EL 449 | Postmodern Literature and Culture
Fall 2023
Useful Links: Course Wiki, Blackboard
Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5 – Week 6 – Week 7 – Week 8 – Week 9 – Week 10 – Week 11 – Week 12 – Week 13 – Week 14 – Week 15 & Final
Am Lit eTexts and Helpful Sites: Here
Overview of Authors: Here
Postmodern Literature and Culture is a writing intensive (and reading intensive) course that looks at postmodernism as a literary and cultural phenomenon, addressing trends in fiction after World War II and tracking cultural dilemmas to which the writers we call postmodern are responding. We will investigate literary postmodernism as a historically grounded set of literary, aesthetic, and philosophical tendencies, arising in response to aesthetic Modernism, frustrated Romanticism, and the events of the mid-20th century. Along the way you will read some of the major theorists of postmodernism, and you will develop critical vocabulary helpful for understanding and commenting on those theorists, the postmodern culture they theorize, and the postmodern texts we read together.
Assignments/Scores to Anticipate
- Daily Quizzes (If There’s Reading, There Might Be a Quiz)
- Two Short Close Readings of Literary Texts (2 pages each)
- An Author Inquiry Project (6-12 pages) (Research Project)
- Seminar Paper/Long Critical Analysis (8-12 pages)
- A Reflection on Writing for the Course (2-5 pages)
- That’s between 20 and ~30+ pages of formal writing for the course–a right-sized challenge for an upper division literature seminar.
- Two Exams: Midterm and Final
- A Course Participation Score
You Should Always Have the Readings in Front of You in Class
Right in front of you, even if on a (bigger-than-a-phone!) screen. We’re here to read together. Let the text take its right place in the room.
Frequent Small Deadlines, Rather Than Sudden Huge Deadlines
This course breaks composition projects into small pieces and asks you to hit small, developmental deadlines, rather than just a few big, big, big deadlines. The idea here is to help you think about writing as a process and make small adjustments along the way.
Are You In? Are You Here to Play, or Not?
Gracious. If you’re not going to do the reading, why are you here? If the writing looks too challenging to even contemplate completing, find a different course. This course is road-tested; it works. But it won’t work for you if you aren’t willing to manage deadlines, risk turning in writing on time, and bring your heart and mind to the game. I hope you’ll come to play, but only if you want to.
This Course Has a Playlist
Week 1 (Sept. 6 and 8)
The library will give you virtual access to the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, via the Oxford Reference Online database. (I’m not always sure if this direct link will work on it, but let’s try it.) This ODLT and some other Oxford reference works included in that database may be very helpful along the way, as you sort through ideas in this course. Bookmark it! Go ask it when you’re looking for definitions.
Note: Notice that “due” items and small notes about any given week are listed right under each week’s heading. For example:
- Due NEXT Friday: Sign up for research subject/author (on wiki, link above) before NEXT Friday’s class. (Sign up on the wiki no earlier than NEXT Thursday at 7:00 AM.) Between now and then, take some time to get a sense of the authors we’re reading, so that you can choose someone that truly piques your interest.
- Please Note: Readings are meant to be completed for class time on the day when they’re listed on the schedule.
- Please Print: Remember that you need to either PRINT online texts or have some way (Kindle? iPad? Laptop?) to view your electronic copy in class. Phone screens are unreasonably small for this purpose.
Day 1: No Class Yet. Note that in any given week, “Day 1” is always a Monday, “Day 2” is always a Wednesday, and “Day 3” is always a Friday.
Day 2: Course introduction. We’ll talk about assignments, research philosophy, and literary postmodernism. We’ll talk about picking research subjects.
Due-ish: Not really due, but note that it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and sign up for the course wiki (link above), which we’ll use for a few things this semester.
Day 3: Read some short literary texts that will give us some some shared, foundational metaphors for the course. “Tlön” and “Library of Babel” are the longer ones. If there’s no link here, look to Blackboard to find the texts: “Tlön: Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” “The Library of Babel,” “On Exactitude in Science,” “Borges and I” (Jorge Luis Borges); “Anecdote of the Jar,” “Metaphors of a Magnifico” (Wallace Stevens)
Due: Film Screening Survey: LINK (If the link is missing, please email me…)
Advice: The critical / theoretical readings for Monday will demand some extra time and focused attention. Go ahead and start, if you’ve got the time now! Listen: To get these theoretical readings, you need to give yourself a space and time to read, not with a million electronic interruptions. Practice deep focus. Practice tracking the case. Be patient with yourself and these texts.
Receive: Today in class, I should have assignment packets for the two Close Readings and the Inquiry Project.
↓↓↓ About Passing Quizzes ↓↓↓
I’ll never be trying to truly stump you on a daily quiz, if we have one, though there will often be a question designed to reward careful readers.
Advice: As you read carefully, keep track of characters, situations, pivotal moments, and major themes you see in the writing. Put ’em in your notes for quick review before class. That kind of disciplined practice will help you to be ready (and may pay back dividends when you study for exams, too).
For “theory” days, look for major terms and major metaphors, and see if you can summarize, for a friend, 2-3 main takeaways or big ideas from the text. Also write down, for yourself, a few things you understand and a few questions you have. Put them into words.
These practices will make your reading times and class time more profitable.
Week 2 (Sept. 11, 13, and 15)
- Due Monday: Self intro on course wiki (link above) before class.
- Due Friday: Sign up for research subject/author (on wiki) before Friday’s class. (Sign up on the wiki no earlier than this coming Thursday at 7:00 AM.)
- We’ll be taking about research and writing tactics a little bit every day this week.
Day 1: from Postmodern Debates: Introduction (Simon Malpas); “Postmodernism and Consumer Society” (Fredric Jameson); “Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?” (Jean Francois Lyotard)
Watch: “Wikis in Plain English” (online)
Due: Brief self intro on course wiki (link above) before class.
Highly Recommended: Read the basic 4-page Author Inquiry Project assignment handout. Take some time to look at the basic info online about some of our course authors, as you begin to discern which one you’d like to study extensively this semester.
Day 2: John Barth: “The Literature of Replenishment”; from Smith (Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? book): “Where Have All the Metanarratives Gone? Lyotard, Postmodernism, and the Christian Story” (Smith)
Check Out: It’s optional, but the free app Evernote can be an absolutely terrific organizer for your research. I recommend taking 15 minutes to explore it now; it may help you stay on track for the rest of the semester.
Note Taking in Class: Do you have a strategy? It’s *always* the right semester to work on improving your note taking.
Thursday Morning, 7 am: Starting at 7 am on Thursday Morning, you may choose your authors for the Inquiry Project, at the wiki.
The Research-as-a-Process guide is available online: here. Bookmark it!
Day 3: A long excerpt from Daniel Boorstin’s The Image: “From News Gathering to News Making” (Skip that First Page…) + (Online) “Liar, Liar Pants on Fire” (Errol Morris)
Remember to choose your Inquiry Project author before today’s class meeting.
In Other Words: Due: Claim Author on Wiki
Recommended: Learn about taking screenshots. These may be terrific assets as you tackle your research and writing this semester. (And actually, this is just useful all around, for digital-age life.) My #1 recommended app for screenshots is Skitch, by the Evernote folks, if you’re interested, but you can also do screenshots without an additional app.
Plan Ahead: If you haven’t yet given a slow and careful read to the Close Readings assignment sheet, now would be a very, very good time to do that. A draft is coming due next Friday.
Hey!: You should get to the library this weekend and settle in for an hour or so to do the basic groundwork on your author research, so that you’re on your way to completing the first, small, getting-started step in the Inquiry Project process. That step (some requesting of texts that are NOT available in our library) will be due a week from tomorrow. I cannot overemphasize how clarifying and helpful it will be to work through the Research-as-a-Process guide, which is available online: here.
Week 3 (Sept. 18, 20, and 22)
- Due Friday at 5:00: Close Reading #1 to Eli Review (On Any Text Up To/Including Slaughterhouse-Five)
- Due Saturday at 11:45 pm: Proof/Justification of SUMMIT or ILL Requests (Inquiry Project)
- Optional/Recommended: This week would be a very good time to meet with some classmates and workshop your first close readings. Or to take an initial draft of your first close reading to the Composition Commons for a consultation.
Day 1: Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut) (Chapters 1-5)
Hey, did you try Evernote? if you didn’t like it, you might try Diigo or Zotero. Similar missions, different approaches.
Day 2: Slaughterhouse-Five (Chapters 6-10)
Yes, we have class. (Community Building “Day” ends at lunchtime…)
Are you feeling stuck getting started on CR#1? Review some possible starting points, here.
Day 3: Andy Crouch, from Culture Making, pp 17-98
Note: The Andy Crouch reading will go faster than other theory we’ve read so far. It’s heavy thinking that Crouch is doing, but it’s in a more readable voice.
Due at 5:00: CR#1 to Eli Review, for Review
Due Saturday at 11:45 pm: Proof/Justification of SUMMIT or ILL Requests (Inquiry Project)
↓↓↓ Help for the SUMMIT / ILL Assignment ↓↓↓
(0) Make sure you read the “Pregame: SUMMIT and/or ILL Requests” section on the inquiry Project assignment sheet, so you know what you’re turning in.
(1) Strongly consider doing this work IN the library. Enter that space, and then set your mind and heart to “research.” Consider making a library date WITH anyone else who is working on the same writer you’re working on, especially. But, even if no one else is working on the same writer as you, you’d probably benefit from finding a library friend or three and heading in together.
(2) Do a basic search for your author from the library home page. Note the books that look most interesting.
(3) Modify that search to also include Whitworth + SUMMIT. Note the new books that come up from SUMMIT (our coalition of libraries) and start thinking of which ones you might want to have sent to you. Don’t order anything yet! Write things down. Keep track.
(4) Now, think REALLY like an English major and try out the “Step 1: Focused Overviews” moves here: https://abjohnson.net/teaching/research-process/
(4.1) Regarding (4): I can’t overemphasize what a revelation the Gale Literature database may be for this kind of research. Especially look at the biographical sources they offer.
What you’re looking for: Names of scholars that come up over and over; recent, awesome-looking books; older books that look truly informative; articles (especially recent ones) that we don’t have access to at Whitworth but that you would like to read. For the most promising of those: Have them sent to you by either SUMMIT loan or “Interlibrary Loan.”
In many cases, you’ll be looking at a link, on the page for the book/resource, that tells you how to have the thing sent. If that’s not the case, jot down the info (writer, title, publisher, year) and look for the “Borrow/Renew/Request” link under services on the homepage for the library. Find the instructions there and follow them.
Week 4 (Sept. 25, 27, and 29)
- This Week: Individual Research Check Ins (Details TBA).
- Due Wednesday @ Class Time: Feedback to Eli Review for CR#1
- Due Thursday at 11:45 PM: Revision plan at Eli Review for CR#1
- Due Friday at 11:45 PM: CR#1 to Blackboard (for me) and Wiki (for all of us)
- Eli Review, by the way, will give back to you what you give to it, for the most part. I consistently find that students who don’t value it are gving weak and cursory feedback.
- This week, you should continue moving forward with your research agenda for the Inquiry Project. Start by writing down some research goals for yourself for the week, and literally schedule some library time for yourself–some hours just being a literature nerd in that big building full of books. Schedule it! This is your research and writing time, and figuring out how to book it and hold to it is 100% a professional skill you’re working on. You’re working on it right now. You’re doing it.
Day 1: from Postmodern Debates: “The Gulf War: Is It Really Happening?” (Jean Baudrillard); also: “‘Making Do’: Uses and Tactics” & “Walking in the City” (Michel de Certeau)
Good Advice: At least read your CR#1 each day this week, as you tweak and improve it. Tweak as you go, make notes, and set aside an hour for revision. You want to keep the case in your head and the project on your mind, even if you just barely touch it most days this week. Feedback from your peers should roll in on Eli over the next couple of days.
Day 2: Postmodern Debates: “Deconstruction and Actuality” (Jacques Derrida) + from Smith: “Nothing Outside the Text? Derrida, Deconstruction, and Scripture” (Smith)
Due Wednesday @ Class Time: Feedback to Eli for CR#1
Due *Thursday* at 11:45 PM: Revision plan at Eli for CR#1. For this, you’re using the revision plan tools at Eli, which allow you to rate and work with your feedback from peers.
Day 3: This is a day off, replaced by your required research check ins.
Due Friday at 11:45 PM: CR#1 to Blackboard (for me) and Wiki (for all of us)
Week 5 (Oct. 2, 4, and 6)
- Due Saturday at 11:45 pm: Substantial Research Update Using Screencast-o-Matic (Inquiry Project). If you’ve not yet dug in on the Inquiry Project, you’re about to have to switch gears from “oh, there’s plenty of time” to “oh, no, where did the time go!” Look back to last week’s notes for the week: Plan time, set it aside, give yourself permission to honor your own research plan.
Day 1: The Crying of Lot 49 (Thomas Pynchon) (Chapters 1-3)
Good Advice: There are lots of examples of research updates up on the wiki. You should look at a few!
Day 2: The Crying of Lot 49 (Chapters 4-6) +https://youtu.be/lbq4G1TjKYg Peruse the online Lot 49 wiki → http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki
Day 3: White Noise (Don Delillo) (Chapter 21 / Part 2).
Due Saturday at 11:45 pm: Substantial Research Update Using Screencast-o-Matic. See “Research as a Process” handout (Inquiry Project) for instructions. No late updates will receive comments.
Week 6 (Oct. 9, 11, and 13)
- Due Wednesday at Class Time: Draft of Library Assessment to Eli Review.
- Keep moving ahead with your Inquiry Project! At this point, you should be scheduling writing time, along with any additional research time you think you might need. (You can see I’m having you focus a bit of that writing time this week on the library assessment, which is a worthwhile space where you’ll pull together some thinking about what’s happening with your writer.)
- Due Friday at 5:00: CR#2 to Eli Review, for Review (Lot 49 or Don Delillo)
- Notice: Midterm coming up next week!
- Optional/Recommended: This would be a good week to meet with some of your classmates to workshop your close readings. (And don’t forget the Comp Commons.)
Day 1: from Postmodern Debates: “Ideology, Discourse and the Problems of ‘Post-Marxism'” (Terry Eagleton); “We Anti-Representationalists” (Richard Rorty)
Day 2: John Henry Days (Colson Whitehead) (Intro + Part 1)
Due Wednesday at Class Time: Draft of Library Assessment to Eli Review
Note: This is the shortest day of reading for John Henry Days, in light of also having the Library Assessment due to Eli. Look out for the fourth day on this book being the *longest* day, since one of the days had to be that.
Are you feeling stuck getting started on CR#2? Review some possible starting points, here.
Day 3: John Henry Days (Part 2)
Due at 5:00: CR#2 to Eli Review, for Review
Due at 11:45 pm: Library Assessment Feedback (Eli Review) (Inquiry Project)
Time for a Play! There will typically be only eight big mainstage WU plays during a typical four years at Whitworth, and one of them will run this weekend and next. Go see the play! (Details)
Week 7 (Oct. 16, 18, and 20)
- Head’s Up! Part 1 of the Midterm / Exam 1 is Friday! In class writing.
- Due Wednesday @ Class Time: Feedback to Eli Review for CR#2
- Due Thursday at 11:45 PM: Revision plan at Eli Review for CR#2
- Due SATURDAY at 11:45 PM: CR#2 to Blackboard (for me) and Wiki (for all of us)
- Optional/Recommended: This would be a very good week to meet with some of your classmates and study together for the exam. There’s no better review move than talking over the texts, characters, and themes with smart peers.
Day 1: John Henry Days (Part 3)
Day 2: John Henry Days (Parts 4 and 5)
Due Wednesday @ Class Time: Feedback to Eli for CR#2
Due *Thursday* at 11:45 PM: Revision plan at Eli for CR#2
Day 3: Part 1 of Midterm: In-Class Essay
Due SATURDAY at 11:45 PM: CR#2 to Blackboard (for me) and Wiki (for all of us)
Over the Weekend: Film Screening: Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color.
Week 8 (Oct. 23 and 25)
- Due Monday @Class Time: Opening of Author Snapshot to Eli Review
- Due Tuesday @5:00: Feedback on Author Snapshot Opening to Eli Review
- Due THURSDAY @11:45 pm: Inquiry Project
Day 1: Film Discussion
Due Monday @Class Time: Opening of Author Snapshot to Eli Review
Due Tuesday @5:00: Feedback on Snapshot Opening, to Eli
Day 2: ** Midterm (Part 2) **
In Class: Receive “Parts of the Seminar Paper” booklet
Due THURSDAY at 11:45 pm, Extensions Negotiable with Very Good Reasons: Inquiry Project
Exam #1 of 2 (Midterm)
Day 3: Fall Break Friday / No Class
A quick reminder that you have the option of revising your two close readings, if you want. Those revisions come due for sure in Week 14, but you can do them at any time that makes sense for you in the world of your semester.
Week 9 (Nov. 1 and 3)
- Due Friday, 11:45 pm: Initial Claim/Project Idea (Seminar Paper)
- Advice: During this week, do some new research work to locate high-value articles specifically on the text you’ll be writing about for the Seminar Paper.
Day 1: Fall Break Monday / No Class
Day 2: from Smith: “Power/Knowledge/Discipline: Foucault and the Possibilities of a Postmodern Church” (Smith)
Day 3: Claude Lévi-Strauss, “The Science of the Concrete,” pp. 11-14; Roland Barthes: Excerpt from “Myth Today” + “The Romans in Films”
Due Friday, 11:45 pm: Initial Claim/Project Idea to Eli Review (Seminar Paper). (Can be turned in early!) (See assignment sheet for details.)
Week 10 (Nov. 6, 8, and 10)
- Due Wednesday, 11:45 PM: Peer Feedback for Initial Claims
- Due Friday, 5:00 PM: Initial Claims to Bb for FJ
- Plan writing time for that AND your Middle Paragraphs. This is the time to experiment with making gradual progress on your writing for this big analysis, even if you’ve never written that way before. Plan a basic shape. Write it bit by bit. This is much closer to professional writing practices (and much farther from the last-minute undergrad rush-to-write).
Day 1: Loon Lake (E. L. Doctorow), To Page 93 (“…hand lifted too late as the signal for the engagement to begin”).
Day 2: Loon Lake, To Page 174 (“The only thing I haven’t seen her do is sew the American flag!”)
Due Wednesday, 11:45 PM: Peer Feedback for Initial Claims
Day 3: Loon Lake, To End
Due Friday, 5:00 PM: Initial Claims to Bb for FJ
Week 11 (Nov. 13, 15, and 17)
- Due Monday, Class Time: Middle Paragraph to Eli (Seminar Paper)
- Due Friday @11:45 PM: Middle Paragraph Feedback to Eli (Seminar Paper)
Day 1: from Postmodern Debates: “Postmodernism and Feminisms” (Linda Hutcheon); “Gender Trouble: From Parody to Politics” (Judith Butler)
Due: Middle Paragraph (Eli Review) (Classtime, to Give Peers More Time to Work) (Seminar Paper)
Day 2: from Postmodern Debates: “Postmodern Blackness” (bell hooks) + “Locations of Culture: The Postcolonial and the PoMo” (Homi K. Bhabha)
Day 3: Parks Essays (at start of America Play book) + The America Play (JUST that play; NOT the whole set of plays in the book!) (Suzan-Lori Parks)
Due: Middle Paragraph Feedback (Due @11:45 PM) (Seminar Paper)
Week 12 (Nov. 20 + Thanksgiving Break)
- Seminar Paper: This is the week to get serious about drafting the whole Seminar Paper. It can be very worthwhile to draft it *poorly* this week. Slipshod and messy. Then fix it next week.
