Modernism
and Postmodernism, Fall 2013, O'Donnell
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last update: November 18, 2013
Class meets TR 12:45-2:05am, in
Burleson 304.
Week 1 (Tues
Aug 27; Thurs Aug 29)
Tues:
Introductions. Some
"isms": Romanticism,
modernism, postmodernism?
Thurs: Read Mrs.
Dalloway through p. 69--through the end of the scene where Septimus has the
psychotic episode in Regent's Park, and the clock strikes quarter to 12, and
the narrative gets passed to Peter Walsh. (In this online
version, that scene appears on page 38 of 105.)
Assignments
for Thursday:
1.) As you read,
keep track of every time the bell rings.
(For each time the bell rings, write the page number, either in the back
of the book, or in separate notes that you bring to class.)
2.) Keep track of
the characters you meet. On a separate
sheet of paper, list each main character's name, along with the page number
where you first meet them, plus a sentence or two describing who they are. Bring that to class, and be prepared to pass
it around to classmates.
Week 2 (Tues
Sep 3; Thurs Sep 5)
Tues: More Mrs. Dalloway.
Thurs: Finish Mrs. Dalloway, the
novel. Then read the Preface and Introduction to the annotated edition edited
by Scott. Also, bring your copy of Slaughterhouse
5 to class.
Week 3 (Tues
Sep 10; Thurs Sep 12)
Tues: Read Vonnegut,
chaps 1-5 (through p135).
Also, browse the table of contents of the Poetry anthology, and bring it to
class.
Also, browse the online table of contents of the Norton
anthology of Postmodern American Fiction: www.wwnorton.com/college/english/pmaf/pmaftoc.htm.
Write a short memo, to me and your classmates,
commenting on the contents of that anthology: Do you recognize any of the
titles/ authors represented there? Do you have a particular interest in any of
them? Did anything about that anthology catch your eye? Bring your memo to
class, and be prepared to pass it around for comments. What do you think of the
term "postmodernism"?
Thurs: Finish
Vonnegut. Also read this review:
"At Last, Kurt Vonnegut's Famous Dresden Book." An unsigned review of Vonnegut's
Slaughterhouse Five. New York Times, March 31, 1969. Accessed online, September 2013, at
www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/lifetimes/vonnegut-slaughterhouse.html
Proposal
memo due: Write me a memo, proposing a topic for essay 1, which will
be a 1500-word review essay. What book
would you like to review? Tell me how you chose the book--describe your
process, with as much specificity as possible:
Did you get a recommendation from me or someone else? Did you encounter an author in another course,
whose work you would like to pursue further?
Did you use amazon.com and/ or wikipedia? Wwhy you feel qualified to review this
particular book? That is, what is your
personal connection to the book or subject matter? Include a complete citation
of the book, plus a working title for your review essay. OR, if you're not sure which book you'd like
to review, that's no problem: I can give you a recommendation. Tell me some
authors you enjoy, some genres, perhaps some of the works we've read and
discussed so far. Give me some ideas, so
that I can help you select a really good book to review.
Week 4 (Tues
Sep 17; Thurs Sep 19)
Tues: Read the following poems, in the Poetry anthology, listed here by author's last name and page #.
Also read at least 5 additional poems of your own choosing, and be prepared to
discuss, in class, which poems you chose and why.
H.D. 5; Pound 6; Kilmer 7; Sandburg 14; Brooke 19; Eliot 20;
Stevens 25; Tagore 30; Anderson 34; Millay 39; Stevens 41-43; Crane 64; Tate
74.
Also for Tuesday, read these two reviews:
- "'Mrs.
Dalloway' Review." By James
Topham. About.com: Classic Literature.
No date; accessed September 2013.
classiclit.about.com/od/mrsdalloway/fr/aa_mrsdalloway.htm
- "Dancing in
the Dark [on Kurt Vonnegut]." By
Michael Wood. The New York Review of Books, May 31, 1973. Accessed online, September 2013, at www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/may/31/dancing-in-the-dark/
Thurs: Read the
"Introduction," in the Poetry
anthology, plus these poems: Monroe 94;
Thomas 96; Schwarz 96; Warren 101; Stein 108; Graves 166; O'Hara 173; Plath
176; Kunitz 179; Brooks 193; Sexton 205.
