BA Advance Course                    Spring Semester                             ya3l@hotmail.com

 

In this course we will examine texts that have come to be considered "postmodern". The term "postmodernism" is employed in ideological battles as a derogatory term, denoting anything from disloyalty to one's country to reckless relativism and overall moral degeneration. In this course we will attempt to dispel this view. In our reading of the novels (and films), we will focus on the ways they question notions of "self", "body", "narrative" and "history". We will examine the ways in which these particular texts deconstruct the idea of coherent subjectivity in different thematic, narrative and generic forms. We will read a science – fiction novel, a postcolonial/postmodern novel and a novel that has come under attack for being "too postmodern". We will also watch the filmic adaptation of Dick's novel which offers interesting versions of an imagined future and explores the limits and possibilities of the human body.

 

Our reading of the texts is by no means the only way or the right way. That would not be very "postmodern". My aim in this course is to introduce you to texts I find intriguing and challenging. I hope to demonstrate how these texts enact some of the concerns of the postmodern moment.

 

Texts

 

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

 

Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo

 

The Body Artist by Don DeLillo

 

 

Films

 

Blade Runner

 

Slaughterhouse Five

 

Course Requirements

 

Attendance and active participation: 15%

Mid-term paper (in class): 15%

Final take home exam: 70%