106 pages 3 hours read

John Kennedy Toole

A Confederacy of Dunces

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980

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Introduction

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: