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SyllabusIngrid Fields

English 3674Winter 2003

Twentieth Century American Literature, Post 1945

(Or: Post-War, Postmodernism, Post- America?)Whats is like to be the child of the Zeitgeist?

Angels in America

[Postmodern fiction]asks it readers to question the processes by which we represent ourselves and our world to ourselves and to become aware of the means by which we make sense of and construct order out of experience in our particular culture. We cannot avoid representation. We can try to avoid fixing our notion of it and assuming it to be transhistorical and transcultural. We can also study how representation legitimizes and privileges certain kinds of knowledge.

Linda Hutcheon, 53-4

This is a selective study of United States literature from the post-war period through to the present. In reading some of the influential authors of this period, we will consider their literary investigation and articulation of cultural issues, particularly issues concerning the now holy (?) literary trinity of race, gender, and class. We will also examine how traditional, multicultural, and feminist literatures debate issues of cultural (and literary) authority through their writings. Finally, we will explore postmodernism as a continuing subtext to our wanderings: where does it come from and how does it identify itself in the contemporary novel and critical discourse?

In addition to one long Essay, a Final Exam, and an in-class Presentation, you will keep an in-depth, well-conceived and developed Reading Journal, some entries of which will be exchanged with classmates for comments, juicy and riveting dialogue, earth-shattering insights, etc. (See course assignments handout for details about above.) This is a seminar, so thoughtful, discursive participation mattersa lot. Absences are costly because the bulk of our work (understanding, processing, revisiting) is done in class discussion. The translation: more than three absences will result in failing the course. Contacting me: see the sheet on my door for office hours. The most expedient way you can reach me is via email.

In addition to the required reading listed below (in addition?!): there will be a couple of screenings of reserve texts. Also, you will be required to engage with a critical work in your essay. You may select this from our class reading list or you may opt to forage on your own. (Be thinking ahead, here: it takes time to process and fully grasp another argument before you articulate your own.)

Required Reading / ViewingInvisible Man, Ralph Ellison

Zootsuit, Luis Valdez (video)

The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston

Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner

Angels in America: Perestroika, Tony Kushner

The Book of Daniel, E.L. Doctorow

Required Reading on Reserve

Defining the Postmodern, Jean-Franois Lyotard

Recitatif, Toni MorrisonPostmodern Blackness, bell hooks

The Age of White Guilt and the Disappearance of the Black Individual, Shelby Steele

Commitment From the Mirror-Writing Box, Trinh T. Minh-ha

Beginning to Theorize Postmodernism, Linda Hutcheon & Toward a Concept of Postmodernism, Ihab Hassan

Selection from Public Access, Michael Brub

Not Anyones Daughter, Nancy Isenberg

True West, Sam Shepard

Howl, Allen Ginsberg

Berkeley in the Sixties, Mark Kitchell (video)

Re-presenting the Past, Selection from The Politics of Postmodernism, Linda Hutcheon

READING SCHEDULE:

Readings are grouped into thematic as opposed to chronological associations; it seems appropriate to disrupt the chronology of history here in favor of a pastiche of the changes and shifts in form, identity, politics, and voice since 1945. However, since we succumb to the tyranny of order in one way or another, I thought the roman numerals were a nice touch. [P] = student presentation

I. Battling on All Fronts: Race (Gender) and the Self in AmericaM Jan 6: Introduction: Defining the Postmodern, Jean-Franois Lyotard (1989) & Postmodernism handout #1 & Natoli handout, Postmodernism #2

W 8: Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (1947 Battle Royal; 1952 - novel)M 13: Invisible ManW 15: Invisible Man [P]

Journal due

M 20: MLK Holiday

W 22: Recitatif, Toni Morrison (197?) and Postmodern Blackness, bell hooks (1990), The Age of White Guilt and the Disappearance of the Black Individual, Shelby Steele, 2002

Screen Zootsuit, (R)

(optional and suggested viewing: Bamboozled, Spike Lee)

M 27: Zootsuit, Luis Valdez (1981) [P]

W 29: The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston (1975)

M Feb 3: The Woman Warrior [P]

W 5: The Woman Warrior and Trinh T. Minh-ha, Commitment From the Mirror-

Writing Box (1989) [P]

Journal due

M 10: Beginning to Theorize Postmodernism, Linda Hutcheon & Toward a

Concept of Postmodernism, Ihab Hassan, & Public Access, Michael BrubW 12: True West, Sam Shepard (1981) [P]

II. The Invisibility of Class (Bounds) in America

M 17: Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson (1981) W 19: Housekeeping [P]

M 24: Not Anyones Daughter, Nancy Isenberg (2000) (R) [P]W 26: Howl and A Supermarket in California, Allen Ginsberg (1955) [P]

TBA Required Peer Review, Essay

M Mar 3: Howl [P]

W 5: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner (1992) [P]

Essay due (in class)

III. Legacies: The Politics of History in Postmodern America

Spring Break

M 17: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches [P]

W 19: Angels in America: Perestroika, Tony Kushner (1992/1994) [P]M 24: Angels in America: Perestroika [P]

Journal due

Screen Berkeley in the Sixties (R)

W 26: Berkeley in the Sixties, Mark Kitchell (1990) (R) [P]

TH 27: Reading by Delcamp Visiting Writer, Elizabeth Alexander

M 31: Re-presenting the Past, Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism

(1989) (R)

QuizW Apr 2: The Book of Daniel, E.L. Doctorow (1971) [P]

M 7: The Book of Daniel [P]

Journal for portfolio

Journal Portfolio due

W 9: The Book of Daniel & Conclusions

(Evaluations)

Take Home Final Exam due Monday April 14th, 9:00 a.m.Suggested Reading (for your own research purposes, for fun, or simply to torture yourself):

Primary Reading:

M. Butterfly, David Hwang

Fishboy, Mark Richard

The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood

Libra and Underworld, Don DeLillo

The Antelope Wife, Louise Erdrich

Empire of the Senseless, Kathy Acker

A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving

Stray Toasters, Bill Sienkiewicz

Cambodia: A Book for People Who Find Television Too Slow, Brian Fawcett

Critical Reading: (There are other articles I might suggest if you have a particular idea of what youre looking for . . .)The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality, Hayden White

Make My Day! Spectacle as Amnesia in Imperial Politics, Michael Rogin, Cultures of United States Imperialism, Amy Kaplan and Donald Pease, eds.

Ronald Reagan: The Movie, Ronald Reagan: The Movie and other Episodes in Political Demonology, Michael Rogin

Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic Jameson

Periodising the Sixties, Frederic Jameson

On Interpretation, The Political Unconscious, Frederic Jameson.

The Precession of Simulacra, Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Illuminations,

Walter Benjamin

Questions of Multiculturalism, Gayatri Spivak and Sneja Gunew, The Cultural Studies

Reader, ed. Simon During

Blasted Allegories, ed. E. Ann Kaplan

Discourses: Conversations in Postmodern Art and Culture, eds. Russel Ferguson,

William Olander, Marcia Tucker, and Karen Fiss

The Politics of Postmodernism, Linda Hutcheon

Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault

Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Sedgwick [Introductory chapter]