and catastrophe.
The class is an invitation to discovery, to epiphany: you’ll be asked to plunge into the shadows, to make sense of laughter that wounds, of beauty that unnerves, of language that refuses closure. And we will do so on both sides of the American border as the American Subterranean has a fascination with the peoples along and in our Southern border. By semester’s end, you’ll have your own map of the underworld—a passport stamped by ghosts, rebels, dreamers, and tricksters.
English majors, MALAS grad students, curious wanderers: bring your questions, yourobsessions, your flashlights. The elevator to the basement is waiting.
Authors/artists include David Lynch, Emil Ferris, Thomas Pynchon, Charles Bukowski, Chuck Palahniuk, Francesca Woodman, Diane Arbus, Oscar Zeta Acosta, Hal Hartley, Orson Welles, Stephen Shainberg, Nathanael West, Steven Soderbergh, and Alex Rivera … more to come!
READING LIST: (in progress)
BAD BEHAVIOR: Stories
Vintage Contemporaries
Mary Gaitskill
IISBN 9780593689400
DRONE VISIONS : A BRIEF
CYBERPUNK HISTORY OF
KILLING MACHINES
ISBN: 9781938537783
BY YEHYA, NAIEF
REVOLT OF COCKROACH PEOPLE
ISBN: 9780679722120
BY ACOSTA, OSCAR ZETA
CRYING OF LOT 49
ISBN: 9780060913076
BY PYNCHON, THOMAS
CHOKE
ISBN: 9780385720922
BY PALAHNIUK, CHUCK
MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS
ISBN: 9781606999592
BY FERRIS, EMIL
MOTHER NIGHT : A NOVEL
ISBN: 9780385334143
BY VONNEGUT, KURT
CINEMA LIST
(SCREENED IN CLASS)
TOUCH OF EVIL
orson welles
SECRETARY
stephen shainberg
FLIRT
hal hartlley
if we have time ...
FUR
stephen shainberg
photo credit, above: Francesca Woodman
photo credit, page backdrop: Diane Arbus
theSKINNY
How You Will Be Evaluated and What You Have to Do to Succeed!
s we navigate this sin and cinema labyrinth of a class, the first thing you have to determine is who you are and where you are in your own personal academic adventure. As our class blends undergraduate ECL majors/minors with assorted MFA and MA graduate students, the rules of the game vary depending on which constituency you belong to!
Undergraduates in the class will be largely evaluated on the basis of their day to day class participation, in-class writing, and performance on the midterm and final. Graduate students performance will be similarly evaluated but you have the choice of skipping the final exam for a final essay.
Whether you are a part of one or the other, all of us (including me!) are expected to come to every class having completed the reading and writing assignment for a given day. These appear in your day to day literature/cinema adventure calendar!
All of us are going to be serious about cinema and literature -- and about "sinema," whatever that turns out to be! But not serious in the "heart-attack" sense of "serious"; more like serious in the "great, now i have to be accountable for my intellectual range, preparation, imagination, and curiosity" sense.
So my expectation is that you will enter each class session having carefully completed the assigned reading for a given day -- after all, if you do not intend to keep up with the readings, why be part of the adventure?
My desire is that you will come to each class on Tuesday and Thursday having both prepared the material by doing the reading, but that you will also have surveyed recent reviews on said work, look up if there is any sexy research on the work or in the field of said work, and, lastly, even, preparing questions (both discussion questions and close-reading-related questions) to share with your professor and your fellow students.
Mid-Term Exam & Final Exam
There will be two exams during the course of the semester -- a midterm, Thursday, March 27, 2025, and a final exam, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. You will also have the opportunity to write a final paper in lieu of the final exam. More information on this to follow.
Grading Information
UNDERGRADUATES, ECL 526
In-class free writes / writing challenges, class participation / attendance, social media-postings, etc.
--> 33%
MidTerm, Thursday, March 12, 2026
--> 33%
Final, Tuesday, May 5, 2026
--> 33%
Chutzpah, ganas, will, & drive
--> 1%
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Note: Graduate students have the option of skipping the final exam and concentrating on their seminar essay option. Undergraduates, too, are welcome to write a brief essay; drop into office hours to discuss this option.
GRADUATE STUDENTS OPTION 1
In-class free writes / writing challenges, class participation / attendance, social media-postings, etc.
