English 229-001
Introduction to Modern Literature: Postmodern Fictions
Instr: Bulamur, Naz
Office: CRT 507; 229-6022
e-mail: abulamur@uwm.edu
Office hours: TR; 11:15am-12:15pm, 2:00-3:00pm
Course Information: TR; 3:30-4:45pm; MIT B14
Course Description
The image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is tyrannically centered on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passions, while criticism still consists for the most part in saying that Baudelaire's work is the failure of Baudelaire the man, Van Gogh's his madness, Tchaikovsky's his vice. The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it. [...] Text is made of multiple writings…but there is one place where this multiplicity is focused and that place is the reader, not hitherto said, the author. The reader is the space on which all the quotations that make up a writing are inscribed without any of them being lost; a text's unity lies not in origin but in its destination…to give writing its future, it is necessary to overthrow the myth: the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.
Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author"
This course will examine postmodern fictions written in a period beginning in the 60's continuing to the present. We could also call such texts as 'metafictions'--that is, texts which foreground, even insist, on their textual status. We will see how these experimental fictions challenge our traditional assumptions about reading and writing texts and 'deconstruct' the binary between truth and fiction. For example, Sukenick claims, "Reality is, simply our experience, and objectivity is, of course, an illusion." To illustrate such concerns, we will start with Calvino, who questions author's absolute authority over his text and considers the role of the reader in construction of the text. Reading Sukenick and Federman, we will examine how the novels lay bare their own fictionality. We will see how Olsen blurs the distinction between the real and the unreal. With Cha and Morrison, we will ask whether women 'do' 'postmodernism' differently and discuss how women experiment with fiction. Finally, we will question the legitimacy of postmodernism in our contemporary society in relation to The Savage Girl. Essays from postmodern theorists-Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Helene Cixous, Bell Hooks-will compliment and enrich our discussion of experimental fictions.
Required Texts: (Available at Panther Bookstore on Downer Avenue)
Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler
Ronald Sukenick, The Death of the Novel and Other Stories
Raymond Federman, Aunt Rachel's Fur
Lance Olsen, Girl Imagined by Chance
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee
Toni Morrison, Jazz
Alex Shakar, The Savage Girl
Course packet, available at Copy Center, Union Bldg.
Course Requirements
Writing Journal: The goal of this course is to introduce you to postmodern fiction and theory through the texts of European, American, Korean American, and African American writers. Analyzing the texts of writers from different racial and cultural backgrounds will give us the opportunity to discuss various approaches to postmodernism and different perspectives on contemporary social and historical issues and events.
Writing journal will give you the chance to reflect on how your sense of postmodernism changes and develops throughout the semester. You will comment on texts, issues raised in class discussion and on the Discussion Forum, and the ways in which these intersect with your experience.
The journals will be graded on the extent to which they demonstrate analytical thinking that shows an understanding of how writers experiment with fiction and the effects of different innovative narrative techniques on the reader. You should also use the theories of postmodern writers-Cixous, Hooks, Barthes, and Baudrillard-as a critical lens to interpret the novels.
The entries for the Writing Journal may double as postings to the Forum. You should write at least four double-spaced pages a week. Date your entries and number your pages. No late journals will be accepted.
Discussion Forum: Participation in an on-line Discussion Forum, posting at least twice weekly. You should respond to your classmates' postings as well. Forum will give you the opportunity to explore and share your thoughts and feelings about these texts.
Discussion Leader: For one class, you will be responsible to introduce what, to you, are interesting issues for the text assigned for that day, in order to generate a subsequent discussion.
Participation: This course is intended to operate like a seminar: students working together to develop ideas about a particular subject through reading, writing, and discussing what they have read and written about that subject. The quality or outcome of discussions will depend on what each of you can contribute, how well you make the discussions "work" as collective attempts to interpret the readings. During class meetings, you should therefore always be prepared to speak meaningfully to whatever issue is under discussion. I will evaluate your performance in the course partly according to how active a role you play in the class discussions. To participate actively, you'll need to listen carefully to what others have to say, try to make connections between different ideas that are expressed, and contribute in ways that develop the line of thinking being generated by the class.
Grading System:
- Participation 20%
- Forum 20%
- Journal 50%
- Discussion Facilitator 10%
Attendance Policy: More than three absences will result in your final grade being lowered. You will fail this course if you are absent more than six days regardless of the cause of your absences. There are no excused absences.
Please note that being late to class is disruptive, and one late entrance or early exit will count as one half of an absence. I take attendance at the beginning of class. If you come in after this, it is your responsibility to see me after class so that I can mark you as tardy instead of as absent.
You are responsible for getting any documents, notes, and/or news from the day you were absent. Please email me or a classmate to find out what you missed.
