11:45a-1:00p D (30) 3 cr.
This course will be organized around the transition from modernism, in the first half of the 20th century, to postmodernism after World War II. We will discuss “modernism” and “postmodernism” as a set of literary responses to the historical and social changes that characterize this century – that is, we will discuss modernism and postmodernism as specifically literary movements, but we will also place those movements in a larger historical context. On a literary level, the course will examine the shift from a modernist aesthetic of formal innovation, exemplified by the modernist slogan “make it new,” to a postmodernist aesthetic of “recycling” characterized by techniques of pastiche, collage, and image scavenging. On the social and cultural levels, we will be especially interested in the relation of modernist and postmodernist fiction to multicultural movements in this century, especially feminism and African-American struggles for civil rights. We will also pay special attention to the emergence of mass media and the possible breakdown of distinctions between high and popular cultures, since that breakdown is often cited as one of the main differences between modernism and postmodernism.
Assignments are likely to include 3 short papers and a final exam.
We will read 6 or 7 fictional texts, chosen from this list:
Gertrude Stein, Three Lives
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury or As I Lay
Dying
Nella Larsen, Passing
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
Ishmael Reed, Flight to Canada
Tony Morrison, Beloved
Mark Leyner, Et Tu, Babe
Carole Maso, The Art Lover