--> 33%
MidTerm, Thursday, March 12, 2026
--> 33%
Seminar Essay Option
-->33%
Chutzpah, ganas, will, & drive
--> 1%
GRADUATE STUDENTS OPTION 2
In-class free writes / writing challenges, class participation / attendance, social media-postings, etc.
--> 33%
MidTerm, Thursday, March 12, 2026
--> 33%
Final, Tuesday, May 5, 2026
--> 33%
Chutzpah, ganas, will, & drive
--> 1%
Seminar Paper
(Optional for both graduate students and undergraduates).
It is expected that you will produce an amazing piece of rhetorical excellence in the course of the semester -- a seminar paper or essay. To that end, you will submit to me by noon, Friday, May 1, 2026, via email to bnericci@sdsu.edu, a well-researched, nicely crafted, exquisitely-honed critical essay anywhere, 12-15 pages. The essay should be typed, double-spaced, and carefully proofread.
What will this beautiful essay be about? That's the fun part! Let us first consider the obvious: you are an advanced undergraduate or graduate student.
What does that mean? It means that you are a scholarly apprentice of sorts. You are one in a long line of individuals who aspire to scholarship--someone who aims to produce an exegesis of the first order. Like it or not, one of the things that will determine whether or not you have what it takes to get past the gates at the ivory tower is your writing. It used to be that writing for literary journals was an extended exercise in pain and self-abuse. But the field is changing and so are its journals. That is the easy part.
How will you go about imagining this essay? Please have your essay derive or be based in large part on a text, author, director, theme, genre which is part of the required material for our class; moreover, I am also open to you conceiving of your submission to me as a draft chapter from your master's thesis, or a possible submission to critical journal.
Footnote vs. endnote? MLA style vs. Chicago style vs. APA style?
These controversies have been solved for you in advance. As part of your assignment, I want you to immerse yourself in the variety of journals now publishing essays in , literature, film studies, cultural studies, comparative literature and contemporary studies in comparative cultures. You may complete this immersion here at SDSU's Love library, at USD, or UCSD.
Some pretty good journals include: american literature, boundary 2, critical inquiry, social text, pmla, south atlantic quarterly, camera obscura and cinema journal.
Think of your essay, then, as an exercise in role-playing--any question you might have about format, tone, styles, footnoting tactics and the like will be answered by the editorial policy of the journal you select as your guide. Do please submit with your seminar essay, a copy of one essay from the journal you have selected that represents to you the BEST that journal has to offer. Also, if you can find it, include a xerox of the page in the journal where they tell prosepective contributors how to format their submissions.
Do note that our library has great, full-text, online journal archives like project muse and jstor--if you are off campus, you may have to log-in through the SDSU Libweb server reference index to access these invaluable index. If you have any question as to the appropriateness of a journal just give me a call or pull me aside and ask me.
What can you write on? Well, just about anything. I imagine the best exercise will be to throw all your books and notes on a table, think about what are some of the provocative issues that have stayed with you during the term and then head off to the library and those endless stacks of scholarly journals. By the time you’ve paged through all those journals and get back to your books and notes, you’ll have a firmer grasp on the goals of your analytical adventure. You’ll also probably have a headache -- welcome to academe.
Seminar Paper Prompts
Seminar Paper Prompts
I don't usually give out essay prompts to graduate students--the reason for that is simple: graduate students should be pursuing their own line of research, building on the required readings for the class, but also, then, voraciously researching hunches/ideas that appeal to THEIR intellectual sensibility. However, I realize that not all graduate students in an MA program are ready for that level of engagement, so I will provide here, for your entertainment and delight, a short list of seminar paper prompts:
1.
a. Select a journal you adore and want to imagine yourself published in--use it as an editorial template of sorts to guide the completion of your essay.
b. Author an original piece of scholarship that speaks to some idea that connects two or three of the works we have read this semester with a couple of recent scholarly essays on literature and cinema in the 20th and/or 21st century.
2.
a. Select a journal you adore and want to imagine yourself published in--use it as an editorial template of sorts to guide the completion of your essay.
b. Redefine the term "American Subterranean" using two works we have experienced this semester.
3.
a. Select a journal you adore and want to imagine yourself published in--use it as an editorial template of sorts to guide the completion of your essay.
b. Go to this page from a class I taught back in the day. Take one of the essay prompts and warp it, adapt it, combine it, deconstruct it in such a way that it enables you to write about ideas associated with two or three of the works we read this semester.
4.
Roll you own. Make up your own thesis that incorporates two or more works from our required reading this term.