Week 5 (Tues
Sep 24; Thurs Sep 26)
Tues: Read Delillo,
parts I and II (through p163).
Thurs: Finish Delillo
novel.
Week 6 (Tues
Oct 1; Thurs Oct 3)
Tues: Draft due of essay 1, review
essay.
Thurs: Read, in
Viking Critical edition of White Noise, the following: Delillo
interviews, p329-34; "Silhouette City" [essay by D.D.], 344-52; John
Frow, 415-31; John Duvall, 432-55; Cornel Bonca, 456-79.
Also read the online excerpts from Chapter 1 of Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), by
Fredric Jameson, posted here: www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/jameson.htm
Week 7 (Tues
Oct 8; Thurs Oct 10)
Tues: Essay 1 due, review essay, revised and
submitted for a grade. Also, in class
today: Review
for exam 1.
Thurs: Screening of a
film by Errol Morris, "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter,
Jr." (1999), 91 min. Please note that the movie will begin at 12:40,
though class time doesn't officially start until 12:45.
Week 8 (FALL
BREAK!; Thurs Oct 17)
Tues: No class, due
to Fall Break. Begin reading Shteyngart,
Super Sad True Love Story.
Thurs: Exam
1.
Week 9 (Tues
Oct 22; Thurs Oct 24)
Tues: Discussion of
"Mr. Death," and of Shteyngart's novel.
Thurs: Continue
Shteyngart.
Week
10
(Tues Oct 29; Thurs Oct 31)
Tues: Proposal memo due for essay 2, literary
analysis and commentary.
Finish Shteyngart.
Also read "O.K., Glass: Confessions of a Google Glass
Explorer." By Gary Shteyngart. The New
Yorker, August 5, 2013. www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/05/130805fa_fact_shteyngart
Thurs. Begin reading The English Patient, and bring the book
to class.
Week
11
(Tues Nov 5; Thurs Nov 7)
Tues: Read The
English Patient chaps. I-VI (through p178).
Also, second revision of essay 1 (review essay) due, for those who are choosing to
revise it for a new grade. Submit it
with a new cover memo, telling me what you've changed in your second
revision.
Thurs: Finish The English Patient.
Week
12
(Tues Nov 12; Thurs Nov 14)
Tues: Bring your Poetry anthology to class. Also, read at least four of the eight poems
by Michael Ondaatje which are posted here at the "Poem Hunter"
website: www.poemhunter.com/michael-ondaatje/
Thurs: Read the
following--
- Introduction to Mrs.
Dalloway, by Bonnie Kime Scott, in the 2005 Harvest edition, pages
xxxv-lxviii.
- Ihab Hassan. "Toward a Concept of
Postmodernism." From The Postmodern
Turn: Essays in Postmodern Theory and Culture, 1987. www.mariabuszek.com/kcai/PoMoSeminar/Readings/HssnPoMo.pdf
Week
13
(Tues Nov 19; Thurs Nov 21)
Tues: Draft due of essay 2, literary
analysis and commentary.
Thurs: Read Harriet
Monroe's exchange with poet Hart Crane, in the October 1926 edition of Poetry, regarding Cranes' poem, "At
Melville's Tomb." Posted on the
Poetry Foundation website:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/29/1#!/20575761 [ NOTE: Cut and paste that URL into a new
browser window, to view the site.
There's something about the site that won't let you visit from a
hyperlink per se. -- Dr. O'Donnell ]
Week
14
(Tues Nov 26; THANKSGIVING!)
Tues: Read Edgar
Allan Poe's essay, "The Philosophy
of Composition" (1846), posted at the good ol' U of VA American Studies
website: xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/poe/composition.html
Week
15
(Tues Dec 3; Thurs Dec 5)
Tues: Essay 2 due, literary
analysis and commentary, revised and submitted for a grade.
Thurs: In-class recap
of the semester; review for exam
2.
Final exam
period: Thurs Dec 12, 1:20-3:20pm -- Exam
2