552.331 (20S) Issues in Literature: Postmodernism
Overview
- Lecturer
- Course title german Issues in Literature: Postmodernism
- Type Seminar (continuous assessment course )
- Hours per Week 2.0
- ECTS credits 6.0
- Registrations 15 (25 max.)
- Organisational unit
- Language of instruction English
- Course begins on 13.03.2020
- eLearning Go to Moodle course
-
Remarks (english)
Seminar takes place every fourteen days.
Time and place
Course Information
Intended learning outcomes
After completing this course, you:
- are familiar with basic features of postmodern artworks
- draw connections between literary works, films and the culture and history of postmodernism
- are able to apply essential terminology for formal and structural analysis of literary texts and films
- are sufficiently skilled in narratology
Teaching methodology including the use of eLearning tools
Lecture inputs, practical exercises, close reading, film clips, in-class discussion of the assigned texts and films in relation to ideas and concerns discussed in the course.
Course content
Postmodern fiction, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define. The new avant-garde literature partly carried modernism further, partly reacted against it, for example against its ideology and its historic orientation. Instead of the preceding modernist quest for meaning in a chaotic world, postmodern writers often playfully avoid the possibility of meaning. They frequently celebrate chance over craft and employ metafiction to undermine the presence of a single all-powerful storytelling authority. Starting out with David Lodge's essay "The Novelist at the Crossroads" (1971), we will explore different manifestations of 'postmodern' features in British and American literary texts and films.
Topics include, among others, intertextuality, metafiction, self-reflexivity, non-linear narratives, paradoxes, multiverses, unreliable narration.
Prior knowledge expected
Introduction to Literary Studies
Literature
Films discussed in class include Natural Born Killers (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994), Lost Highway (1997), Fight Club (1999), Matrix (1999), eXistenZ (1999), Memento (2000), Triangle (2009), Inception (2010), Source Code (2011), Coherence (2013), Her (2013), Enemy (2013), Bandersnatch (2018), Searching (2018), Zoe (2018).
Texts discussed in class are:
- David Lodge "The Novelist at the Crossroads" (1971)
- David Lodge "Hotel des Boobs" (1986)
- Gabriel Josipovici "Mobius the Stripper" (1974)
- Gabriel Josipovici "Goldberg" (1989)
- Tim Pratt "Impossible Dreams" (2006)
(Literary texts as well as David Lodge's "Novelist at the Crossroads" will be made available on Moodle before the beginning of the term.)
- The complete list of primary texts as well as the topics for your presentations will be announced in the first session.
- Secondary texts will be announced in the first session.
Study help:
- Bradbury, Malcolm. 2001. The Modern British Novel 1878-2001. London et al.: Penguin.
- Nünning, Ansgar. 2007. Der englische Roman des 20. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: Klett.
- Anthrin Steinke. 2007. Aspekte postmodernen Erzählens im amerikanischen Film der Gegenwart. Trier: WVT.
Intended learning outcomes
After completing this course, you:
- are familiar with basic features of postmodern artworks
- draw connections between literary works, films and the culture and history of postmodernism
- are able to apply essential terminology for formal and structural analysis of literary texts and films
- are sufficiently skilled in narratology
Teaching methodology including the use of eLearning tools
Lecture inputs, practical exercises, close reading, film clips, in-class discussion of the assigned texts and films in relation to ideas and concerns discussed in the course.
Course content
Postmodern fiction, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define. The new avant-garde literature partly carried modernism further, partly reacted against it, for example against its ideology and its historic orientation. Instead of the preceding modernist quest for meaning in a chaotic world, postmodern writers often playfully avoid the possibility of meaning. They frequently celebrate chance over craft and employ metafiction to undermine the presence of a single all-powerful storytelling authority. Starting out with David Lodge's essay "The Novelist at the Crossroads" (1971), we will explore different manifestations of 'postmodern' features in British and American literary texts and films.
Topics include for instance intertextuality, metafiction, self-reflexivity, non-linear narratives, paradoxes, multiverses, unreliable narration.
Prior knowledge expected
Introduction to Literary Studies
Literature
Films discussed in class include Natural Born Killers (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994), Lost Highway (1997), Fight Club (1999), Matrix (1999), eXistenZ (1999), Memento (2000), Triangle (2009), Inception (2010), Source Code (2011), Coherence (2013), Her (2013), Enemy (2013), Bandersnatch (2018), Searching (2018), Zoe (2018).
Texts discussed in class are:
- David Lodge "The Novelist at the Crossroads" (1971)
- David Lodge "Hotel des Boobs" (1986)
- Gabriel Josipovici "Mobius the Stripper" (1974)
- Gabriel Josipovici "Goldberg" (1989)
- Tim Pratt "Impossible Dreams" (2006)
(Literary texts as well as David Lodge's "Novelist at the Crossroads" will be made available on Moodle before the beginning of the term.)
- The complete list of primary texts as well as the topics for your presentations will be announced in the first session.
- Secondary texts will be announced in the first session.
Study help:
- Bradbury, Malcolm. 2001. The Modern British Novel 1878-2001. London et al.: Penguin.
- Nünning, Ansgar. 2007. Der englische Roman des 20. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: Klett.
- Anthrin Steinke. 2007. Aspekte postmodernen Erzählens im amerikanischen Film der Gegenwart. Trier: WVT.
Examination information
Examination methodology
- 20 % Regular attendance: at least 12 out of 14 seminars (1 seminar session = 90 minutes)
- 20% Active participation in discussion, group work, homework assignments
- 30 % Presentation in class, active participation
- 30 % Term paper (3,500 to 4,500 words): Students can freely choose the topic and narrative medium, as long as there is a focus on Postmodernism / Postmodernist features.
Examination methodology
Examination & Exam mode
20 % Regular attendance: at least 12 out of 14 seminars (1 seminar session = 90 minutes)
20% Active participation in discussion, group work, homework assignments
30 % Presentation in class, active participation
30 % Term paper (3,500 to 4,500 words): Students can freely choose the topic and narrative medium, as long as there is a focus on Postmodernism / Postmodernist features.
Grading scheme
Grade / Grade grading schemePosition in the curriculum
- Bachelor's degree programme English and American Studies
(SKZ: 612, Version: 15W.3)
-
Subject: Literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlich ausgerichtetes Wahlfach
(Compulsory elective)
-
9.1 Issues in Literature (
0.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS)
- 552.331 Issues in Literature: Postmodernism (2.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS) Absolvierung im 4., 5. Semester empfohlen
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9.1 Issues in Literature (
0.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS)
-
Subject: Literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlich ausgerichtetes Wahlfach
(Compulsory elective)