English/American studies 514: fiction of postmodern america
Location: Avery 110 Time: Thurs. 5:30-8:35
Instructor: T.V. Reed
Office: Avery 222 Office Hours: Thurs. 1::00pm-2:30pm or by appointment
Phone: 5-7973 or 5-1560
E-mail: reedtv@wsu.edu
COURSE OUTLINE & READING SCHEDULE
[Abbrev: (R)= Course Reader (O)= Online article (PAF)=Norton Postmodern American Fiction]
WEEK 1: Thurs. Aug. 25 -- INTRODUCTIONS; COURSE OVERVIEW
WEEK 2 Thurs. Aug. 31 -- WHEN OR WHAT IS POSTMODERNITY?
o
Geyh, "Introduction" (PAF ix+) and at least 3 fiction selections from PAF
o
Fredric Jameson, from "Postmodernism and Consumer Society." (PAF 654+)
o
Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto." (PAF 603+)
o
Michael Berube, "Just the Fax M'am." (PAF 595+)
o
bell hooks. “Postmodern Blackness.” (PAF 624)
WEEK 3: Thurs. Sept. 8 -- WHO(’)S(E) POMO? WHAT’S POSTMODERN?
o
At least 3 fiction more selections from PAF
o
Geyh, PAF "Breaking the Frame."(PAF 1+), "Fictions of Fact." (PAF 125+) "Revisiting History." (PAF 291+) "Revising Tradition." (PAF 393+) "Popular Culture and High Culture Collide." (PAF 193+)
o
Ihab Hassan, "Toward a Concept of Postmodernism." (PAF 585+)
o
Umberto Eco, from "Postscript to 'Name of the Rose.'" (PAF 622+)
o
Linda Hutcheon, "Theorizing the Postmodern." (R)
Short paper on one story from PAF due in class
WEEK 4: Thurs. Sept. 15 BEAUTIFUL PARANOIA & THE METAPHOR QUEST
o
Brian McHale, "From Modernist to Postmodernist Fiction." (R)
o
Robert D. Newman, "The Quest for Metaphor in The Crying of Lot 49."(R)
o
Thomas Schaub,"The Crying Of Lot 49: 'A Gentle Chill of Ambiguity.'"(R)
o
Tracey Sherrard, “Birth of the Female Subject in Crying of Lot 49.” (R) [WSU]
WEEK 5: Thurs. Sept. 22 -- POSTMODERN (NON)FICTION & WOMEN WARRIORS
o
King-Kok Cheung, "The Woman Warrior vs. The Chinaman Pacific." (R)
o
Amy Ling, "Maxine Hong Kingston and the Dialogic Dilemma of Asian American Writers." (R)
WEEK 6: Thurs. Sept. 29 -- POMO MUMBO JUMBO FROM A DIFFERENT REED
o
o
H.L. Gates, "On 'The Blackness of Blackness.’" (R)
o
Theodore Mason, "Performance, History and Myth...[in] Mumbo Jumbo." (R)
WEEK 7: Thurs. Oct 6 -- (POST)MODERN DESIRE & BLACK BLUES
o
Elizabeth M. Cannon, "Following the Traces of Female Desire in Toni Morrison's Jazz." (R)
o
Christa Albrecht-Crane, “Becoming Minoritarian.” (R) [WSU]
o
Marie Drews, “The Possibility of History: The Historian’s Task in Jazz.” (R) [WSU]
WEEK 8: Thurs. Oct. 13 -- POMO POETICS & THE POLITICS OF (BLACK) MAGIC
o
Gloria Hull, "What It Is I Think She is Doing Anyhow." (R)
o
Elliot Butler-Evans, "The Salt Eaters," from Race, Gender and Desire. (R)
o
Janelle Collins, "Generating Power: Fission, Fusion and Postmodern Politics in The Salt Eaters." (R) [WSU]
WEEK 9: Thurs. Oct. 20 AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENTS & THE POMO UNIVERS(E)ITY
o
Essays by LeClair, Frow, and Duvall in WHITE NOISE: VIKING CRITICAL EDITION
WEEK 10: Thurs. Oct. 27 --- POSTMODERN TRICKSTERS & RED BLUES
o
Sherman Alexie, LONE RANGER & TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN
o
P. Jane Hafen, "Rock and Roll Redskins, and Blues in Sherman Alexie's Work." (R)
o
James Cox, "Muting White Noise: The Subversion of Popular Culture Narratives of Conquest in Sherman Alexie's Fiction." (R)
FILM: Wed. Oct 26, 7:00pm:
"Smoke Signals"(scripted by Alexie, directed by Chris Eyre).
WEEK 11: Thurs. Nov. 3 -- CYbERpunKPOmoSCIfi & SENSELESS EMPIRES
o
Kathy Acker, from Empire of the Senseless (R)
o
Veronica Hollinger, "Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Pomo." (R)
o
Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, "Cyberpunk and Neuromanticism." (R)
o
Brian McHale, "POSTcyberMODERNpunkISM." (R)
o
Ellen G. Friedman, "`Now Eat Your Mind': An Introduction to the Works of Kathy Acker." (R)
FILM: Wed. Nov. 2, 7:00pm, "Blade Runner" (director's cut) by Ridley Scott
WEEK 12: Thurs. Nov. 10 -- FASCISM AND THE POETICS OF POSTMODERN MICE
o
Art Spiegelman, MAUS, Vols. 1 & 2
o
Robert Leventhal, “Art Spiegelman's Maus: Working-Through The Trauma of the Holocaust.” (0)
o
Efraim Sicher, “The Future of the Past” (0) [requires access to Project Muse via Griffin]
WEEK 13: Thurs. Nov. 17 -- POMO BORDERLANDS & LATINA RESISTANCE
o
Theresa Delgadillo, "Forms of Chicana Feminist Resistance: Hybrid Spirituality in Ana Castillo's 'So Far From God.'" (R)
o
Kamala Platt, "Ecocritical Chicana Literature: Ana Castillo's 'Virtual Realism.'" (R)
o
Ellen McCracken, "Ana Castillo Gender Trouble Forestalled in the Land of Enchantment." (R)
FALL TERM BREAK NOV 21-25
WEEK 14: Thurs. Dec. 1 – PERFORMING ETHNO(PORNO)GRAPHIC AUTHORITY
o
Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Temple of Confessions
o
La Pocha Nostra (0) (see especially, “The Chica-Iranian Project.”)
o
Stacy Alaimo,“Multiculturalism and Epistemic Rupture.” (0)
WEEK 15: Thurs. Dec. 8 – GLOBALIZATION & POSTMODERN ETHNICITIES
o
Stephen Sohn, “The Post-Asian American in the City of Angels.” (0) [pdf file]
o
Molly Wallace, “Tropics of Globalization.” (R)
FINALS WEEK: Fiction of Postmodern America Mini-Conference
NOTE: final papers are due in professor's office by 4pm, Dec, 16th