Day 1: Plantinga: “Postmodernism and Pluralism,” pp 422-37 (Handout); from Smith: “Is the Devil from Paris? Postmodernism and the Church” (Smith)
Day 2: No Class: Thanksgiving Break
Day 3: No Class: Thanksgiving Break
Not due, but a really good idea: Nail down a messy draft of your Seminar Paper by the end of the day today.
Week 13 (Nov. 27 and 29; Dec. 1)
- Due Monday @Class Time: Draft of Seminar Paper OPENING PARAGRAPHS to Eli
- Due Wednesday @5:00: Peer Feedback on Opening Paragraphs
- Due Friday @5:00: Seminar Paper to Bb
- Due Friday @ 5:00: Hard Copy of Seminar Paper Works Cited Pages (to My Office)
Day 1: Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov) (Introduction + 130 Lines of Poem + Associated Commentary)
Due: Opening Paragraphs (Eli Review) (Classtime, to Give Peers More Time to Work) (Seminar Paper)
Day 2: Pale Fire (Finish Canto 2 + Associated Commentary)
Due: Opening Paragraph Feedback (Eli Review) (Due @11:45 PM) (Seminar Paper)
Day 3: Pale Fire (The Rest of It)
Due Friday @5:00: Seminar Paper to Bb
Due Friday @5:00: Hard Copy of Seminar Paper Works Cited Pages (to My Office)
Week 14 (Dec. 4, 6, and 8)
- Due Wednesday @5:00: Any (Optional!) Revised Close Readings (See Revision Guidelines)
- Due NEXT Monday @5:00: Reflective “Meditation” Essay
- Consider connecting with some classmates to talk over the upcoming reflective essay! Also, this is a good time to plan final exam study groups.
Day 1: Anagrams (Lorrie Moore), Chapters 1-4
Day 2: Anagrams (Chapter 5)
Due Wednesday @5:00: Any (Optional!) Revised Close Readings (See Revision Guidelines)
Day 3: City of Glass: The Graphic Novel, Adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli from Paul Auster’s novella.
Week 15 (Dec. 11 + Exam)
- Due Monday @5:00: Reflective “Meditation” Essay + Light Homework Below
- Thursday, 12/14: Final Exam
Day 1: Let’s do the write up of five big ideas from PoMo and five big aesthetic traits. What I’m looking for here is the ideas plus some clear explanation, and then the traits plus some clear explanation. A few sentences for each should work. Absolutely informal writing; write fast and loose (and funny, if you can).
Homework: See above. 20 quiz points.
Due: Reflective “Meditation” Essay. I’ll set a place to post these to Blackboard, but it would be great to have them on your page at the wiki, too, if you’d like. Sometimes these come out feeling too personal to share, so I won’t require wiki posting, but if you don’t mind posting there, please do. (And listen, I’ll take these, with no penalty, up until Wednesday of finals week, but DO THEM. They’re a great chance to do a self check about what you’ve learned and also a great chance to counterbalance any low quiz scores you’ve gotten this semester.)
EXAM 2/Final: 3:30-5:30, Thursday, Dec 14
Final Exam (#2 of 2): Thursday, Dec. 14, 3:30 AM – 5:30 PM
Find Free e-Texts Online
- Project Gutenberg (Start Here!)
- Open Library (The Internet Archive)
- Standard E-Books (*Nicely * Done)
- Fadedpage
- “Read Print” Online Texts
- U VA American Hypertexts
- ManyBooks.net
- Open Culture (eBooks)
- Libby App (if you have a local library card)
Audio Options
- Be sure to *read* alongside any listening! The visual experience of the text matters, too. It teaches you things about writing that listening cannot.
- Librivox
- Lit2Go
- Open Culture (Audio)
- Spotify has Some Stuff, Too
- Scribd is a Subscription Service with Stuff
General Am Lit Resources
The Writers We’re Reading, an Overview
(In Order of Appearance in the Course)
Composed and Maintained by Fred Johnson.