A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces

• Genre: Fiction
• Originally published: 1980
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 800-899L; Grades 9-12
• Structure/Length: 14 numbered chapters; approx. 13 hours and 30 minutes on audiobook
• Setting: New Orleans in the 1960s
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: The adventures of Ignatius J. Reilly, a scholarly but torpid 30-year-old man living with his mother in New Orleans in the early 1960s. Forced to find a job, he encounters a string of colorful characters endemic to the city of the time.
• Potential sensitivity issues: Racism, homophobia, emotional abuse, mental illness, misogyny, cursing

John Kennedy Toole, Author

• Bio: 1937-1969; A New Orleans native who studied English at Tulane University and Columbia University; he suffered from severe depression and died by suicide at the age of 31.
• Other works: The Neon Bible
• Awards: Posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981 for A Confederacy of Dunces

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Capitalism and Consumerism
• Society and the Outsider
• Fate

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the capitalist and consumerist themes that animate the primary messaging in the novel
• Study short paired texts and other resources to gain a historical/geographical context for the book’s setting in New Orleans as well as make connections to the text’s themes of Capitalism and Consumerism, Society and the Outsider, and Fate
• Draw modern-day connections to the novel’s themes around Capitalism and Consumerism
• Watch a unique artifact of historical visual media (a video of the author’s mother from 1985) and engage in a group discussion about the parallels between the author’s personal biography and characters/themes in the text, especially that of Society and the Outsider