Course Calendar
WEEK 1 // INTRODUCTION TO P(OS)TM/ODE.RN{ISM}
Tuesday, August 26
Thursday, August 28
- Introduction (pp. 1-10), The Postmodern Condition (pp. 13-19), “The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” by Fredric Jameson (pp. 20-39), and “Mapping the Postmodern” by Andreas Huyssen (pp. 59-71), all from Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel (abbreviated henceforth as Pomo CoNo)
- “A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease” by Jonathan Safran Foer (handout in class)
- “Coming Sun. Mon. Tues.” by Don DeLillo (handout in class)
WEEK 2 // TECHNOLOGY AND SIMULATION
Tuesday, September 2
- White Noise by Don DeLillo, pp. 1-105
- “Silhouette City: Hitler, Manson and the Millennium” by Don DeLillo (pp. 344-352) in White Noise
Thursday, September 4
- White Noise, pp. 107-163
- “Time-Space Compression” by David Harvey (pp. 40-58) in Pomo CoNo
- Inquiry #1 Due
WEEK 3 // IRONY AND DEATH
Tuesday, September 9
- White Noise, pp. 165-326
- “The Precession of Simulacra” by Jean Baudrillard (pp. 91-109) in Pomo CoNo
Thursday, September 11
- “The Last Things before the Last: Notes on White Noise” by John Frow (pp. 417-431) and “The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo’s White Noise” by John N. Duvall (pp. 433-455) in White Noise
WEEK 4 // THE POSTMODERN UNCANNY
Tuesday, September 16
- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, Forward, Introduction, and pp. 1-79
- “The Uncanny” by Sigmund Freud (Blackboard)
- “Discourse in the Novel” by Mikhail Bakhtin (pp. 231-238) in Pomo CoNo
Thursday, September 18
WEEK 5 // THE POSTMODERN SUBLIME
Tuesday, September 23
- House of Leaves, pp. 107-274
- “The Detective and the Boundary” by William Spanos (pp. 169-185) in Pomo CoNo
Thursday, September 25
- House of Leaves, pp. 275-346
- “Postmodernist Fiction” by David Lodge (pp. 250-277) in Pomo CoNo
WEEK 6 // INDETERMINACY
Tuesday, September 30
- House of Leaves, pp. 347-490
- “The Myth of the Postmodern Breakthrough” by Gerald Graff (pp. 207-216) in Pomo CoNo
- Inquiry #2 Due
Thursday, October 2
WEEK 7 // NEW MEDIA AND DIGITAL LIVES
Tuesday, October 7
Thursday, October 9
WEEK 8 // POSTMODERN FEMINISM
Tuesday, October 14
Thursday, October 16
- The Female Man by Joanna Russ, pp. 1-75
- “Metafiction” by Patricia Waugh (pp. 239-249) in Pomo CoNo
- Seventies Print Ads
WEEK 9 // CYBORGS AND SCIENCE
Tuesday, October 21
- The Female Man, pp. 75-131
- “A Manifesto for Cyborgs” by Donna Haraway (pp. 396-420) in Pomo CoNo
Thursday, October 23
- The Female Man, pp. 133-214
WEEK 10 // REWRITING HISTORY
Tuesday, October 28
- Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn, pp. 1-124
- “The Politics of Postmodernism” by Linda Hutcheon (pp. 339-354) in Pomo CoNo
Thursday, October 30
- Dream Jungle, pp. 125-185
- “The Ethics of Alterity” by Thomas Docherty (pp. 355-370) in Pomo CoNo
WEEK 11 // REWRITING FICTIONAL HISTORY
Tuesday, November 4
- Dream Jungle, pp. 186-251
- A Conversation with Jessica Hagedorn
- Screening: Apocalypse Now Redux (JC Reserve)
- In class screening: Hearts of Darkness
- “The Postcolonial and the Postmodern” by Kwame Anthony Appiah (pp. 429-445) in Pomo CoNo
Thursday, November 6
WEEK 12 // REFLEXIVITY AND METALEPSIS
Tuesday, November 11
- In class screening
- “The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge” by Jean-Francois Lyotard (pp. 72-90) in Pomo CoNo
Thursday, November 13
- The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, pp. 1-83
- “POSTmodernISM” by Ihab Hassan (pp. 186-206) in Pomo CoNo
WEEK 13 // THE RETURN OF THE AUTHOR
Tuesday, November 18
- The People of Paper, pp. 84-169
Thursday, November 20
- The People of Paper, pp. 171-245
WEEK 14 // NEW MEDIA REVISITED
Tuesday, November 25
- BRB LOL IRL
- Research Proposal Due
Thursday, November 27
WEEK 15 // ON THE MARGINS
Tuesday, December 2
- Shooting War by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman
- “Engendering Paranoia in Contemporary Narrative” by Patrick O’Donnell (pp. 463-478) in Pomo CoNo
- Scott McCloud’s Carl Comics (Flash Version)
- Matt Madden’s Exercises in Style
Thursday, December 4
WEEK 16 // FINAL PAPER
DUE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16
