CLS2790

Postmodernism and the novel

Proposed to be offered next in 2000

Millicent Vladiv-Glover

8 points - 3 hours per week - Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of this subject, students will have become acquainted with approaches to the study of postmodern literary and other artistic texts (music, film, painting etc.), based on philosophical, semiotic and psychoanalytic models, privileged by poststructural critical theory. With the aid of this knowledge, students will be able to undertake independent deconstructive analyses of texts.

Synopsis The subject will focus on the dominant themes and motifs in contemporary Australian, American and European fiction in order to answer the question: what is postmodernism? The subject will raise issues such as the relationship of postmodernism to its antecedents in European literature and culture, the place of the novel in the contemporary critical debate, and the relationship of narrative to knowledge and the legitimation of meaning. Various aspects of the contemporary novel, such as the 'exotic,' the 'erotic' and the 'shocking,' will be examined in concrete textual analysis and in the context of the new poetics of 'magic realism,' aesthetic pluralism and a 'zero' subject.

Assessment One seminar paper (1500 words): 25% - Essay (3000 words): 45% - Test (90 minutes): 30%

Prescribed texts

Bellow S More die of heartbreak Penguin
Bitov A Pushkin house Farrar Strauss and Giroux
Blanchot M Madness of the day Station Hill
Eco U The name of the rose Picador
Foucault M Foucault/Blanchot Zone Books
Hall R Captivity captive McPhee Gribble
Kis D Hourglass Farrar Strauss and Giroux
Pavic M The dictionary of the Khazars Knopf
Scepanovic B Mouth full of earth Longship
Suskind P Perfume Penguin

Recommended texts

Baudrillard J Selected writings Polity Press
Huyssen A After the great divide: Modernism, mass culture, postmodernism Bloomington
Jameson F Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism Verso
Lyotard J-F The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge Manchester U P
Milner A and others (eds) Postmodern conditions Berg

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