MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

CLS2790

Postmodernism and the novel

Millicent Vladiv-Glover

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 Written (5000 words): 70% + Examinations (1 hour): 30%

Prescribed texts

• Bellow S More die of heartbreak Penguin, 1988
• Bitov A Pushkin house Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 1987
• Blanchot M Madness of the day Station Hill, 1981
• Eco U The name of the rose Picador, 1987
• Foucault M Foucault/Blanchot Zone Books, 1987
• Hall R Captivity captive McPhee Gribble, 1988
• Kis D Hourglass Farrar Strauss and Giroux
• Pavic M The dictionary of the Khazars Knopf, 1988
• Scepanovic B Mouth full of earth Longship, 1980
• Suskind P Perfume Penguin, 1987

Recommended texts

• Baudrillard J Selected writings Polity Press, 1992
• Huyssen A After the great divide: Modernism, mass culture, postmodernism Bloomington, 1986
• Jameson F Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism Verso, 1988
• Lyotard J-F The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge Manchester U P, 1989
• McHale B Postmodernist fiction Methuen, 1987
• Milner A and others (eds) Postmodern conditions Berg, 1990