The module aims to: Enhance students' skills in textual analysis and written composition  Advance students' understanding of theoretical and contextual elements of postmodernism and postmodern fiction  Develop independent and original approaches to evaluating and critically analysing complex issues related to postmodernism

(LO1) Students will demonstrate a critical appreciation of the debates around postmodernism, its cultural, historical and theoretical status.

(LO2) Students will demonstrate advanced textual analysis of a range of postmodern fiction.

(LO3) Students will critically evaluate current scholarship and research related to postmodernism.

(LO4) Students will effectively handle complex concepts and engage with them through independent, critical analysis in an extended written assessment.

(S1) Improving own learning/performance - Reflective practice

(S2) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Academic writing (inc. referencing skills)

(S3) Critical thinking and problem solving - Critical analysis

(S4) Information skills - Critical reading

Syllabus and Primary Reading   Session 1 – An Introduction to Postmodern Thought (David Hering)   Primary Reading : Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths” and “The Library of Babel” Frederic Jameson, Chapter 1 of Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism   Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp” from Against Interpretation   Session 2 –Simulacrum and Simulation   Primary Reading : Don DeLillo, White Noise Jean Baudrillard, "Simulacra and Simulations." Jean Baudrillard, Selected Writings , ed Mark Poster. Stanford University Press, 1998, pp.166-184.   Session 3 – Rules and Forms   Primary Reading : Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy Jean Francois Lyotard, “Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?”   Session 4 – The Local/Global Context   Primary Reading : - Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase - Ihab Hassan, “From Pos tmodern to Postmodernity: the Local/ Global Context”  - Kodama, Sanehide, and Ken Inoue, ‘Postmodernism in Japan’, in International Postmodernism: Theory and Literary Practice, ed. by Hans Bertens and Douwe Fokkema (Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1997), pp. 511-15.   Session 5 – Postmodernism and SF   Primary Reading :  William Burroughs, ‘The Limits of Control,’ J.G. Ballard, Chapters 1, 5 and 7 of The Atrocity Exhibition   Session 6 – The World after Postmodernism?   Primary Reading : Amy Hungerford, “On the Period Formerly Known as Contemporary”, essay in American Literary History Vol. 20, Number 1-2 - David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram: Television and US Fiction” and “Greatly Exaggerated” from A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never do Again ; “My Appearance” from Girl with Curious Hair - Tao Lin, “Leftover Crack in Red Hook&#x 201D; - Leslie Jamison, “In Defence of Saccharin(e)”   Secondary Reading Jean Baudrillard, America (1986) Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations (1980) David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (1990) Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition (1979) Don DeLillo, Underworld (1997) ‘Don DeLillo’s America’ at http://www.perival.com/delillo/delillo.html Mark Osteen, American Magic and Dread (2000) Thomas DiPietro, ed. Conversations with Don DeLillo (2005) Peter Boxall, Don DeLillo: The Possibilities of Fiction (2006) John Duvall, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo (2008) Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions (2002) Paul Auster, The Art of Hunger (1992) (essays, interviews, etc.) Mark Brown, Paul Auster (2007) Dennis Barone, ed. Beyond the Red Notebook (1995) Haruki Murakami, After Dark (2008) Jay Rubin, Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words (2002) Rebecca Suter, The Japanization of Modernity (2008) ‘Haruki Murakami Res ources’ at http://www.exorcising-ghosts.co.uk/ David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest (1996). The Howling Fantods (DFW online resource) at http://thehowlingfantods.com/dfw/ Marshall Boswell, Understanding David Foster Wallace (2003). Marshall Boswell and Stephen Burn, ed. A Companion to David Foster Wallace Studies (2013) David Hering, ed. Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays (2010) Barth, John. ‘The Literature of Exhaustion’, in The Friday Book: Essays and other Nonfiction (1984) Bennet, Tony, ed., Popular Fiction: Technology, Ideology, Production (1990) Butler, Christopher, Postmodernism. A Very Short Introduction (2002) Connor, Stephen, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism (2004) Dix, H.R. Postmodern Fiction and the Break-Up of Britain (2010) Jameson, Fredric, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) Hasan, Ihab, The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Towards a Postmodern Literature (1982) Hasan, Ihab, The Postmodern Turn (1987) Malt by, Paul, Dissident Postmodernists: Barthelme, Coover, Pynchon (1991) Nicol, Barn, The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction (2009) Smyth, Edmund J., (ed), Postmodernism and Contemporary Fiction (1991) Waugh, Patricia, ed. Postmodernism. A Reader (1992) Wood, Brent, ‘William S. Burroughs and the Language of Cyberpunk.’ At http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/68/wood68.html Smith, Matt, ‘The Work of Emotion: Ballard and the Death of Effect’ at http://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/death_of_affect.html   ‘The Atrocity Exhibition Discussions,’ at http://www.holli.co.uk/atex/atex.htm

Teaching Method 1 - Fortnightly 2 hour seminars
Description: Seminars
Attendance Recorded: Yes