Course Calendar

WEEK 1 // INTRODUCTION TO P(OS)TM/ODE.RN{ISM}

Tuesday, August 26

• Inducing Postmodernism

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

• House of Leaves, pp. 584-644, 80-106
• “The Literature of Exhaustion” by John Barth (pp. 138-147) in Pomo CoNo
• Suggested reading: Jorge Luis Borges, “On Exactitude in Science” and “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”
• In class: House of Leaves discussion forums, Five and a Half Minute Hallway (YouTube), House of Leaves trailer (YouTube), Navidson Record – Found Video (YouTube), Navidson Record (YouTube)

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

• House of Leaves, pp. 491-535, plus miscellaneous Appendices
• “The Digital Topography of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves“ (on campus link) by Mark B.N. Hansen (e-journal)
• Interview with Mark Z. Danielewski in Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction (Blackboard)

WEEK 7 // NEW MEDIA AND DIGITAL LIVES

Tuesday, October 7

• Olia Lialina, My Boyfriend Came Back from the War
• Mary Flanagan, [theHouse]
• Jason Lewis, Nine
• Brian Kim Stefans, Star Wars, one letter at a time
• Natalie Bookchin, The Intruder
• Greg Ulmer, “Apparatus,” “Apparatus 2,” and “Modes” from Electracy Diagrams

Thursday, October 9

• Jim Andrews, Nio
• Jason Nelson, Weather Visualizer and Conversation
• Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, We Feel Fine and Lovelines
• Jonathan Harris, The Whale Hunt
• Lev Manovich, Database as a Genre of New Media
• In class, You Are Where You Live
• Inquiry #3 Due

WEEK 8 // POSTMODERN FEMINISM

Tuesday, October 14

• No Class

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

• Dream Jungle, pp. 252-325
• Inquiry #4 Due

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

• Thanksgiving Holiday

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

• Shooting War

WEEK 16 // FINAL PAPER

DUE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16