More to come!
Office Hours
My office hours are on Tuesday afternoons, after our seminar, and by appointment, in Arts and Letters 273 (though you may find me in AL 283 from time to time).
Do please make the time during the course of the semester to come on out and introduce yourself and be a real, living, breathing, person -- the social dimension of intellectual life is key to your development as a graduate student and, believe it or not, it will make it easier for you to emerge as a dynamic agent of our seminar. My phone number here at SDSU is 619.594.1524, but the best way to make sure you get hold of me is email:
bnericci@sdsu.edu
My office is pretty easy to find, it's at the end of the hall to your left after you enter the Arts and Letters building 2nd floor, ground-level entrance. Click the image opposite to see what awaits you!
More Stuff
RULE 1:
BOOKS_BOOKS_BOOKS
BUY THE BOOKS AND READ THEM--DON'T COME TO SEMINAR WITHOUT YOUR BOOK! Though we very much adore living in the 21st century, we will, for the most part use ANALOG, printed books in this class. So check out each one and buy them now!
RULE 2:
READ_READ_READ!
When you enter this room for class you will have completed the reading that appears on the day-to-day class calendar, aka the Day to Day Calendar! Please note the word "finished" (not "started," not "skimmed," not "glanced," and most decidedly NOT "I read the Cliffs/Sparks Notes and a review of the damned thing online!"). Coming to a university literature/film/cultural studies class without doing the reading is like a gardener trying to raise roses without getting her/his hands filthy with shit, a surgeon trying to operate without a scalpel, a fireman without her/his ax, a prostitute without ..., ... er, ... well, I better stop there -- you get the gist of it.
RULE 3:
PUT THE ELECTRIC MONSTERS TO SLEEP!
Ok, the following Passport Rule 3 was also written pre-COVID ... I am leaving it here for the gags, image and link!
Your laptop will be asleep IN YOUR BAGS during class--or, better yet, resting in your dorm room or apartment.
Have you noticed how anytime a student uses a laptop in an auditorium there is a "cone of distraction" alongside and behind the student using a computer?
This is usually due to said student surfing the web via wi-fi perusing erotic delights or god knows what. I was recently at a cool (ok, it was slightly boring, I confess) lecture by a noted writer--as I tried to listen to her, in front of me, a diverted student (attending the lecture, no doubt, for extra-credit) was perusing sites like these (nsfw or school). So, laptops are GREAT for entering your notes AFTER class, but they will not be allowed in our lecture hall. If you have an issue with this, schedule a meeting with me during office hours to chat the first week of class.
RULE 4:
PARALYZE THE SMARTPHONE!
Your beloved magnificent iPhone, your cherished Galaxy, your fetishized Pixel, or even your primordial pager will be off, off, OFF during class meetings; if for some reason you are expecting an emergency call, set it on VIBRATE (for privacy, pleasure, or both!) and sit in the back near an exit after letting me know in advance before class that you are expecting an emergency phone-call. Cellphones KILL collective spaces of learning with their ill-timed, annoying clattering rings, bongs, squeaks, chirps, and themes.
Yes, the trauma of that delayed text, yes, the horror of that missed hook-up call, yes, the loss of the buzz of that random Tinder swipe will no doubt doom you to years and years on an psychoanalyst's couch, but we, the rest of us, will gain some silence, a kind of sanctuary without which ideas wither on the vine.
RULE 5:
Don't Be a Charlie-Delta_Thief
PLAGIARISM is for cads, thieves, and idiots who desire an "F" for the class. Plagiarism comes from the Latin word, "plagiarius" which means kidnapper, plunderer, or (get this!) thief--not a GOOD thing.
In the university, plagiarism refers to the art and crime of presenting other people's work under your own signature, aka cutting and pasting copied crap from Wikipedia--definitely a BAD thing. While your professor is forbidden by CSU/SDSU code from tattooing the word LOSER on the foreheads of guilty students, he can promise that felonious students will be remanded to the state-authorized SDSU executioners. Read THIS as well--SDSU is SERIOUS about this shit, so don't take any chances! Rely on your own singular mind and imagination!
RULE 6:
AI CAN BE TOXIC TO A STUDENT OF LITERATURE
But we don't have to worry about that as all our work will be done in class on paper with ink, blue or black ink please, as your aging professor's eyes are not what they used to be!
Lobby promotional photos for an American Subterranean
classic, Touch of Evil, 1958, directed by Orson Welles.
