551.356 (20W) Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Postmodern American Fictions
Overview
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- Lecturer
- Course title german Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Postmodern American Fictions
- Type Seminar (continuous assessment course )
- Course model Online course
- Hours per Week 2.0
- ECTS credits 8.0
- Registrations 6 (20 max.)
- Organisational unit
- Language of instruction English
- possible language(s) of the assessment English
- Course begins on 14.10.2020
- eLearning Go to Moodle course
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Remarks (english)
This is a block seminar which will be taught online in altogether 6 blocked sessions.
Attendance (online) of the first double session on October 14, 2020 is mandatory.
Enrolled students will be informed about the exact format of the class by email in early October.
Time and place
Course Information
Intended learning outcomes
Students will be able to articulate the typical characteristics of postmodern literature and to understand the most important differences between modernist and postmodern fiction. They will also gain insight in the postmodern American novel’s complex engagement with historical, political, social and environmental issues in the United States and elsewhere.Teaching methodology including the use of eLearning tools
Short lecture inputs, extensive discussions of the assigned texts.
Course content
What do we mean when we speak of postmodern American literature? How is it different from modernist literature? What, exactly, makes a novel postmodern? In this block seminar we will concern ourselves with such questions as we try to understand a literary genre that is famous and notorious for its use of parody, irony, satire and metafiction. We will start out with John Barth’s short story “Lost in the Funhouse” (1968), which will help us better understand some of the typical characteristics of postmodern texts and consider the issue of whether such a playful mode of storytelling can ever be serious. This question will be further explored in our discussions of thre postmodern classics: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (1969), Thomas Pynchons's The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), and Don DeLillo’s White Noise (1985). The last two novels we will consider -- Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats (1998) and Percival Everett's Watershed (1996) will help us consider how postmodern narration intersects with political issues around ethnicity, identity and social and environmental justice.
Prior knowledge expected
This is an advanced seminar for students at the MA level.
Literature
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five. Any edition.
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49. Any edition.
Don DeLillo. White Noise. Any edition.
Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats. Any edition.
Percival Everett. Watershed. Any edition.
All other texts will be provided by the instructor on Moodle.
Examination information
Grading scheme
Grade / Grade grading schemePosition in the curriculum
- Master's degree programme English and American Studies
(SKZ: 812, Version: 18W.1)
-
Subject: Literature and Culture Studies
(Compulsory elective)
-
3.5 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies II (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
- 551.356 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Postmodern American Fictions (2.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS) Absolvierung im 2. Semester empfohlen
-
3.5 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies II (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
-
Subject: Literature and Culture Studies
(Compulsory elective)
- Master's degree programme English and American Studies
(SKZ: 812, Version: 11W.1)
-
Subject: Film, Literature and Culture Studies
(Compulsory elective)
-
Advanced Topics in „Film, Literature and Culture Studies” (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
- 551.356 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: Postmodern American Fictions (2.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
-
Advanced Topics in „Film, Literature and Culture Studies” (
0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
-
Subject: Film, Literature and Culture Studies
(Compulsory elective)